After weeks, months, semesters of deadlines, my theses were finally completed, presented, and done at 4:15 p.m. on Elkin Isaac day. It was a long-awaited feeling, this completion, this closure, and it was kind of unexpected when it actually hit me. I thought it would have happened when I got my signature pages in, or when I printed off the documents, or when I turned them in to the Honors coordinator, or when I picked them up, bound and beautiful, or when I sat down after my second Elkin Isaac presentation . . . but at none of those moments did I feel that all my work had culminated into something truly remarkable. It was only at the end of the day, after attending eleven of my compatriots’ presentations and two of my own, that I felt I had achieved a state of completion. I think I know now why it took till the end of the symposium. I chose to write a thesis because I wanted to graduate with honors, sure, but beyond that I wanted to initiate myself into a broader realm of thinking and writing attainable only through individual passion and dedication. In choosing to write a second thesis, I realized that at yet another level what I wanted from my work was to participate in an ongoing conversation within my discipline–to work in concert, not in solitude. In writing my theses I found all these things, but Elkin Isaac gave me something more: conversation across discipline. The beauty of the Elkin Isaac Research Symposium is in its celebration of all students’ independent research, writing, and performance, as well as in its encouragement and facilitation to communicate goals, successes, and frustrations among a crowd of thinkers who have surmounted similar challenges you have. It is a day of community and individual accomplishment. It is a transcendence from undergraduate student to Researcher, Writer, Artist.
Bio
Angela Zito is a senior English/Biology major who will be graduating with Honors on May 9th, 2009. Angela is originally from Rochester Hills, Michigan and attended Rochester Adams High School.