Each year, the Graduate School at Penn State holds a Graduate Exhibition for graduate students in all fields to present their research to a general audience. Graduate students may choose to present a poster, visual art or performance art. Judges are randomly assigned either posters or a visual art and winners are selected based on oral presentation, visual representation of the research, organization, and clarity. I presented a poster about the data from my groundwater and wheat sampling over the past few years. I had judges with background ranging from turf grass to linguistics. All of the people, including judges, who stopped by my poster were intrigued by the topic, because many of them had not considered the fact that low levels of antibiotics may be reaching our groundwater and/or being taken up into crops. I felt the experience was worthwhile as a professional experience as a graduate student as well as sharing knowledge to the general public. It definitely reinforced that we as scientists need to work very hard to relay this information to the public. It is not enough to share it within our own scientific community anymore, especially with regard to emerging contaminants.

I also walked away with 3rd place in the division of Physical Sciences and Mathematics for the poster competition and a request to present my research at an environmental engineering and consulting firm. Overall, a productive way to spend a Sunday afternoon.