NORTHERN Marianas College’s 3rd Annual Research Symposium will take place today, Friday, April 14, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan. Participants alongside college staff agree that this is an opportunity for the island’s youth to develop their STEM and public speaking capabilities.
The community is invited to interact with student researchers who have created displays for a variety of topics regarding science, technology, engineering, and math.
Velma Deleon Guerrero, chair of NMC’s Department of Science, Mathematics, Health & Athletics, and the Department of Natural Resource Management, said the event’s goal is to provide the students an opportunity to “present their hard work on a bigger scale as opposed to the classroom.”
Kaelani Demapan, the director of Project PROA and Deleon Guerrero’s collaborator for the symposium, is eager to show the community what NMC students are made of.
“We‘re very proud of our students’ work and [we want] them to show their work and hear from the community,” Demapan said.
Ejay Aguirre, who utilized machine learning software to more efficiently collect bird-song data, said he’s nervous but excited for his presentation.
Aguirre said his instructor at NMC uses his program to conduct bird studies on Guguan and Alamagan in the Northern Islands. He said last year, in high school, he wasn’t sure if he would be a STEM major. However, after using the Python coding language to conduct research at NMC, he now plans to study computer science.
Research partners Alexia Rebuenog and Joan Pangilinan opened their eyes to the world of STEM thanks to the research they conducted for the symposium.
Their project, “Hermit Crabs Know Best,” was conducted in Chalan Kanoa, near the Bantalan Pavilion where they studied the “temperatures hermit crabs prefer to live in.”
Rebuenog credits Dr. Wilson Gaul, an instructor at NMC, with helping her leverage the skills she gained from her studies.
“This is all new to me,” Rebuenog said. “I wasn’t into science until I took Dr. Gaul’s biology course…. This study opened my eyes into thinking about pursuing a career in STEM.”
Pangilinan said she, too, has found out first-hand what science is really like.
“I discovered that science is actually interesting. I learned what [hermit crabs] really do to help the environment. They do a lot,” she added.
Jayden Villacrusis said she’ll always feel a little discomfort when speaking publicly. However, she also knows how beneficial it can be to participate in events such as the NMC Research Symposium. Moreover, this is not her first symposium, having first presented her research on Guam.
“Presenting at different symposiums and conferences have definitely helped me become a better public speaker and develop better research skills,” Villacrusis said.
Villacrusis will speak about her field work which focused on the birdsong of totot (also known as the Mariana fruit dove) found on Saipan, Aguiguan and Rota.
Villacrusis’s colleague Alexander Tudela has a similar research topic, which is “discovering if birds in the CNMI have a dawn chorus and what time that dawn chorus exists.”
Like Villacrusis, this is also not Tudela’s first go at a public STEM presentation. He presented this research on Guam as well.
He said symposiums helped his data collection. “You get better at knowing more efficient ways to collect data and also just networking,” he added.
Christine Beceril will be presenting a marketing plan she originally worked on at the Energy Tech Up collegiate competition that was held off-island. Her work centers on using solar energy in the CNMI to process municipal waste.
She acknowledged that when it comes to STEM fields, there can be barriers for young students conducting research.
“Imposter syndrome is a thing that comes up,” Beceril said. “It’s very prevalent in the research community. It’s a question you’re always asking yourself: ‘Even if I’ve gotten this far is it ever enough? There’s always someone that’s going to do better than me.’ ”
However, Beceril said NMC is a healthy learning environment.
“It’s just about taking the time and looking around and seeing there’s so much support here,” she added.
Jim Kleine, who is one of two faculty members presenting alongside NMC’s students, said he’s inspired by their level of work.
“I’ve looked at some of the previous work the students have done for this symposium and it’s just really stunning. It’s really sophisticated,” Kleine told Variety. “I’m really impressed and I look at it and say I can’t do that.”
