By Kavya Athipatla

One of our goals at Carroll CARES is to help students build effective presentation and communication skills. Along with sharing your project with classmates, we strongly encourage you to attend conferences, and we help you achieve that milestone.

Conferences may sound intimidating, difficult, or just too formal for a high school student, but they are extremely important to research. They allow you to communicate your findings (how else will people know what you did?), expand your knowledge, and network with peers and researchers. They can also be a lot of fun! Below, you can read about my experience presenting at my first conference while in 9th grade.

The conference was called the 16th AACR Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved. (The hospital I worked with primarily cared for minority patients.) It was held at the Disney Grand Floridian Resort in Orlando, FL in September 2023. I attended with my brother Vivek, who was also presenting, and my mother.

The conference was on a Saturday, so we left after school on Friday. Since we were flying, we used cloth posters (which we could pack into our backpacks). We got to Orlando at around midnight, and took an Uber to the Coronado Springs Resort. By the time we arrived, it was around 1 am, but the Latin American feel and the “lake” in the center were so inspiring. We quickly found our room and fell asleep.

The next morning, we got ready for the conference. The open sessions were in the evening, but in the morning there were other presentations. My mom and I rode a bus to the Grand Floridian and went to the Gasparilla Island Grill (which had a great view of Cinderella’s tower) for a quick breakfast while Vivek slept some more. Until noon, we just visited presentations. I was the youngest person there, so I didn’t understand much, but I was super impressed and I met a lot of people. Plus there were free things like notebooks and pens! Lunch was provided for by AACR, and it was a buffet.

After lunch, it was time to set up the posters. The poster boards were already set up; we just had to pin the posters on. The presenter across from me was a professor at Harvard Medical School! Then my mom attended more presentations. Being a 14-year-old, I was getting a little antsy. I really wanted to explore the Grand Floridian, so that’s what I did. It was gorgeous, and there were so many little stores I got to walk around!

Then in the afternoon, the open presentations took place (with a few hundred presenters!). They only lasted a few hours, and it was a really calm environment—not stressful at all. I mostly stayed at my poster and told people about my project when they came up to me. Towards the end, I walked around and looked at other posters. Caterers brought snacks around as well, so we weren’t too hungry.

Finally, we took a bus back home. I explored the Coronado Springs resort and went to sleep. But the trip wasn’t over yet… we were going to Disney on Sunday!

I had spent many hours obsessing over the rides at Disney. I’d studied the different rides we could go on (even though it was like our fourth time visiting) and even booked a slot for the brand-new ride Tron Lightcycle Run. I wanted to take advantage of the early entrance, but the others weren’t as excited, so we left the hotel at around 7:30.

After dropping off our luggage at the Grand Floridian, we rode the Monorail to Magic Kingdom. We took advantage of the fact that it wasn’t holiday season, so there weren’t too many people. Also, it rained a lot, clearing out the people and forcing us to buy $12-each plastic ponchos. We sped through all of the rides and even got to experience the Tron Lightcycle! In the afternoon, we were all exhausted, so we went back to the Grand Floridian where we relaxed and retrieved our luggage. Then we went to the airport and flew home, arriving at around midnight.

As you can see, conferences don’t have to be scary. They are an important part of research, as I was able to share my work and meet new people. More than that, conferences can just teach you about the world, and can definitely be fun!