NU's Varley Set for Provincial Three-Minute Thesis Competition

Autumn Varley, a master of Arts in History student and Nipissing’s Three Minute Thesis champion, will join twenty doctoral and master’s degree students from across Ontario to present her research at the provincial finals of the Three-Minute Thesis Competition (3MT Ontario) on April 14 in Waterloo. Varley won the local competition, for her presentation of her thesis, Nokomis' Story: Identity, Family and the Child Welfare System.  
The 3MT is a communications competition for graduate students. Developed in Australia by the University of Queensland in 2008, the 3MT challenges students to explain their research in plain language in just three minutes. This is not an easy task considering a full graduate thesis can be 80,000 words in length.
The 20 competitors in the provincial competition are all winners of local competitions hosted by every university in Ontario. 

Sitting across from the competitors will be a panel of judges with a wide range of backgrounds and interests. Invoking images of “American Idol,” the 3MT Ontario judges will score the quality of the presentations and the presenters’ ability to engage the audience.

The judges for the 3MT Ontario are:
Rob Baker, guitarist for the Tragically Hip
David Meyers, chief executive officer of Iceberg Vodka
Susan Anzolin, chief financial officer for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario)
Ken Steele, chief futurist at Eduvation
ar Ashoughian, university librarian, Wilfrid Laurier University

The judges will select winners of the 3MT Ontario, who will receive $2,000 in total prize money. As well, the top five presenters will move on to the national level, an online competition coordinated by the Canadian Association of Graduate Schools.

The 3MT is hosted by Wilfrid Laurier University and is open to the public. More information can be found atwlu.ca/3MT.