Student Spotlight - Showcase Project

If you've ever taken an undergraduate course in the Arts and Social Sciences field, then you probably know the feeling of committing 15+ hours writing out a creative essay or some research paper. You strive to explore in-depth a specific research question or grapple with existing topics in academia, and at the end you're left with a paper that you feel offers a unique and interesting perspective on the topic. It can be very anticlimactic when, after working so hard to develop the ideas in your paper, you simply receive your mark. Many students consider publishing their undergraduate works in academic journals, but are deterred when faced with the amount of work required to turn an undergraduate essay into a published article, which can often take just as long as writing the paper in the first place. Few undergraduate works are ever published, and the vast majority are never read again. Anyone who's taken an Arts or Social Science degree can probably also relate to the experience of asking to see example works from peers who have previously done well in a course or classmates who have done well on previous assignments. We use these works to inspire ourselves and to help us see if our own works compare favorably to the ones that have received high marks in the past. Furthermore, anyone in any undergraduate program of study can relate to feeling unsure about what is expected of them, especially in the early years. Our research is done using academic papers that are primarily written by students in graduate or postgraduate programs, not other at-level essays. Without comparing with our peers, it can be difficult to recognize what is expected of our works. Student Spotlight exists as an attempt to solve both of these issues. Founded in 2022 out of Ottawa, Ontario as a means of highlighting the tremendous ideas that many undergraduate students produce throughout their studies, we believe these works can still offer tremendous value beyond just netting a good grade. Our platform strives to help students and former students showcase their best works and ideas from their undergraduate programs, while allowing current students to inspire themselves from a free collection of high-quality, at-level assignments curated by our platform.