How to supplement your undergraduate degree with summer research
By Maggie Hsu, November 20 2024—
Proposing and conducting a research project based on your interests can seem like a daunting task that’s perceived as something reserved for graduate students pursuing their Master’s degrees or undergraduate students nearing the end of their degree. But did you know you can start building your research portfolio as early as the summer after your first year and get paid for it?
Not only is undergraduate research a great way to build your academic resume, but it’s also an amazing way to network with faculty members on campus and other students who share similar interests in making the most out of their time as an undergrad. Who knows, you might even find new passions you didn’t know about that can motivate you to push through to the end of your degree and beyond.
Summer might seem far away as it feels like you’re buried under deadlines and midterms. With summer undergraduate research grant applications opening soon, here is your guide to preparing for those applications and what opportunities are available for you to pursue them.
What is undergraduate research? Why do it?
In an interview with The Gauntlet, Dr. Maria Victoria Guglietti, the Academic Lead in Undergraduate Research at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning shared the value of integrating research into your undergraduate experience.
“Undergraduate research is a learning experience. You have an amazing opportunity to develop skills that are, yes, academic but are transferable to a working environment,” Guglietti explained. “We have classes on academic research [but] this is the experience that students should have to complement that.”
Guglietti is the driving force behind the Program for Undergraduate Research Experience (PURE) which is likely the first thing that comes to students’ mind when they think of summer research. Having stepped in the role this past August following the departure of Dr. Kyla Flanagan on sabbatical, Guglietti is a strong advocate for undergraduate research in all disciplines, emphasizing that these experiences are valuable assets to a student’s academic CV but also professional development.
From critical thinking to time management and project planning, students have the opportunity to be immersed in the research process that not only gives them the end product of a completed research project to present and add as an asset to their academic resume, it is a product to show that you are capable of seeing a project from beginning to end. From the beginning stages of connecting with a research supervisor to finding a research question and completing background research to the end stages of dissemination and trying to find ways to present their findings.
“You are developing the plan. You are establishing what the agenda is. You are conducting the research. You are your own boss and your employee. And after your eight, 12 or 16 week terms, you have to have deliverables,” Guglietti adds. “This is an amazing thing to show an employer.”
The value of research outside of STEM
When most people think of research, there is this stereotype of a person in a white labcoat, pouring chemicals back and forth between beakers or someone carefully observing specimens. And while STEM research is incredibly important in advancing our society, there is also value for students in the Faculty of Arts, Business, Education etc. to pursue research. While it is a valuable experience to be in a lab and work as part of those teams and learn those practical skills to complement the theory learned in a classroom, students outside of STEM pursuing research have the beauty of being able to practice autonomously in their research.
“That’s an amazing amount of responsibility for a first-year student,” says Guglietti. “So I think it’s even more important for Faculty of Arts students, who in many cases are [going into] a job market in the creative industries in which having that edge of showing that you have had that project management experience and the creativity to come up with a question that was new and worth pursuing is so much more important.”
Have I convinced you yet? Here’s how to start
If you haven’t gotten the point yet, undergraduate research is extremely beneficial to your time as a university student. With the University of Calgary being one of the top research universities, there are opportunities for any and all fields of study for you to pursue. So how can you start?
Ready for Research micro-credential
While the registration for the 2024-25 year has ended, the Ready for Research micro-credential promises to prepare students with the skills to participate in research within your undergraduate studies. Not only will this course prepare your for undergraduate research experiences like PURE, it will supplement your coursework that requires you to propose and conduct research. You can find more information about Ready for Research here.
PURE and other undergraduate research grants
The main thing to keep an eye out for is the PURE Award program which offers funded opportunities for undergrads to conduct research over the spring and summer terms. PURE students are given the opportunity to develop research skills under the supervision of a faculty member to explore personal research interests. No matter how niche your topic is, there is likely a professor that is open to guiding or overseeing your research.
PURE terms last for periods of eight, 12 or 16 weeks between May to August. The eight-week term will receive an amount of $3,750, 12-week terms will receive $5,625 and 16-week terms will receive the full amount of $7,500 (paid once a month for the duration of the studentship).
While the application opens on November 20, 2024 (closing on January 27, 2025), the first step is finding a research supervisor. No, you don’t need to have a formal proposal or research question ready, just a faculty member that is available during the summer to oversee your project and sign off at the end. This may sound like a daunting task but the team that oversees PURE like Dr. Guglietti have created ways to guide you through the process.
“Don’t be afraid to ask because nobody will get offended by being asked,” Guglietti advised. “The worst case scenario is they ignore your email or they say they can’t do it but perhaps that’s the person who will lead you to a colleague who can. So the piece of finding a supervisor should not be something that keeps you from trying.”
The Office of Experiential Learning will be hosting a networking event on November 20 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. to help students connect with faculty members who are already interested in supervising undergraduate student projects this summer. This is a unique opportunity to start building those lasting connections within the university’s research community. You can register for the event here.
At the end of the day, the university is looking for students to be involved in research with almost 1,000 applicants for summer studentships last year and 800 of these eligible for PURE. While just 157 of these applicants were awarded funding, don’t let these numbers discourage you from applying.
“The more applicants we have, the more we can make the case that there is extensive interest,” Dr. Guglietti added. “Undergraduate research is an experience that students want to have and we see it in the registration for Ready for Research, we have 300 more registrations from last year for the badge.”
And as one of the largest programs for undergraduate research in Canada, PURE and the other summer studentships offered by the university serve as a testament for the need for more opportunities and more funding for students to pursue these projects. Students want to develop these skills that they can eventually translate to a professional working environment while developing their academic skills and with more faculty members becoming aware of the program, they are wanting to see and foster the potential that all students innately possess.