Rollins College Crew traveling to the Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA) Conference

I had never been to any kind of professional conference before going to the Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA) Conference this year, and it was a really cool experience to be able to see all of the research being done currently, especially the things being done by other undergraduates. I spent most of my time at the conference going to poster sessions where lots students and professors were presenting their studies. At the poster session I presented at I was unfortunately limited to seeing the posters in my immediate area although it was really great to be able to discuss what I had learned in my research and in turn find out what my peers had found in theirs. I also found that the discussions I had about my study were extremely useful in helping me think more deeply about the meaning behind my results and I received some great feedback about the strengths and weakness of my research and had some new questions to ponder at the end. When looking at other peoples research I was amazed at how much of it had to do with the 2016 presidential election but beyond that I loved hearing how passionate people got when explaining their research and how well they knew the subject they were studying. There is a huge difference between reading a journal article and having the person who conducted the study explain it to you in person. While I am very happy that I am going to be able to put this on my resume this experience really showed me what it was like to be a serious academic researcher and made me even more passionate not only about my own study but psychology research in general.