University hosts first academic festival, showcases talent

Marshall University hosted its first Minds of Marshall festival this weekend.

The festival took place April 23-24 at various locations on campus.

"I think it's important to celebrate student learning," said Karen Mitchell, professor in the mathematics department and creator of the event. "I think we should stand on the hilltop and announce students at Marshall University are top quality students."

In a previous interview with the Parthenon, Mitchell said the purpose of the academic festival was to celebrate student learning. The festival was originally named the Academic Festival but was renamed Minds of Marshall through a student contest.

The festival was the first time students from each department have been able to showcase their work university-wide, Mitchell said.

Odia Ayewoh, graduate student in biological sciences, from Harrisburg, Penn., said he thinks the festival is important for the university.

"The whole campus can find out what everyone else is doing in relatively a short amount of time," Ayewoh said. "It's important for all faculty and all aspects of the university, especially students, to be recognized by the school. Faculty can see that their teaching is really getting through to the students."

Mitchell said she came up with the idea of an academic festival about four years ago.

"I didn't think we did enough to celebrate the learning students were doing here," Mitchell said. "I didn't think we said often enough what a high quality our students are. Learning should be an exciting occurrence, and often we get bogged down and forget that. So to celebrate the changes that occur in students, the learning that takes place, I think is an important aspect of what should happen at a university."

When students registered for the festival, they received a passport to take to the events they attended, Mitchell said.  At the end of the festival, the students brought back the passport with a stamp from each of the events they attended. If the students attended five or more events their name was put in a prize drawing.

Mitchell said the Web site that was originally to show all of the events taking place will be up indefinitely as a portfolio to showcase students' work.

The official Web site is http://isat-cit.marshall.edu/academicfestival/events.php.

Mitchell said she will not know how many students attended the festival until next week.

The festival was designed to coincide with Alumni Weekend, an open house for prospective students named Green and White Day, the Green and White game, the College of Science research conference and the College of Liberal Arts research conference, according to the Web site.

Laura Hatfield can be contacted at hatfield120@marshall.edu.