Learning From Experience 

Honors Students Present Their Work At This Year’s Experiential Learning Fair 

by Ansley Tonkovic

The Blank Honors Center was filled with overlapping chatter and the shuffle of people moving from poster to poster. A handful of honors students were highlighted including Ava Russ, Nina Osborne, and Shreyas Natarajan. The date was Thursday, October 23, and the event was the Honors Program’s Experiential Learning Fair. 

Experiential Learning in the Honors Program can be defined as learning-by-doing that enhances your personal and academic experience. Opportunities for experiential learning include studying abroad, internships, research, volunteering, and being a teaching assistant.  

Ava Russ is a third year human physiology major on the pre-medicine track. Her advice for students researching experiential learning topics is to try something out of their comfort zone. 

“I never thought I would spend a week taking care of diabetic kids that I had never met before, but it was truly the greatest experience of my life.” Russ said. “It was my job to help them manage their diabetes throughout the week. We also did other camp activities like swimming, horseback riding, archery, and friendship bracelet making.”  

If you’re considering participating in the Experiential Learning Fair, Russ advises you to choose a topic that you’re passionate about. 

“It’s never easy to get up and speak in front of strangers, but if you’re speaking about something that’s important to you, you forget you’re doing something scary. This is a topic I could talk about for hours, so that fear just fell away,” she said. 

Nina Osborne is a double major in geographical and sustainability science and environmental policy and planning and decided to present her summer research for this year’s Experiential Learning Fair. 

Working under her professor in conjunction with the Ecoclimatology of Carbon and Water lab, Osborne and two other undergrads took measurements of Bur oak trees as they changed in physiology in different stress scenarios across the course of the summer.  

In preparing for the Experiential Learning Fair, Osborne said, “I got to have some creative fun while reflecting on the key points of my experience.” 

She also wanted to make a point: “I wanted to highlight how research is for everybody, regardless of major, so I tried to grab pictures that showed both lab and field work.”  

Osborne’s advice for those starting experiential learning is to write everything down. She compiled photos and notes on new technologies, methods, and science that she learned during her summer research. “I had explicit emotional reflections which were effortless to interpret. Write, write, write.”  

For biomedical sciences major Natarajan, conducting research for his Experiential Learning topic was a great learning experience. The focus was creating a pilot project to research AI image analysis for laparoscopic gallbladder surgery. 

“I gained valuable insights into machine learning and surgical anatomy. The experience I gained will definitely help me in the long run as a physician and a scientist.” Natarajan said.  

His main takeaway was that it is important to choose a topic that you can interact with creatively. “Experiential Learning gives you many opportunities to find out what you’re most passionate about,” Natarjan advised. “Take proactive steps to discover what you can do to advance your career or contribute to your community.”