Emporia State is sending two partnerships to the Midwest Sociological Society conference in Chicago this April to present their research projects.

“It’s an opportunity for us as college students to come and get our foot in the door of the whole field of sociology and crime and delinquency and also get some more practice with research,” said Abigaile Weiser, senior sociology major

Weiser and Cherie Crisp, senior crime and delinquency studies majors are putting together a research project about the impact of socialization on critical life choices.

“Our project is looking at how impactful socialization is on career choice, like how much financial side of career choices is brought into it,” Weiser said.

The partners got to pick their own projects based on their own interests and what they would like to spend a semester researching, to Weiser.

“I’ve always been interested in career choice and we were brainstorming how we could put together a research project in one semester, and we kind of came upon the idea of a survey that we could send out,” Weiser said. “At the same time be able to get a wide selection of students and a bunch of different variety in answers.”

Crisp has been to this conference two times prior to this year. This will be Weiser’s first time.

“We get to look ahead of time and see which ones (breakout sessions) we want to go to,” Crisp said. “After they present, you as an audience member get a chance to ask them questions and learn more about them.”

The four students participating are all part of an international honor society based around community service, social and academic workshops and lectures as well as fundraising opportunities, according to the Emporia State website.

“We are members of Alpha Kappa Delta, sociological society,” Crisp said. “Students have the opportunity to present when they go to a conference and because the organization tried to get some students together to present at the conference.”

The survey should be sent out around the end of February to try and find out how impactful family is on career choice as well as the financial aspects of the careers, according to Weiser.