Get Curious, Get Power, and Get Close!

Saturday morning was cold and snowy, but Honors students, faculty and friends gathered in the Maeser Building to celebrate their journeys of discovery, share learning, and demonstrate the remarkable Power of Inquiry – this year’s conference theme. After all, the central focus of the Honors Program is learning to ask and explore truly great questions. “’Whether science, poetry, engineering, or businesses majors, each of us is motivated by an inner curiosity, fueled by the Light of Christ, to inquire and seek for truth using the tools of our disciplines and revelation,’” noted Dr. Rick Gill, Dean of Undergraduate Education as he quoted Elder Uchtdorf. “’From that inquiry, we find critical answers that can enlighten and serve the world. At the center of the work that we each do is curiosity, providing the energy to seek, learn, and serve.’ The experiences in the Honors program are directly pointed to lifelong learning and service,” he added.

Dr. Jennifer Nielson, Professor of Chemistry, Associate Dean of the College of Physical & Math Sciences and an Honors Faculty Fellow, inspired students with her keynote address to open the conference. She asked what the Power of Inquiry really means and invited students to share their thoughts about what keeps us from asking questions. Students mentioned vulnerability, being afraid to show our ignorance, or not knowing what questions to ask. Dr. Nielson said another challenge is that sometimes we think we already know the answer, so we don’t even ask the question. “It’s when we’re uncertain that we start to actually ask questions,” she said. She suggested there is great power in not knowing, and we can begin by asking “How does what I know get in the way of what I don’t know?” advice she took from Dr. Liz Wiseman.

The best questions, Dr. Nielson suggested, are complex and open-ended questions that challenge assumptions, build off current research, and bridge gaps between disciplines. To help us learn to ask better questions, she outlined three steps:

• Get Curious: “Never lose a holy curiosity.” (Albert Einstein). Ask curious questions and then listen.
• Get Power: Collective inquiry means gathering multiple people and ideas
  across a broad range of specializations and ideas.  Leaders who see the genius of others and are skilled
  at managing both power and range are multipliers.
• Get Close: Framing the problem in the first place requires you to “get close. Sometimes we try to solve
  the problem before we actually know what the problem is…. when you get close enough, you can also really
  see the person who’s talking about that problem.”

Following the opening session, student presenters shared their own questions and discoveries along the journey of inquiry in several break-out sessions. With 45 student presenters, attendees had almost too many options to choose from! Each speaker shared a presentation and then fielded questions about a question they had asked and worked hard to answer over the past months. Some students summarized their Great Questions essay, while others discussed their thesis work. The common thread through each presentation was how these students demonstrated the true “Power of Inquiry.”

One student, Chad Hyer (Molecular Biology), showed a PowerPoint of his thesis research on protein folding and amyloidosis, guided by the question “Why not?” He talked about lab research, learning coding, bringing a t-shirt cannon to a conference (“scientists are some of the most boring presenters on the planet”), publishing his paper, and starting his own project. Chad noted that asking “why not?” led him from one great question to the next and gave him the courage to challenge the norm. “Qualification is less of a state of being and more of a state of mind,” he said. “Inquiry only has power inasmuch as we actually inquire. A lot of the time it’s easy to feel like we’re not qualified to do things, but I invite all of you to ask the question, ‘why not?’”

Andrew Jenkins’s (PD Bio) thesis is about bacteria that help plants grow in soil with high salt content. “[Research] is not clean; it’s not easy,” he said. “You have to be willing to withstand a bit of hardship here and there.”

Sydney Reil (Neuroscience) wrote a Great Questions essay about beauty as a concept, considering – of all things - the Monarch caterpillar. She said that sometimes “you ask a single question and you think it’s going to go one direction, and then as you do research it takes on a whole new state of being.”

Elisha Freitas (Editing & Publishing) agreed: “Sometimes the answers you receive aren’t always the ones you expect, but they’re still really valuable.” Elisha also said that her thesis work has directly prepared her to “make waves… within the publishing industry to help with diversity and increase the representation of people of color.”

Samuel Benson (Sociology) is another student shaping his inquiries to prepare him for the future. “I want to work in journalism, so I think the ability to tell a story is really important,” he said. Sam’s thesis is on the emigration of British Latter-day Saints in the 1840-60s. “These [people] are really impressive storytellers…I was able to learn from the writing of these people from 150 years ago, which I hope makes me a better writer in the long run.”

The Honors research experience is meant to be both inspiring and rigorous. Lane Welch (English) wrote their Great Questions essay about adaption, inspired by their own experiences with autism. “This was the first time that I had researched and written in many of these disciplines…. [history research] is not the kind of thing I typically do in an academic setting.”

Morgan Chase (Neuroscience) wrote her Great Questions essay based on a personal yearning to know if a fairy-tale ending could happen in her own life. She noted, “We are all authors of our own lives, and become, in the words of JRR Tolkein, sub-creators.”

Some of the presenters had advice for newer Honors students. “Start research early,” Sydney said, “and always be thinking about the broader world.” Elisha said that “a thesis…is not only a lot of work, it’s also very rewarding.”

Wrapping up the conference, Julie Radle, Assistant Director of the Honors Program, encouraged students to continue asking questions: better questions, thoughtful questions, and more difficult, probing questions. “In every case,” she noted, “Faith is the force behind the questions. Faith is the power that propels us toward the answers. Faith gives us the strength to endure uncertainty in the process. Faith is the fuel from which the Power of Inquiry draws its strength.” She reiterated the Lord’s promise about the Power of Inquiry to each of us, “for every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.” (3 Ne. 14:8)

Thank you to everyone who participated, shared their discoveries and ideas, and inspired us with their work! And a special thank you to the Honors Student Leadership Council for their work in putting the conference together. Collectively, everyone demonstrated in action exactly what Dr. Nielson means by “Get Curious, Get Power and Get Close!”