Kean Students Place in Poster Board Competition

By Steven-Ross Bugayong

On April 7, the Northeast Decision Sciences Annual Meeting took place at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark, New Jersey. The three-day conference featured an undergraduate poster research competition on April 8, where two Kean students won second place for their research.

“Truthfully, at first, we didn’t know it was a competition,” Sophomore and Global Business major Glynnis Tan said about presenting the poster, in which she placed second. “We thought we were just going to present our research and go home.”

Glynnis Tan, along with junior and Business Management major Justin Antonio, placed second in the poster board contest despite not knowing it was a competition. The award-winning poster was developed by research by Kean Professor Dr. Kihwan Kim. The research awarded studied “The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Shared Leadership and the Mediation Effect of Team Cohesion and Team Trust: IMOI Model Approach.” 

“What we said is shared leadership is horizontal where everybody is sharing leadership together,” Antonio said. “The most important thing about this research is that it’s about trust and team cohesion amongst team members with high levels of intelligence.”

Teamwork was on full display between Tan and Antonio as they presented their boards to their fellow cohorts. The pair are members of two different clubs. Antonio is a member of the Business Research Society (BRS) led by Dr. Kim, while Tan is a member of the Business Analytics Students Association(BASA), led by Dr. Byeonghwa Park.

“Glynnis was so amazing to get people involved in her poster,” BRA club member and senior Global Business major Rosa Pelaez Vinuela said. “Justin made sure everyone was okay, and I appreciated that as we were all a little nervous about presenting.”

A total of 26 schools were represented in the undergraduate competition, Ranging from California to China. It shocked the student participants as they thought the competition would come from the northeast, only to find out that schools internationally and around the country were in attendance. From Kean, the student researchers had five posters at the conference, all placed in the top ten.

“The project the students worked on wasn’t easy,” Dr. Park said. “I’m so proud that my students have used what they learned in the classroom to participate in a professional conference and even give a presentation.”

Other than the poster board competition that took place, the student researchers could sit in and learn more about research through panels and lectures held by doctors and other professors from other schools.

“The conference was quite informative. I enjoyed networking; I learned a lot from other schools, from other doctors and professors. They gave us advice on making our research better on what to do in future research,” Tan said. 

The conference proved to be a positive experience for the student researchers as it helped them shape their knowledge and skills. For some of the students, it was the first time they ever had to do any research and present in a professional setting.

“I was never put in a situation where I had to be out there and talk about a research topic,” junior Global Business major Ashley Del Castillo said. “It put me out of my comfort zone and helped me improve myself for the next time I do this.”

The experience from the conference has the members of BRA and BASA excited for what is to come. As the conference takes place every year, there are new opportunities to learn and network.

“I hope students see our success and want to join, “Antonio said. “I’m really looking forward to the next one.”

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