Conquering the Virtual: A Wrap-Up of Alpha Chi’s 2025 Conference

FPU’s California Zeta Chapter of Alpha Chi Interdisciplinary Honor Society has been consistently impressive at the spring national conference, producing category winners, scholarship recipients and top-two-rated collaborative research. For the 2024 convention, Alpha Chi chose a virtual event, rather than participants physically meeting in a large city. FPU still garnered three of the 13 awards! 

After weeks of in-depth research and long nights revising, this year’s California Zeta Chapter team found itself embarking on a trip to Casa Pacifica for the national Alpha Chi Conference April 4-5, 2025.

When we heard the conference was going to take place virtually, more than a few of us were unenthusiastic about the change of plans. We had such a wonderful time last year in Birmingham, AL, meeting new people, asking thoughtful questions face-to-face and participating in intellectually enriching social activities that we were thus worried a virtual conference would be underwhelming. However, our experiences presenting and time spent together all point to the contrary.

On the first day, our collaborative research team presented on the benefits of bibliotherapy, the therapeutic use of books and reading, in liberal arts colleges. And because the presentation was virtual, our teammates who were in Poland and at home could still participate and present. Even those students who were only there to present their individual papers were able to watch us talk about our research.

The following day we presented our individual papers. Another perk of the virtual conference was that everyone had access to everyone else’s presentations beforehand and could watch them in their own time. On the last day, we all gathered in the basement, sat on the couches and watched the Alpha Chi administration announce the winners. We were given the fantastic news that our collaborative team won second in the nation. Our very own Madeline Ross won first for her paper on creativity in secondary mathematics education and Laura Hand also won first for her fiction piece on fantastical cows.

But the best part of the conference was being in fellowship with others. We played Settlers of Catan for hours during one of our evenings and still couldn’t finish. Contrary to what the score and others would have you believe, I was definitely winning. We spent nights on the porch playing the ukulele, singing and watching the fire curl. I will keep with me poignant memories of rolling spring rolls together and eating mochi matcha waffles with far too much whipped cream.

Although it was not the same as going to a conference in-person in a new place, attending this conference was a highlight of this past spring semester for me as I am sure it was for others too. The Fresno Pacific California Zeta Chapter of Alpha Chi continues to “make scholarship effective for good.”