Keep an eye open for outstanding student writers. The Beacon Conference for Student Scholars and Two- Year Colleges is an important opportunity for students and for faculty. To learn more about the Beacon conference, go to the NCC Beacon Conference web page at  http://www.northampton.edu/Academics/Beacon/default.htm or look under ACADEMICS on the NCC home page for the link to the Beacon Conference.

What is Beacon?

The Beacon conference is a place to showcase the talent and recognize the achievement of student writers and an opportunity to honor the mentoring relationship between faculty and students.

How can faculty get involved?

• Identify and mentor student writers. (see web page for information)

• Volunteer to be a reader for Beacon submissions (see we page for form)

How can students get involved?

• Contact a faculty member about a paper you are proud of and would like to submit.

How does it work?

Each year outstanding students work with their faculty mentors to polish and submit papers to the Beacon Conference. Papers can be submitted in any of 18 categories. (Deadline for submission is March 1, 2007.)

Those submitted papers are read by faculty from other two-year colleges with expertise in the category of submission and then the students who wrote the top-ranked papers in each category are invited to present at this year’s conference (June 1 at Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY).

Those who present at the conference will get to join with and learn from students from other two-year colleges and get the experience of presenting their research before an audience. All student presenters are recognized as Beacon scholars and the outstanding presenter in each category and his or her mentor receive a $100 honorarium and the student has his or her work published in the conference proceedings.

More info?

• Look for posters and flyers around campus.
• Check out the web sites.
o Rockland’s Beacon web site -- http://www.sunyrockland.edu/beaconconf/beaconproject07.html
o NCC’s beacon web site -- http://www.northampton.edu/academics/beacon/
• Ask NCC Beacon representatives -
Nancy Trautmann (610-861-5315, ntrautmann@northampton.edu )
Elizabeth Bodien (610-861-5570, ebodien@northampton.edu )
Randy Boone (570- 688-2485, rboone@northampton.edu )