Utah State University undergraduates met last month with Utah legislators to share research projects they’ve completed this year. Our meetings with them illustrated the critical ways these types of educational opportunities matter to our state.
These USU students included moms, an active-duty National Guard member, a husband/wife research team, and distance learners. Some of those students grew up here, and others came from out of state specifically to get undergraduate research opportunities.
All of them felt their college experience was enhanced by the opportunity to do hands-on learning, especially now, during the unique challenges of the pandemic.
In many typical university models, research activities are reserved for graduate students as an experience that has to be earned after years of classroom work. At Utah State, interested students can begin on day one. That gives them the opportunity to get excited about and proficient in research right from the beginning.
USU student research projects span the academic disciplines and are designed to solve important and diverse problems, from mental health to macular degeneration, from drought management to antibiotic misuse.
Jayme Warner, a senior in social work and kinesiology who also happens to be active-duty Air National Guard, has conducted a long-term study on the benefits of exercise for people who have ended up in drug court. Her findings suggest that participation in low-cost, community-based exercise programs can dramatically improve these people’s chances of living drug free.
USU undergraduate research stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the work of graduate student and faculty colleagues in importance and quality, and their project results are improving their current disciplines and future industries.
At the same time, their origin stories — their “spark moments” — are inspiring and relatable: Biological engineering student Kelsey Bradshaw was drawn to her field when she watched “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” with her father. Art student Lindsey Keele drew her inspiration from finding beauty in the imperfection of gnarled tree bark and post-partum stretch marks. And math student Ethan Ancell dove into his machine learning project when his research mentor promised him it would be hard.
In the same way that their evidence-based work is critical to our state’s problem solving, their stories and presentations could be pivotal for our K-12 students. College students are uniquely positioned to share their excitement and achievement in independently solving problems and creating new knowledge. We can work harder to share that with their younger counterparts.
It can be difficult for teachers to teach the scientific method without real-world exciting examples, and these USU students have those in spades. More than reading about past scientists in textbooks, Utah’s students can know that these opportunities are real and exist right now. It’s especially valuable for our state’s girls to see female researchers and scientists, especially those just a few years older in age.
That’s an effort aided by the new emphasis on virtual communication brought about by the pandemic. This April, anyone in the state, including Utah’s students, will be able to view online hundreds of research posters and videos at USU’s virtual Student Research Symposium, which traditionally has been limited to those who could physically join us on campus in Logan.
As Utah’s land-grant university, Utah State University has a special three-part mission of education, research, and outreach. Undergraduate research, especially when it’s shared, is the perfect intersection of all three functions. USU has done this for a long time and has the second-oldest undergraduate research program in the country, predated only by MIT.
Now, it also has the best program in the country.
USU has been named as the winner of the 2020 Award for Undergraduate Research Achievement (AURA) for research universities by the Council of Undergraduate Research, recognizing USU’s leadership in giving students hands-on experience in research across all disciplines.
Undergraduate research matters. Thirty years of data, collected by researchers from across the United States and abroad, demonstrates that when students engage in even a short-term research experience, they are more likely to graduate and more likely to successfully pursue a career in a related field.
And that’s the kind of message we need to share with all Utah students.
Lisa Berreau | Utah State University
Lisa Berreau is vice president for research at Utah State University.
Utah state Sen. Kathleen Riebe
Kathleen Riebe is a member of the Utah State Senate, representing District 8.