On Friday, Jan. 19, the Office of Undergraduate Research at the University of Connecticut held an interactive workshop dedicated to helping studentsin their research project process titled “Finding a Research Mentor.” The office also held a previous workshop titled “Getting Started in Undergraduate Research.”
Melissa Berkey, the assistant director of OUR, was joined by four peer research ambassadors: Darren Lee, majoring in molecular and cell biology; Riley Beckham, majoring in electrical engineering; Fariha Fardin, majoring in molecular and cell biology with a minor in bioinformatics and Krithika Santhanam, who is double majoring in molecular and cell biology and health policy and racial disparities. These workshops aim to “help and support students going through this process,” according to Berkey.
The first part of the session centered around brainstorming goals and interests to help narrow down exactly what type of research students want to get involved with. Berkey asked the audience, “What are you looking for and why? What type of experience are you ready for?” Things to consider when trying to decide whether a research project is fit for you include the type of project, how much time you can dedicate to it and what you’re trying to gain from the experience.
In regards to the time commitment issue, Fardin said, “Some projects have required amounts of time that you need to complete, some have minimum time requirements. Originally I did about 10 hours a week towards my research and now I average about 15 to 20 hours. It seems like a lot but I am also getting academic credit for it.” Berkey mentioned that students don’t necessarily need to complete their research projects during the academic year. Many students complete them over the summer so that they can prioritize their courses separately, she said.
Deciding why you want to research a specific topic is “the most important part of the process [that] lots of students struggle with,” said Berkey. She noted that she has seen many students go into a project on something they believe they are interested in at the moment, but down the line, they find themselves bored or tired of the research. It’s crucial for students to ask themselves “What drives you? What motivates you?”
Research projects require a lot of time, commitment and dedication. As Lee mentioned, “This is all you, your interests and your ability to get work done and collaborate.” Following this segment, audience members were given a worksheet to brainstorm ideas and visualize their goals. This included writing out their areas of interest in an academic and a personal lens.
The next step would be to explore your options. This process includes looking at department and lab websites, seeking research centers and using Lincus. Department websites include bios for their faculty, and usually these have links to specific labs or publications that they have worked on. Berkey stated that UConn has 92 interdisciplinary research centers, meaning that there are various options for students to look through when considering what they want to research. She also stated that Lincus is “a tool for UConn students to help identify faculty connected with certain keywords.” By logging in with your NetID and entering certain keywords created through brainstorming, Lincus can highlight specific faculty members involved with research into these topics. It also allows students to see who they are working with and other keywords that are connected to their projects.
The final step in the workshop was explaining how to reach out to faculty. The main aspect of this is for students to build relationships with their professors and figure out who they’d be comfortable doing their research with. Students must define their goals for reaching out, doing their homework on these professors and reflecting and connecting with them. “Set out to have a conversation to understand more,” Berkey noted. “Our goal is to make a connection, a connection between their research and your interests.”
Another interactive segment of the workshop outlined what students should do when sending emails to these professors. Some things to note are that the email should be concise and focused, should be around two paragraphs, have a clear subject line and mention any times available to have a meeting to discuss it further. Students should remember to remain formal when addressing faculty; unless you know the professor on a deeper level, it’s safer to remain on a last-name basis with them. When asking to join their research, students should “ask for something easy for faculty to say yes to,” Berkey said. Instead of jumping right in and asking to get hired as an assistant, students should ask more detailed questions to fully understand what their research entails.
When closing the workshop, they highlighted what not to do when looking for a research mentor. Things to remember include that the research is not all about the student; multiple people are involved and everyone is doing their best. Also, do not send generic emails. “If you could insert any faculty name into the email, it’s not strong enough,” Berkey noted. Although OUR provides templates for email, Santhanam emphasized how important it is to personalize the email to yourself. “Don’t copy and paste emails. People can tell, use [the template] as a guide, but put your own voice into it.”
Although the process seems daunting, Fardin stated, “talking to professors can be intimidating, but they know that you are intimidated. They’ll make small talk to make you comfortable.” The biggest takeaway from the workshop is for students to “Just be genuine,” according to Fardin.