University research is often a mysterious and murky concept to undergraduates arriving on campus. But through the College of Letters & Science’s Undergraduate Research Scholars Program, each year we help approximately 200 first- and second-year undergraduates participate in research and creative endeavors with mentoring from faculty and staff. By showing them the research opportunities and methods available on campus, we help undergraduates mold their futures.
Hannah E. Bailey is director of the Undergraduate Research Scholars program in the College of Letters & Science. A 2010 graduate of UW-Madison with bachelor of arts degrees in history and French and a certificate in Gender & Women’s Studies, she is working towards a doctorate in history at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
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One of our strengths is introducing undergraduates to the wide array of knowledge being produced at UW-Madison.
URS is a high-impact practice that builds a diverse community of scholars, both in terms of students’ intellectual interests and life experiences. Many of our students come from historically underrepresented groups on campus.
According to a 2017 National Survey of Student Engagement, 38 percent of UWMadison students participate in research during their undergraduate careers. The URS program is unique because the majority of our students are in their first year.
Our hope is that this early research experience will help our students make informed decisions about the classes they take, the majors they declare, and the career and post-baccalaureate plans they pursue.
Most incoming URS students are new to research. They apply to URS seeking a hands-on research experience, often without a clear understanding of precisely what that means.
Many of us – maybe even most of us – associate research with science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As you see in this supplement, however, research extends to all disciplines.
I empathize with these students. When I entered UW-Madison in 2007, I had no sense of how scholars conducted research in fields that interested me. From what I could tell, research was the purview of pre-med students. I had difficulty aligning my goals with the big questions that fascinated me.
I am indebted to exceptional professors in the Departments of History, French & Italian, and Gender & Women’s Studies who validated my natural curiosities and introduced me to research methods that would help me pursue them.
Faculty members challenged and supported me to find my own answers to the research questions about inequality and systems of power that interested me.
Leaning into my natural curiosities as an undergraduate student became a habit for lifelong learning. I learned that the questions that resonate with you as an undergraduate can determine your entire career.
When students identify the questions that preoccupy them, they are best situated to make the most of their undergraduate research experiences.
Every fall, URS students are stunned by the variety of available research projects.
Incoming students rarely foresee that they can investigate how members of Congress communicate with constituents, the ways that 3D printing and modeling might be used to represent dream sequences, or situations in films that are deemed “funny” across cultures.
A common refrain during our student research matching process is, “I can study that?” Thanks to research mentors, upper-level URS Research Fellows, and peers, students soon realize that the world of research is broader and richer than they imagined.
This essay originally appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal’s Fueling Discovery section on May 4, 2020. Fueling Discovery is a special partnership between the Wisconsin State Journal and the College of Letters & Science.