What is Lucerna? Put simply, Lucerna is UMKC’s only all-discipline undergraduate research journal. A new edition is issued every year showcasing the best and brightest UMKC students and the work they’ve been dedicating their time and effort to. Lucerna publishes research essays completed at UMKC that are 2000-5000 words. These essays are rigorously selected, determined competitively, and evaluated anonymously.

As we go through our academic careers here at UMKC, it is sometimes easy to get caught up in the routine of classes. Write a paper, turn it in, and never think about it again. Repeat. Most likely you have at least a dozen old papers on your computer that you haven’t looked at or thought about since the day they were due. Yet, each of these papers represents something more than just a percentage of a course grade; they are documentation of your progress as a student and as an individual at UMKC.

Lucerna offers the opportunity for you to present yourself through the publication of your UMKC research. Those old papers I mentioned previously can be easily polished to become a Lucerna submission and moreover a published essay. If they were written for a class at UMKC, pull them back out, dust them off, and look over them again. That paper is your chance to present a new idea or topic to your fellow students or present an old topic in a new light.

Essays are accepted from all disciplines and are reviewed on a competitive basis against other students’ submissions. Students from all over UMKC can submit to Lucerna, so your competition will be fierce. Being published as an undergraduate student weighs heavily on your resume or CV and will set you apart from your competition as you move on to graduate school, professional school, or into the job market. Being published is an accomplishment that will help propel you toward your academic, professional, and personal goals.

Lucerna is an awesome opportunity for you to expand your horizons, get some great experience, and even get published as an undergraduate. Please contact me, Taylor Barton, with any questions or comments at tjb8t7@mail.umkc.edu. I would love to talk with you about how Lucerna can benefit you.