One of the best parts of Bates is the quality of the faculty. They are engaged, engaging, and truly and honestly interested in their students. Most students develop lasting and valuable connections with faculty, often through senior theses. Because you work one-on-one with a professor for either a semester or a year, it’s really easy to develop really great relationships with faculty.
Another good way to develop working relationships with faculty is to serve as research assistants or student assistants to faculty. That’s what I did this weekend. My thesis adviser in the politics department was running the New England Political Science (or NEPSA) annual conference in Portland. I and one other student went down to help with the event. We manned the registration table, set up and took down book displays from publishers, gave directions and facilitated the conference.
Name tags at the Registration Table
It was really awesome to meet so many amazing political scientists. I got the chance to chat with a few of them about their work. There were some things that I knew something about, so I was really able to engage with them. There were others whose interests are very different from mine and I really learned a lot by talking with them. Both were great. It was an awesome opportunity, and an awesome experience.
allmainepoints 