by Natasa Kvesic |
There’s a certain chaos to the activities fair at the beginning of the year. From the struggle to decide if you want to showcase your witty humor in Improv Club or learn more about how to protect the Earth in Ecology Club, making sure that you’re signing up for the right group can be tough. But one new club on campus helps students make the decision process for their future an easier experience.
The Undergraduate Research Club, which started spring of last year, is dedicated to helping freshmen and sophomores that are majoring in math, history, biology and other majors to find programs that allow them to conduct research in their respective fields.
“The whole goal and purpose of this club is to basically be a resource. A lot of students hear that UP students do research but you don’t really know where to go for that information,” senior President Julia Meng said. “We want to be able to give people that information and just see whether or not there really is a demand from students wanting to know about research.”
Pamplin School of Business, for example, requires their students to complete internships to be prepared for future positions when they graduate. Meng and two other members of the club, senior Shaun Stice and junior Alicia Feryn, believe that arts and science majors don’t have the same opportunities as education or business majors.
“I think for College of Arts and Sciences, they just need to stress this more. Like, if you are a history major, you should be doing something,” Meng said. “UP students are really hard-working and driven but sometimes they just don’t know about things. A lot of people need a little bit more of a nudge.”
The club aims to be not only an informational source, but a group whose goal is to promote the benefits of starting out early and looking for research programs during a student’s early years in college.
“It’s so important,” Stice said.
Meng, Stice and Feryn said that there will be workshops focused on how to go about applying for various research programs available to students. They also plan to hold informational meetings and panels with students and professors.
“We want to do two panels, the first one with the students and then we also wanted to do one with professors later on in the semester,” Feryn said.
The club held an informational panel Thursday at their first meeting run by students who have done research programs. Julia Meng, Sandra Velasquez, Shaun Stice, Emily Bliven, Philip Blatt, Kai Seely, Brett Screechfield, Jono Fung, Carina Bernard
and Natasha McGlaun. Natasa Kvesic is a reporter for the The Beacon. She can be reached at kvesic19@up.edu.
