Here at Winthrop, I am apart of the Honors Program where we are required to do an Honors Thesis to graduate with an Honors degree. By requiring an Honors Thesis, the program is requiring students to explore the field of research in whatever way they feel fits best into their program of study and personal interests. The program does not limit the scope of research that can be done by students as they can choose to do many options from in the lab research, choreographed performances, or pieces of artwork.
The idea of conducting research as an undergrad may first seem overwhelming and out-of-reach for many students, myself included. As a first generation college student, I had never even comprehended the idea of being able to conduct my own personal research starting in my first semester here at Winthrop. But here I am today, almost done with the Honors Thesis writing process, reflecting on the hard work that has been completed during this past year. In this article, I will share with you a little bit about my research undergraduate research journal and explain the reasons why I think any undergrad student should consider taking part in research.
Background: Why I did it and why you should consider it to begin with
As a pre-medical student, I had heard other students talking about trying to find research opportunities to better improve their application for medical/graduate school. Many of these opportunities, in my field, were in a science lab and lasted for multiple years (most even during the Summer semester). I knew that my goal would be to graduate from Winthrop in three semesters after transferring my dual enrollment credits. As I would only be there for a short period of time, I knew that most of the pre-existing opportunties would not work out because they would last longer than I would be at Winthrop or the labs were already full for the upcoming year.
I had always had a prior interest in doing research outside of the lab pertaining to some area of public health/epidemiology. As I was raised in a very rural area, I wanted to be able to use my background of the health disparities that I saw everyday growing up in my research to further help decrease the gap in health equity across the state. Thankfully, I found an amazing advisor who was interested in getting started in the same field of research. From that, we used our prior backgrounds to guide our research in a field that neither of us had much experience in.
Takeaway
You can do research on whatever field or area you feel led to even if you have little to no experience in it. Do not get discouraged if none of the faculty have a significant amount of experience in the type of research that you are interested in. Many professors will be very excited to try to expand their knowledge into a new area that they have not explored before. Also, make sure to remember your WHY, always. The whole reason why you decided to do research in the first place is the motivating factor that will get you through the hardest days of your research.
Overall, participating in undergraduate research is a perfect way to learn more information about a specific field or about how the research process functions itself. You could decide to try it and only focus on one research project or you could use your first research project to influence future research opportunities. There is no limit to the amount of knowledge that you can learn through the process of learning what it takes to be a student researcher. I hope that everyone has the opportunity to consider taking on a research project during their undergraduate years as it boasts many benefits for any type of major.