BSW students are encouraged to participate in this year’s symposium by developing poster presentations.
These posters should be related to the symposium theme.
Students interested in presenting posters should submit titles for their presentations, the names of presenting
students, and abstracts to their school’s NJBSWEA representative. Abstracts should be about 250-500 words
and will be the script for student presentation. Abstracts will be reviewed based upon their clarity and focus,
relevance to the topic of social justice in the policy arena, and strength of supporting data. Students whose
poster presentation proposals are accepted will be required to develop a voice-over Powerpoint (one slide)
which will be debuted at the symposium and available thereafter for viewing. Students do not need to be
present on the day of policy symposium, though it is strongly encouraged.
Guidelines for Creating Advocacy Symposium Posters
These do not need to be separate sections but should be included on the posters.
1) Header
• Poster Title
• Student name(s)
• School (use logo if available)
2) The social problem
• Why is this policy important?
3) How has this problem been addressed before?
• This often includes past policies
• Gap in how this social problem is addressed (why do we need this policy)
4) The social policy – this is the main part of your poster
• Brief summary/overview
• Who is proposing it
• Has it passed, and if not, where is it in the process?
• Strengths of policy
• Weaknesses of policy
5) Anything else relevant to your policy, if not included above
6) Sources
Physical Layout
• Students should design their posters on one MS Powerpoint slide with narrative. They will be reading
their abstracts – they should start their narratives by introducing themselves, identifying their
schools, and reading the titles of their posters.