In commemoration of America’s 250th anniversary, the office of undergraduate research, creativity and innovation will host a symposium in which students will have the opportunity to share their research, insights and projects that explore how the Chtistian faith intersects with American citizenship and U.S. history.

Randall Fowler, assistant professor in the department of Communication and Sociology, also serves as the director of undergraduate research, creativity, and innovation. He played a major role in planning the symposium.

Fowler helps foster undergraduate scholarship and believes the event provides students from many different academic backgrounds with an opportunity to present their findings at a non-external conference.

“The process of generating knowledge through the scholarly process, regardless of your discipline, is something that I think equips students to go forth into the professional world or the academic world and really go forth with confidence and understand why things are the way they are and how they’re going about it,” Fowler said.

The idea for the symposium was generated last spring by Fowler and some of the other faculty in the department of Communication and Sociology, including Benjamin Peterson who is an assistant professor in the department of Government and Criminal Justice. Fowler said that America commemorating its 250th anniversary was an idea that couldn’t be passed up.

The symposium will focus on how Christian faith, American citizenship and U.S. constitutionalism intersect with one another.

“One thought was, it would be great for us to focus on America’s 250th anniversary because it’s a momentous, semiquincentennial moment worth reflecting on,” Fowler said.

At the end of last spring, faculty began to market the event to students interested in the questions that this symposium posed about what this occasion means when in relation to Christianity.

Students interested were requested to submit a proposal in which they specified what question they would like to answer through their project, or if they had a question of their own. The students weren’t restricted to writing a paper, they could’ve also chosen to present something more artistic and visual. The deadline to submit a proposal was on October 11 and 18 students’ works were selected to be presented.

The symposium will take place on Election Day, Nov. 3, on the first floor of the Brown Library, starting at 9 a.m. Anyone at ACU is welcome to attend and listen to the presenters. The event will be split into four panels, each with a different theme. Following each panel, an open forum will allow attendees to ask questions and share comments about the presentations, Fowler said.

“The goal is not necessarily for this to be this very cold academic event, but really for us as a community, to think about the meaning of our country that we inhabit,” Fowler said.

Although some of the questions may raise important concerns regarding life in America today, Fowler emphasizes that the symposium is not intended to denigrate the country.

“It’s meant to examine the full scope of the American experience and talk about the good and the bad, and reflect on it in a way that is meaningful for students,” Fowler said.

An aspect of this symposium that stands out to Fowler is its ability to explore issues at the national level rather than focusing solely on Abilene.

“We are such a diverse student body with international students from everywhere, it’s really easy for us to focus on the local, we care a lot about Abilene, we care a lot about what’s going on here with our neighbors that we see and we live in community in,” Fowler said. “It’s also really easy to focus on the global and the world that’s out there and all of the opportunities and needs that there are and sometimes we skip over the nation.”

Dorothy Andreas, associate professor in the department of Communications and Sociology, is leading her students in organizing the symposium through the Nonprofit Event Communication class.

Students enrolled in that class are given a major project every semester in which they have autonomy to make their own choices, Andreas said. The class is split up into five committees, each tasked with a different aspect of event planning.

“My students, and my role in this is to really handle the logistics of the event and really teach my students how to handle the logistics of the event,” Andreas said.

While Fowler and Peterson came up with the idea for the symposium, Andreas’ students are figuring out the details of the event.

“My students are making the small decisions like how will they decorate,” Andreas said.

There is a committee for venue and decorations, and a committee that will plan a dinner that will also take place on Election Day. The dinner will be from 5-6 p.m. and it will feature the all American hotdog cooked by ACUPD to create a Fourth of July kind of vibe, Andreas said.

“It’s the first time I’ve had a class run an event all day,” Andreas said.

The other committees involve a chapel committee that will have activities to connect people in between the sessions, a coaching committee that will prepare the students for their presentations, and an event promotion committee that will advertise the symposium.

Andreas is excited to see what the students presenting have to think about America’s 250th anniversary.

“As the next generation, they inherited 250 years of America, but you get to play a role in the next 250 years,” Andreas said. “So what you’re saying now matters, I hope for them that they find like-minded people and that they can connect with both fellow students and faculty.”

With one of the objectives of the symposium being to allow students of diverse educational backgrounds to have the opportunity to present their thoughts, Andreas hopes that this event reaches people in the audience and encourages them to conduct their own research.

“Finding some people, either students or faculty, that they can work on with these research projects and carry that forward into other venues,” Andreas said.

Andreas encourages students and faculty to attend the presentations, emphasizing their importance.

“We need to listen to the younger generation and what they’re thinking about the future,” Andreas said.

The smposium will draw on ACU’s global outlook to explore broader perspectives on issues regarding the nation.