Barry student attends Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society conference

Jun 03, 2024

On Thursday, April 4th, second-year English major Lojan Shaker excitedly headed to the Miami International Airport to fly to St. Louis, Missouri, where she presented at the annual Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society conference.

She spent the weekend networking with her peers, sharing her work, and exploring the unique culture in St. Louis. Lojan felt that the conference aided her in advancing her academic pursuits, saying, "It's helped me in the sense that I get to meet other people who are interested in literature and the English arts, which is very cool to me." 

At Barry University, students are encouraged to pursue their education through experiential learning. Most majors at Barry have a host of clubs and academic honors societies for students to participate in addition to their coursework. Through these extracurriculars, students connect with the scholarly community on campus and can travel and meet peers from across the country. When speaking about Sigma Tau Delta, Lojan stated, "There's a lot of internships and scholarships that they help you apply for within the honors society, and I think overall it's a good environment to surround yourself in." By expanding her scholarly pursuits, Lojan, like many other Barry students, aligns herself with the greater academic community to have genuine relationships with her future professional peers and colleagues. 

Lojan is an international student. Barry is one of the country's most diverse and internationally represented schools, as it currently represents 80 nations. Lojan is from Scotland and Egypt and was extremely grateful to have the opportunity to delve into American culture, visiting the Midwest for the first time. In preparation for her trip, Lojan described her process of researching new places to ensure she experiences as much as possible. "I love visiting new places," she says, "in the airport, I was searching up the different classical foods of Missouri, more specifically St. Louis; I tried their famous fried ravioli and their gooey cake, which was definitely interesting. I walked around the city a bit, and I overall had a great time there."

At Barry University, academics combine with cultural experiences to ensure that our students graduate as well-rounded, open-minded people ready to embrace their careers and the world around them. Lojan was enthusiastic about her experience and expressed her desire to continue to travel and present her work as a Barry student. She says, "My favorite part was definitely meeting everyone and how open and kind everyone was. I was super nervous to present as it was my first time, and the three other panelists in my section were all super reassuring and sweet, so that was great; also, to hear everyone's cool work was very intriguing." As a Barry student, you can also experience your academic career as Lojan has, getting the chance to feel immense support from the community at Barry and scholars across the nation. 

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