Students had an opportunity to speak out at this year’s Summit. Students spoke at six sessions and had their artwork displayed throughout the conference.

Summit presenter Margaret Moore, senior youth family ministry and social studies major from Houston, said this is her first time in the program. Moore chose her own topic about how different generations communicate.

“It is exciting, but I’m kind of nervous,” Moore said. “Since I’ve been doing this research, I learned more about the topic and enjoy it more and more.”

Dr. Brady Bryce, director of ministry events, said he believes people have forgotten that Summit began as a conference for students. More recently some have considered Summit as a conference more focused on visitors, Bryce said.

But Summit has still had from five to 10 student speakers each year over the past five years that Bryce has planned Summit, he said.

“Whenever I first came I learned this event was original created 100 years ago for students, so I thought we need to involve them,” Bryce said. “We had a group of students that formed a committee, and they give us ideas about speakers and topics.”

A number of students wanted to be presenter and get involved on the program. Ministry Events is open to ideas for Summit speakers all year around, Bryce said. The six student presenters who were chosen this year are Evelyn Henshaw, Van Huis, Noemi Palomares, Margaret Moore and Lily Assaad.

“There are a lot of people who want  to be a presenter on the program and can be, so we count on them to really represent fellow students well,” Brady said.

Student presenters heavily researched their topics in preparation for their presentations. Moore said she has reading literature on her topic since March.

“I been working on my outlining and my presentation and just basically reading, studying and taking to people,” Moore said.

Ministry Events provided many ways to involve students in Summit. Students in a marketing class used Summit as project and gave proposals for marketing the event.

The university also conducts four art contests each year during December and January to allow students to express themselves in Summit. The winning artwork is incorporated into Summit’s marketing.

“We tell them what the theme is for the next year and let them visually image that theme,” Bryce said. “One thing we advertize is we give $100 prize for which ever student piece selected.”

This year, student artwork was can be seen on Summit’s brochure and on the conference T-shirt.