Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression, or SOURCE for short, is a chance for students, faculty and staff to show research and creative projects they have been working on to their peers and the community..

According to Program Coordinator Jamie Gilbert, there are over 500 presentations and over 700 students involved in the event. This is the largest SOURCE to date and participation is increasing every year, according to Gilbert. For the third time in its history, SOURCE will take place over two days, May 16 and 17, from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the SURC.

One of these presentations is called Give Voice. According to Director, Producer and film major Jocelyn Waite, Give Voice is a documentary-style project that focuses on first-generation Americans. This will also be the second time Give Voice is being presented at SOURCE.

Last year, the project was awarded “Outstanding Presentation,” with their focus on how first generation American women balance their lives. This year, the team decided to focus on men and their experiences with expected masculinity.

“After listening to all of the girls’ stories last year, I just knew there were more stories,” Waite said. “I hope we do them justice.”

Waite first joined the program when Jadvar Gill, the co-creator of Give Voice, asked the president of the film club to help with the project. This year, Waite is more confident with her talents because she is much deeper into her major.

“This year I want to do what I can to enhance these stories and tell them in a way that better conveys what these people are about,” Waite said.

Waite believes that the production quality has improved this year, and is very excited to see the end product. She hopes that first-generation college students will be able to see themselves on screen and see that their voice matters. According to Waite, while the team does hope to win another outstanding presentation award, they really just want to create a documentary that resonates with people.

Junior psychology major and co-creator Jadvir Gill is looking forward to SOURCE 2018. According to Gill, the group has been working on this project over the last two quarters and is still finishing editing. Like Waite, she also can’t wait to see the final project.

Gill is a first-generation student whose parents moved to the United States from India 25 years ago. Gill created Give Voice to raise awareness of the struggles that first generation students face.

“Basically, I didn’t have anyone to guide me through important decisions,” Gill said.

Last year’s Give Voice project focused on the concept of parents not understanding the difficulties of college and cultural sexism toward women. The current project will focus on masculinity expectations placed on men, according to Gill.

Not only is this Gill’s second time presenting at SOURCE, but it is her second time presenting two different projects. Her other project, titled “What’s in a Smile: How Power Influences Judgement and Smile Authenticity,” centers on deception detection, with a focus on fake smiles.

“Basically, what we were trying to figure out was whether or not if higher power individuals were better at discriminating their targets real or fake smiles,” Gill said.