Topics ranged from climate change and border control to the pro-choice and pro-life debate.

“Everybody knows what polls are, but do they really understand them? We wanted to give them a sense of poll literacy to have a better understanding of what polls are, how they work and really understand what goes into getting data and then what the numbers mean,” said Lisa Burns, professor of media studies, whose political communication class participated in the event.

Anya Grondalski ’23 worked on two projects for the presentation covering American views on same sex marriage pre-legislation and how age influences opinions on climate change. She said she was able to broaden her knowledge and recommend other students take advantage of the opportunity.

“This helped give me more perspective in terms of public policy issues and demographics,” said Grondalski. “It’s great to get out of your comfort zone and you learn so much.”

Julia Vitale ’24 and Sierra Maturi ’24 worked together to explore the public’s opinion of New York City Public Schools. Vitale said that the experience has influenced the way she wants to work as she begins her career.

“Down the road I would like to do stuff that involves working with other people and I definitely want to keep research involved,” said Vitale. “This has helped me get some background and I think it was very effective.”

Maturi explained how important the collaboration aspect of the project was.

“We had to put our ideas together to get the final result that we wanted and we were very proud of that,” said Maturi. “Seeing our result and then presenting the board and watching our ideas come to light was my favorite part.”

Scott McLean, professor of political science and whose polling and opinion course participated in the event, explained how the knowledge and experienced gained from the experience can benefit all students.

“These are really transferrable skills, so if you’re in business, journalism or running a non-profit, you’re going to deal with survey research and data and you’re going to need to be able to present that data in a clear way,” said McLean. “Also understanding the science behind where the data comes from.”

Doug Schwartz, associate vice president and director of the Quinnipiac Poll, spoke with the students about their research.

“I hope that they will take away a real joy for opinion research and analysis,” said Schwartz. “I hope it will inspire them to do even more research.”