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Nervous about starting at Michigan State? Worried about your class schedule, living away from home, or where to even start? The Spartan Orientation Station (SOS) is a podcast hosted by New Student Orientation staff and was created by students for students. This podcast will launch twice a week throughout the summer, and each episode will feature a unique interview with campus departments discussing their services, common misconceptions, and fun Spartan engagement opportunities. When you need help at Michigan State, it is okay to signal SOS! Don’t worry – MSU is there for you.
You're listening to the Spartan orientation station on Impact eighty nine FM, the podcast by students or students. Now this week's episode.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the Spartan orientation station. On this week's episode, we will be discussing undergraduate research at MSU. Undergraduate research is conducted in all sorts of different forms and disciplines, and the UR team is here to help you find the best opportunity for you. Hello. My name is Jonah.
Speaker 2:I'm a third year, rising fourth year majoring in advertising management here at MSU, and I'm an SC with the NSO office.
Speaker 3:Hi. I'm Kirsten. I am a rising third year. I'm studying social relations and policy, and I'm also a student coordinator here at the NSO office. Today, we welcome doctor Brian Keyes and Brittany Garccio Finch to the Spartan orientation station.
Speaker 3:Welcome. Thanks for having us. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Thank you.
Speaker 3:If you guys could start by introducing yourself and your role within the Office of Undergraduate Research, that'd be great.
Speaker 4:I'm Doctor. Brian Keyes, as you mentioned. I'm the Director for Undergraduate Research and we are housed in the Office of Undergraduate Education and positioned in the STEM Building.
Speaker 5:And my name is Brittany Gertrude Finch. I'm the Assistant Director for Undergraduate Research, and I help run our programs in the Undergraduate Research Office.
Speaker 2:Awesome. To get started, can you guys just tell us what the Office of Undergraduate Research is and how it supports students at our university.
Speaker 4:The Undergraduate Research Office mission is basically to help support and encourage students to participate in research on Michigan State campus. So we all probably are aware of the national recognition that Michigan State gets for its research, which many people think about the faculty or graduate students or postdocs doing it, and again, there's a lot of that that happens, but a lot of that research includes undergraduate students, And so our goal is to help bring that awareness to undergraduate students, that research is a possibility, and to be able to provide them with resources and support to find those research positions.
Speaker 3:Awesome. So moving forward, what types of research opportunities are available for undergrad students, even those who are just starting their journey here at MSU?
Speaker 5:I can start this one. So for our program specifically, we have a couple of different things that help students get involved. We have workshops if they're kind of just looking for an entry level, they want to kind of hear but maybe not interact with things as much. And so they can learn about finding opportunities, they can learn about summer research, all of those different kinds of things. But we also have peer advising that goes on in our office.
Speaker 5:So we have undergraduate research ambassadors who have done research before, and they're trained kind of how to advise students on finding opportunities, how to reach out about those opportunities, and things like that. So usually, that's what we suggest people start with is like a thirty minute appointment with our ambassadors. And then we also have the Pathway to Research program, which is a more structured program that kind of helps the students get involved in those research opportunities, all the way from figuring out if research is for them to emailing and interviewing with potential mentors and hopefully securing a position. So there's a lot of different resources for undergrads to kind of get involved in research, but we mostly just try to start with showing them that research exists for everybody. So that's one of the biggest misconceptions, I think, is they think white coat and lab and mixing chemicals together, which is also not the research that I do, so yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I would just add to that or agree with that, that we are the Office of Undergraduate Research and we talk about research a lot, but we broadly use that term and it includes all sorts of creative activities and creative scholarship, artistic expression, sort of non STEM, non science students are involved in undergraduate research. They're creating, they're discovering, they're kind of making new information, new knowledge, and that is all part of what we want students to be aware of.
Speaker 2:So you mentioned it's pretty a pretty broad field for the research. Does that mean that students don't need a specific major or any experience to get involved in the research?
Speaker 5:Yeah. I mean, we have students come from all different majors, colleges. We even have people exploratory who still haven't figured out what their major is going to be. But I always tell students too, it's a good way for them to explore what they're interested in, and it's a little more low stakes than switching your major and having to pay for extra credits and stuff like that. So yeah, we get a lot of STEM people, I will say probably 70% of the students we work with are STEM, but we do have a lot of students that are not STEM majors and are more humanities and arts.
Speaker 5:We even had an ambassador who was an environmental science and English person, so like really cool interdisciplinary overlap. But yeah, it can exist in any form and even if it doesn't have to do with their specific major, they could choose to do research outside of that too.
Speaker 4:For a lot of students, we actually encourage them to explore areas outside perhaps their main interest, see what is available in that and what opportunities might be available, because focusing in one area can get pretty narrow at the undergraduate level and we want students to be exposed to a wide variety of different experiences. Research in general is something that we call a high impact practice. It puts you into a lab situation where you're interacting with other undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty mentors, and so you're learning skills beyond just that research topic, which means again that if you are interested in biology, even if you're doing research in a different discipline, say English or outside, you can bring those skills together and you can develop your experience around that to be able to provide you with mentoring and kind of resources. So, working in a lab, working in a research project with a group allows you to get to know faculty and graduate students that can provide references for your next step in your career journey. And a number of graduate schools and programs, medical schools, for example, actually look for students who have done research and have experiences outside of what you would traditionally think maybe a doctor or whomever should have.
Speaker 4:And so undergraduate research is an opportunity to explore and to gain those additional interests.
Speaker 3:Are there any opportunities to present undergraduate research at MSU for students who participate?
Speaker 4:Yes, there are a number of opportunities where students kind of complete the full loop of research, that is that discovery and creation of knowledge and then sharing it with others. The biggest and probably the most well known is URAF which happens every April in the Breslin Center and that is the University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum, so shortened to you Raph. And this year we had nearly 1,200 undergraduate students present their research through posters on the floor of the Breslin and through artistic exhibits and through online oral presentations. So that gives a great snapshot of the diversity and the breadth of research that is happening on campus every spring. In addition to that, throughout the school year there are different departmental and college level areas where students can often be engaged in presenting.
Speaker 4:And then in the summertime, our office helps coordinate a similar research symposium that is called MIDsure. It's a Mid Michigan Symposium For Undergraduate Research Experiences. Again, we like acronyms, so we just shorten that to MIDsure. But that is primarily for students who are doing research on campus in the summer and gives them an opportunity to present. In the summertime, we often have students from other colleges and universities studying with our faculty as well.
Speaker 4:And so, they get an experience that presentation of their research as well.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. So, it sounds like there's a lot of really great opportunities to get involved with undergrad research. Are there any paid or funded research opportunities available for undergrads?
Speaker 5:Yeah, so we have some funding that if you go through our Pathway to Research program, which is a free program by the way, it's also not credited, so you don't have to pay for a credit to take it. Like, we have summer cohorts and things like that. But if you go through that program and you complete the whole program, we have funding. So if you get into a research position that's not paid, which a lot of them are because there's grant funding, colleges also have some funding that you can get paid through. But if you end up in one of those experiences that happen to be a volunteer and you go through our program, then we can make sure that you get paid too.
Speaker 5:Because one of the things that our office is really we feel strongly about is that research shouldn't compete with jobs, and especially because the students that we want to reach are the ones who might not have been a part of the Honors College or maybe they're first gen and they just don't know about undergraduate research. So we really wanna make sure that those students have that opportunity and it's not kind of competing with the other things that they need to do in their life.
Speaker 2:So, if the students are interested in those opportunities, how can they connect with faculty or research mentors?
Speaker 4:That's a great question. So, is one of the roles that a lot of the programs that Brittany leads help students to do is to discover their interests, discover faculty that are doing research or scholarship in that area, and help them connect with that faculty member to talk with them, get an interview, just learn more about the possibilities that are available with those faculty mentors. Another big way that students will connect with faculty research mentors is they have that professor in a class. And so the professor talks about their area of expertise and what they're doing and maybe they will say they have openings in their labs if they're looking for students. And so students can get involved that way.
Speaker 4:Students that come into certain programs and the Honors College is probably the biggest one, they're allowed and encouraged and supported in engaging in professorial assistantships and other research opportunities with faculty. They come at it from all different areas and that's again, a main part of our goal in our office is to reach and communicate to students who might otherwise have no way to hear about undergraduate research. They didn't have a class where a professor mentioned it. They weren't part of the Honors College or other programs that have research built in. Some majors have a research requirement, but we want to make sure that they know that this is an experience that is available to them and that they can get paid in many of the positions.
Speaker 3:So, what are some first steps that a student can take if they're interested in doing research and they just don't know where to start?
Speaker 4:Talk to Brittany.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I already mentioned this a little bit. But I would say probably the best thing to do is just start with a peer advising appointment, especially if you genuinely have no idea how you maybe fit into undergraduate research because it's very low stakes. Like, you can make a thirty minute appointment, you're talking to another student who has done research before, and our ambassadors have different areas of interest, so if you want to meet with somebody who's a little more aligned with your major and maybe your interests, you can do that. But they're also all trained in all of the areas, so if you meet with somebody who's doing biology and you're a humanities person, they can still help you kind of figure that out. The next thing I would say is to sign up for the Pathway to Research program.
Speaker 5:Like I said, it's free. So it's four hours, basically, that we meet. So we meet once a week for four weeks. So the first week is just orientation, and then the next one we're doing email drafting. So you're kind of figuring out who your research interests align with at MSU and then how you can use those interests to align with your interests and then email them and reach out, kind of cold emailing, which I know is kind of uncomfortable for some students.
Speaker 5:So that's why we spend a whole hour session on it, just kind of going through what students need to include. And then we also do a resume building session. So even if you have no research experience at all, we kind of help you shape your resume so that we give you the best chance of getting a research position because classes, volunteer experience, all of that kind of aligns to you having valid experience. And then we talk about interview tips and that kind of stuff. So it's really a low low stakes but also like, it doesn't take much time.
Speaker 5:So even if you go through the program and then you're like, yeah, I found some people at MSU who are interesting but maybe this isn't what I wanna do or things like that, that's totally okay too. But the good thing about that program is it kind of provides you support for that four weeks, you get a peer advisor but I also continue to check-in with you. So if you weren't to get a research position right away, you could always contact me and I can help you too. So yeah, those are the first steps I would say to take because that's kind of the most guided and less you figuring it out on your own. We've got a lot of resources and even if you didn't want to do those things, we have our workshops too that are kind of ad hoc that you can sign up for.
Speaker 4:The other advice I would give to the students is to talk with people and ask questions. So, if you have a TA in a class, ask them what their research research is, ask them what they're studying. Do they like it? What is it like? Are there opportunities for undergraduate students with them?
Speaker 4:If they see an announcement about a talk that's being given on, it could be any subject, it could be even an outside speaker, there are going to be other people from MSU that are at that and you can ask questions and understand how people got to where they are in that place. So, really being open to kind of seeing what is around you and what piques your interest and just asking asking those questions.
Speaker 2:Alright. Well, there's been some very, very informative information here today. We have one more question for you guys before we let you go. What is your favorite part about working for MSU or being a Spartan?
Speaker 5:I mean, I've been here since 2019, I think. I started as a PhD student. Still finishing that PhD, so wish me luck. But I think the community is probably the biggest one for me. I also was asked this in my job interview for this position and I think I said the same thing.
Speaker 5:The community at MSU is, like, unparalleled. I mean, you can yell go green anywhere and it's just go white. But it's also just the way that everybody comes together. I don't think I've ever walked into a situation, like, even this podcast we walked in and you guys were really welcoming. It's just a very different community and a very different, like, coming together that exists at MSU that I haven't experienced anywhere else.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I would second that and just say the support and diversity of experiences that you find on a giant campus like Michigan State is absolutely amazing. And when I get to be the director for undergraduate research in the undergraduate education space, that means that I am not in one particular college, but I get to work with community in all those college and see what's happening in the College of Arts and Letters, what's happening in the College of Agricultural and Natural Resources, what's happening in engineering. And so, I am a lifelong learner. I graduated from MSU with my PhD quite a few years ago and I'm so excited to be here on campus and I just consider myself a lifelong learner. So being able to engage with undergraduate students in research where I'm learning.
Speaker 4:They are the experts in their fields. They know more about what they're doing than I do, and to be able to help support them and encourage them in that is really exciting.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Well, that's all we have today. We'd love to extend a huge thank you to the Office of Undergraduate Research for coming to talk to us today. Make sure to tune in for our next episode of the Spartan Orientation Station. Goodbye.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this