Mont Alto's annual Academic Festival is an opportunity for students to share their academic work with the campus community, Penn State families, and the public.

This exciting event will feature projects and research developed by students throughout the 2025-26 academic year. Individual and group projects can cover a wide range of topics and can be shared as an informational exhibit, a research-based poster, an oral presentation, or a performance. The organizing committee welcomes all forms of academic or creative accomplishments including works of poetry, writing, artwork, and dance.

Monetary prizes will be awarded in each category. Additional awards will be presented by the University Libraries for Excellence in Information Literacy and Mont Alto’s Sustainability Committee (see Special Awards below for more details.)

Reasons to Participate

  • Share your work with the campus and surrounding community
  • Have fun while gaining valuable experience
  • Develop connections with faculty and staff
  • Contribute to your professional development
  • Enhance your resume for employment and/or graduate school
  • Win monetary prizes

Submit a Proposal Here!

Important Dates

The deadline for submitting project proposals for the 2026 festival is March 20, 2026.

Project proposals will be reviewed in late March and students will receive further details by early April. Final project files must be submitted by Friday, April 17, 2026 (one full week before the event) to allow time for uploading and creating the compilation in ScholarSphere.   

Guidelines and Judging Criteria

The Academic Festival provides four project categories for you to submit and display your work. Click on each category below to learn about the recommendations, guidelines, and suggestions for submitting projects.  Prizes will be awarded in each category. 

As part of the project proposal, you will be asked to choose between a wall display or a tabletop display for your work. Below are photo examples of each. 
 

Female students standing by a poster displayed on a wall.

This is an example of a wall display during the Academic Festival. 

Credit: Penn State
One male and two female students standing by a tri-panel research poster on a table.

This is an example of a tabletop display at the Academic Festival. 

Credit: Penn State

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Special Awards

  • Excellence in Information Literacy: An Information Literacy Award will be presented by the PSU Mont Alto Library. More information about the Information Literacy Award is available online.  Research posters will be considered for this award and will be evaluated by members of the Library staff to determine recipients for this year’s award.
  • Sustainability: In the online proposal form, students will be asked to connect their project to at least one of the 17 United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The Sustainability Committee will review proposals and determine recipients to receive this year’s award.

Project proposals are due March 20, 2026.