For 14th year, PRaISE Showcases Student Research

Students at the College of Allied Health Sciences are readying their posters and rehearsing their presentations for the 14th annual Presentation of Research and Innovative/Scholarly Endeavors (PRaISE) Conference, held Friday, May 11, at Tangeman University Center.

The conference involves oral and poster presentations of student research from both the undergraduate and graduate programs at the college.

"The first PRaISE event was in 1998, the first year of our college,” says Dean Elizabeth King, PhD. "It’s a celebration of our student research. It not only highlights our commitment to research at Allied Health, but it also shows the commitment of our faculty outside the classroom.”

By introducing students to research early in their academic lives, King says the college shows them the value of an evidence-based practice and scholarly focus before they start their career in allied health professions. 

"When students come here, they never think of themselves as researchers,” says King. "But when we begin, from their first year, to treat them as researchers, they realize they can really do this and it becomes part of their lives.”

The college will also present distinguished alumni awards during the conference and host keynote speaker Wendy Baldwin, PhD, president and CEO of the Population Reference Bureau in Washington, D.C.  She will present "Why Youth are Key to Stemming the Tide of Noncommunicable Diseases" at 11 a.m in the TUC Great Hall.

Trained as a social demographer, Baldwin was formerly at the National Institutes of Health, where she led research programs in population, adolescents, fertility and family issues.