<p>^^Severn Suzuki is still an environmental activist, involved in many causes and does speaking engagements around the world. Her activism at 12 was certainly admirable but not at all surprising, given the fact that her father was, and is, one of the world’s most compelling and ‘active’ environmentalists.</p>
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<p>It’s unbelievable to me that any school would not understand the need to visit on admit days when you are deciding where to spend four years, often at great cost. Recently I learned that for complicated reasons, our school was going to have Senior Awards Night mid-April. I explained to the college counselor and the principal that this was a big mistake because a lot of the kids getting the most awards would be away at Admit Days and that they needed to be. They changed the date. The principal understood that most of the kids at our school can’t visit all the schools they apply to prior to applying, but need to see them before they decide. I don’t know how they will count the absences. I do remember that my daughter missed about seven days of school visiting colleges some years ago and her teachers were supportive and understanding.</p>
<p>Re post #37: This is a little off-track of the OP’s concern (sorry), but just to respond to starbright’s question about conference organization: </p>
<p>For the major international conferences in my field, scientists are generally invited to speak, based on the organizers’ knowledge of their work, before they have even supplied the title for the talk. If the number of speakers is small enough, it may happen that all of the talks are “plenary.” If there are more speakers, then there are simultaneous sessions with invited talks. </p>
<p>Some of the conferences take applications for talks, in addition to issuing invitations. The application will usually consist of the title + a one-page abstract–and this is supplemented de facto by what’s known of the person’s work. In this case, the organizers identify another group of speakers, who may be classified as “invited” speakers or may be classified as giving a “contributed” talk. In the latter case, they may have about half the time of an “invited” speaker. Often, they are young faculty members. Post docs are occasionally among the speakers, but this is a relatively rare event at conferences outside the U.S. It’s very good for the post doc, because it generally creates a lot of “buzz” for the person and significantly improves their odds of gaining a good faculty position in the next year. </p>
<p>It sounds rather hierarchical when I write it down–but I think that it’s more the case that it takes a while for knowledge of someone’s accomplishments to percolate through the research community. (And it takes a while to accomplish a body of work.) </p>
<p>In what I suspect is another real difference, the deadline for submitting papers for the conference proceedings generally is set for six months to one year <em>after</em> the conference. The Gordon Research Conferences have no proceedings, and in fact one is not permitted to refer to results revealed at these conferences, prior to publication of the results.</p>
<p>Practically all of the conferences have poster sessions. Boards (similar to movable vertical chalkboards on frames, but made of a porous material) are placed in a large room, and the people presenting posters have an allocated space to put up material about their work. Grad students and post docs generally give the posters, although I have seen very well established scientists giving posters at some of the conferences. Sometimes the members of the scientific organizing committee will give a poster–for a combination of reasons. Organizing the conference is a lot of work (!) and they may not know in advance whether they will have time to prepare a formal talk. Also, it shows the young scientists that their work is valued, even if they are not giving a talk.</p>
<p>At national professional society meetings, the split into “invited” and shorter “contributed” talks is generally followed as well. One of the societies traditionally allows any member to give a talk–however, good scheduling is not guaranteed. In some areas, an advanced graduate student might give a contributed talk at a national professional meeting (of a society that does not allow everyone to talk). However, this would be scheduled for one of the simultaneous sessions, with an attendance of 20-25. Grad students are more common as speakers at the regional meetings, or in specialty sub-field meetings. Both grads and undergrads give poster presentations at these meetings.</p>
<p>That^is good to know.
I know it isn’t your field, but you might then know about how that 12 year old thing happened?
alwaysamom
I knew her dad pulled all strings so she and her friend could be there, but the video I saw, some of the (quite few, actually) leading countries representative’s seat was vacant, and whom there seemed either inattentive or did not know what was going on when she started to talk.
I did not know that back then but now I understand English bit better, her speech sounds pouty (is it a right word?) and one side-accusational, like we are just kids, this is all your fault, do something!
Is there possibility that her “child” ness was what added to her celebrity status then?
It gives me a bit of creep.
Her adult act as TV nature program anchor was kind of sad to watch. It is hard to keep it all together if it was started too soon.</p>
<p>OP doesn’t have to worry about that, good thing.</p>
<p>Different fields, different rules. A very young speaker at an eco-conference won’t be able to say anything that people don’t know, but could help to publicize ecological concerns–as well as reminding people that we have the Earth in trust for future generations.</p>
<p>Can’t think what a 12-year-old, even a very brilliant one, would say at a conference on quantum mechanics. There are not many Intel winners in this area, because the learning curve is pretty lengthy. It’s just a different field. Not saying that it’s better than other fields! A number of other areas, where there are Intel winners, have much more immediate impact in improving human life.</p>