[music]
[Dr. Miner] Hi. I'm Dr. Jon Miner,
Professor of Political Science
at the University
of North Georgia.
The Georgia
Political Science
Association, or GPSA,
is the professional
association for
political science practitioners
and educators in Georgia,
with members
from the public,
private and
academic sectors.
Each November, the GPSA
holds its annual
conference in Savannah.
This past Fall,
several of our political
science students
had the somewhat unique
opportunity
to attend this
high-level academic
conference,
not merely as observers,
but as full-fledged
panel participants.
This paper that we wrote
was a semester-long
research project in
my "Political Economy
of the Middle East" course.
There are approximately
25 students in
the class and we
gathered data
on the effects of
the Arab Spring over
the last ten years or so.
And then compiled and
analyzed that data, 
and seven of
the students wrote
a research paper
that we presented
at the conference.
Six attended the conference and
presented, and three of them
are here today to
discuss their
experiences there.
[Annabelle Groene] Hi, my name is
Annabelle Groene.
I'm from Oswego High School
in Oswego, NY
and I'm an 
International Affairs major
with a concentration 
in the Middle East.
[Lilli Di Virgilio ] Hey, I'm Lilli Di Virgilio.
I graduated from
Gilmer High School
in Ellijay, GA
and I'm a Political Science major
with a minor in
Criminal Justice.
[Luke Almond] Hey I'm Luke Almond.
I'm from Royston, GA.
I graduated from Franklin
County High School and
I'm a Political Science major
with a minor in Business
Administration.
[Annabelle] My experience at
the conference
really opened my eyes
to the professional world of
politics and sharing
research that you have done.
[Lilli] So, it gave me
some opportunities
to work on
a project with a
group of individuals
to give a really 
good piece of work,
to better my understanding
of Middle Eastern politics.
[Luke] I enjoyed the
aspect a lot of
learning about
academic research and
learning what
it takes to be
a good researcher in the
realm of political science.
I feel like that's going to be
invaluable for my future.
[Annabelle] 100%.
Lilli] Absolutely
[Luke] yes.
[Annabelle] It's super rewarding 
having our name on something,
for other people to give us feedback.
[Lilli] It gave us the opportunity to
work with each other
and get to know each other
on a whole new basis.
Between just students
around the state of Georgia,
and our faculty and
just our department,
getting to know them 
and work with them.
[Luke] I think it's important
to do things like
professional conferences
and academic conferences,
just because of
you need that type
of exposure in college
so that you know where you
want to go,
what you want to do,
and where it can take you
if you continue
that career,
and gives you more insight
to
how you want
to continue,
where you want to go,
what you want to research,
and if the field
of academics and
research is for you.
[Interviewer] Six of our students had
the opportunity to attend
the 2019 GPSA conference.
With your
kind and generous
financial help,
more of our PSIA students
will be able to
afford to attend both
future GPSA conferences,
as well as other academic
conferences around
the country.
Thank you in advance for
helping them
#experiencemore.
[water rushing]
Go.
