Johanna Telek, Junior student of Milestone Institute and the student of Budapest’s Fazekas Mihály Practicing Primary School and High School, won the First Prize of TUDOK Conference, an international conference organised by The Hungarian Research Student Association.
The Hungarian Research Student Association is an internationally unique initiative aiming to embrace young and talented high school students interested in research. Johanna won the ‘First Prize’ in the ‘Research Plan Array 1.’ section with her research plan titled “The Impact of Parenting Styles on Children’s Personality, measured among junior high school students”.
In our article, Boglárka Zita Németh asks Johanna a few questions about her thoughts and experience on the competition.
What is the TUDOK conference?
The TUDOK Conference is an international conference for secondary school students studying in the Carpathian Basin, giving students the opportunity to present their independent scientific research or a research proposal. The competition consists of three rounds, the first – written – round in which participants have to submit an abstract. This is followed by a preliminary round, where each competitor can present their research to the jury in a ten-minute presentation and is required to engage in a five-minute debate on the issues raised by the jury.
There are altogether four thematic conferences: the Regional Conference of Transylvania, the Life, and Environmental Sciences Thematic Conference, the Human- and Social Sciences Thematic Conference, and the Applied Sciences and Technology Thematic Conference. After the preliminary round, organisers compose the sections for the final round, based on the results of the regional and thematic conference. This year, there were twelve sections, of which two were dedicated to research proposals.
In each section of the conference, a “First Prize” is awarded to the best presentation at the conference and a “Second Prize” to the best presentation in a given section. The section I participated in is called „Research Plan Array I.”, in which I managed to win the “First Prize” with my research proposal titled “The Impact of Parenting Styles on Children’s Personality, measured among junior high school students”.
How did it feel to participate?
The whole conference was an incredible experience! I was also delighted to find out that the finals are to be held in a hybrid format – primarily in person. This was particularly important for me, as the conference was held online during the pandemic. On the day of the finals, I had a chance to talk to a lot of talented students with great knowledge and it was an extraordinary experience to meet everyone at Radnóti Miklós Experimental High School in Szeged.
Preparing for the finals definitely took a lot of work – I had been working on the research proposal from November 2021 until April 2022. During this period, I was always looking for new solutions to problems, learning about research methodology and statistical analysis while developing the research. Overall, I have gained knowledge that will be of great use in building my future projects.
How did it feel to win? Were you expecting this or were you very surprised? How were the competitors?
In the second round already, I had the opportunity to listen to many interesting and high-quality presentations, and the same was true for the final. Since some sections were merged after the second round, I was able to meet new competitors and presentations in the final. Each of the competitors’ presentations were very carefully constructed and it was an honour to compete in the same section with them. After seeing all of the wonderful presentations, I was extremely pleased to find out that I have won the First Prize in the section.
Why did you choose to do a paper in psychology? Do you have plans with psychology in the future?
I’ve been interested in psychology for a long time now. I took my first module in psychology at Milestone last summer. In the autumn of 2021, I took the Experimental Psychology module, where I gained knowledge about the construction of research proposals. This was my main source of inspiration, but I would like to conduct similar research in the future and also study Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at university.
Several other Junior Milestone students took part in the competition and came up as finalists, including Amelie Goertz, a student of the Fazekas Mihály Fazekas Mihály Primary School and Secondary School in Budapest, Linda Kuhár, a student of the Madách Imre High School, Eszter Szentiványi, a student of the Lauder Javne School, and Luca Vidmann, a student of the Bányai Júlia High School in Kecskemét.
Two of our Senior students, Izabella Sabjányi, student of Pasaréti High School and Szelina Kovács-Hantos, student of Móricz Zsigmond High School were semi-finalists at the Conference.
We congratulate them on their great achievement!