Dr Van Tran won the 3MT People's Choice Award in the Charles Sturt University Finals recently. Here are her reflections on the journey
My 3MT Journey
by Van Tran
Encouraged by my supervisors, I got on the CSU 3MT train with some excitement but honestly did not expect there would be much help offered in terms of preparation for the presentation.
I was impressed with the well-organised information session and the helpful Training Cafes with Peter Coperman and Emmaline Lear guiding us through important presentation skills. One thing I learnt from these workshops is “Don’t be afraid to try”. If you had listened to my first attempt of 3MT pitch, I am sure you would not believe I am going to win any prize! The feedback I received from Peter, Emmaline, past 3MT winners, other 3MT participants, my supervisors, family, and friends helped me come up with a message that was easy to understand to a general public and more importantly could involve the audience in my topic and feel about my research the same way I feel about it.
Chugga, chugga, toot, toot! Four days before the Heats, I wrote an email to Jennifer to withdraw as I did not think I could prepare enough for the Heats. However, before hitting the Send button, I lay down and lots of thoughts came up. Why did I want to get on this 3MT train? For the fun, the skills, or the prize? It could be all of that, but the most important reason is to send out the message of my research to more people out there, the people who are not my supervisors nor my journal article readers but plain people whom my research aimed to impact. I closed my laptop and decided to stay!
The Heats were another exciting learning experience. Even though I have known of lots of great online research events offered by CSU for the last 3.5 years, I was still struck by the professionalism of how these Heats were run. The legitimate and encouraging feedback of the judges, the warm voice of the MC, the kind emails from Dawn, Jennifer, Emmaline, Michelle, … to encourage everyone, they all meant a lot to me.
It was great to get going to the Final in Wagga. My travel was nicely organised so that I could join the event in person. The fancy venue and the hard work of the crew preparing for the event on stage and for live broadcast immensely motivated me. I love the informative and inspiring panel discussion while we waited for the judges to work. I really like that Wagga high school students were invited to come as audience. I was thinking of the wonderful future research they would be involved in to impact the life of people in regional areas as well as across Australia and the world.
I got on the 3MT train with the aim to reach out to more people and to raise public awareness of the importance of home language maintenance and bilingualism. With the People’s Choice Award, I believe I achieved that aim. I am thankful to CSU Research Support, my supervisors, other 3MT participants, my family and friends for their fabulous company on this journey. I wanted to tell other HDR students that doing research is great but it could sometimes be restrictive in terms of communication with people out of your circle. Getting involved in different research activities including this 3MT competition is a fabulous way to sharpen your skills and to disseminate your research to a wider public.
It’s freezing in Sydney today but I feel great in my CSU hoodie (which has just arrived as part of my 3MT participation) recalling all the warm memories of my 3MT trip.
