“What’s All This Talk About Research?”
By: Allison Giroux
The first time I heard about the importance of getting involved in research was during The Honors College portion of the Admitted Student Visit Day that I attended, and I haven’t stopped hearing about it since. I like to think of it as an HCOL buzzword of sorts. As a first-year, I wasn’t quite sure what “research” would look like for me or how I would go about getting involved, so I put it on the back burner for a while.
“Research” is such a big term. It has a sort of prestige and intimidation factor to an outsider. After all, those who do research are those brave enough to take what is already known about a topic and ask, “Yeah, but why and how?” Then, they have to figure out how to go about finding the answers to those explorative questions. Unknown knowledge is the most daunting type of knowledge, and that is the business of research. We, as UVM students, are incredibly fortunate to have an immense range of research being conducted on campus. If you haven’t heard about research being conducted by your professors, your advisor, or within your department, ASK! I have yet to meet someone doing research that isn’t thrilled to talk about it. Honestly, the prospect of new knowledge is exciting.
As I started to hear about the research that some my peers were doing during my sophomore year, I became anxious to get involved. I am a neuroscience major on a pre-health track, and personally, I love working with people. Although doing things like slicing tissue, looking through microscopes, pipetting, working with mice/rats, etc., are interesting to some people in my field of study, I really wanted to work with people. Thus, my pursuit of an undergraduate clinical research position began!
One of the best ways to get involved in research – regardless of if your major is biology, Spanish, or studio art – is to meet with Ann Kroll Lerner. If there is a person who has a finger directly on the pulse of undergraduate research at UVM, it is Ann. Fortunately for HCOL students, her office is located in University Heights North! If you haven’t met with her, I encourage you to go schedule a meeting. It’s never too early to get involved in research of any sort. Seriously.
My pursuit of research lead me to a clinical research internship, and the only thing that I would change is that I would have started sooner if I had known! I thoroughly enjoy my time in the lab, which includes working with study participants! This is going to sound stereotypical and scripted, but I’m not kidding when I say that I get to apply my “classroom knowledge” to the real world, and vice versa. In addition to a lot of academic enrichment, I have been able to pose my own questions and hypotheses, and then branch off a little and conduct my own analyses (and I earned course credit!). Now, whenever the “research” buzzword comes up, I feel like I’m on the enlightened side in the sense that I, too, know how great research is, and I want to share my experience with others.
In summary, the hype about research exists for a reason. Whether or not you believe me, I encourage and challenge you to go find out for yourself. Seriously. 🙂