The Research Hour joins NIRSA 2017 poster presentations

A long-standing tradition at the NIRSA Annual Conference is the presence of posters highlighting research done by members during the year. This tradition will continue at the 2017 NIRSA Annual Conference & Campus Rec and Wellness Expo taking place in National Harbor, Maryland from February 21–24. Not only have twenty posters been selected but there will also be a new feature this year: The Research Hour.

The Research Hour will highlight four poster presentations during a one-hour educational session. This educational session will include four micro-presentations that will dive further into the posters’ materials and give participants a chance to have a question and answer session with the posters’ creators. This is an exciting new addition that continues NIRSA’s goal of sharing professional knowledge with members.

There will be a variety of topics discussed during The Research Hour. The session will start with a presentation by Michael McElveen, Director of Recreation at Berry College, comparing the participation in recreation sports and Division III athletics to retention and academic success rates. Then Erik Bricker, Aquatics and Event Management at Illinois State University, will discuss the impact of lifeguard Olympics on staff development. There will also be a discussion on the relationship between collegiate intramural sport participation and social integration into the campus community by Scott Forrester, Associate Professor in the Department of Recreation & Leisure Studies at Brock University. And, finally, there will be a presentation by Sandy Nguyen, Aquatics Graduate Assistant at the University of North Texas, on maintaining student rec center employees’ motivation and sense of self-determination.

There is just as much variety of topics in the posters being presented—the selected posters will cover a range of issues from learning strategies to abuse in college athletics to body image to strategic assessments to fitness trends and so much more.

Please come and join us on Wednesday, February 22 from 2:15pm-3:15pm in National Harbor 10 for The Research Hour. During this time, poster presenters will also be available in the National Harbor Hallway, level 3 to answer questions about their posters. Posters will be available for viewing each day of NIRSA 2017.