Noah Jabusch
We often think of education as a passive process on the part of the student, who is expected to digest mounds of information and simply assume it to be true. This situation can make it seem as though students have no voice in their own education. It also suggests that answers to life’s questions are just handed out freely, rather than learned through a great effort and tried-and-true experimentation.
Although this system works when students are still young and have practically no background experience, it hides the fact that all human knowledge had to be discovered at some point. Undergraduate research helps remove these misconceptions and prepare us for real situations, and for this reason it is perhaps the best extracurricular activity you could take up in college.
At a workplace, a problem never presents itself as multiple choice or even a short answer. You have to create a new solution, or adapt an existing fix to a novel situation. Research is quite literally the attempt to create new technological solutions or design new models to expand our understanding of the world, and so acts as superb preparation for employed life.
We come to college to learn more about fields that interest us and discover areas we haven’t experienced beforehand. Although one purpose of education is to provide knowledge, it must also help students to develop skills which enable us to tackle a variety of problems, especially those no one has dealt with before. A normal classroom is simply incapable of teaching practical cognitive skills, and places too much emphasis on “thinking” over “doing.”
By contrast, involvement in research teaches these skills in context, letting students experience firsthand the amazing business of discovery. By supplementing the information gained in class with involvement in the process of investigation, research fights the common perception of academia as a stuffy room full of professors reading books and writing papers.
NC State’s Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) notes that both graduate schools and employers appreciate the hands-on experience of research in applicants’ resumes. It grants a unique opportunity to demonstrate one’s problem-solving capacities in an applied setting. In an ever-more-competitive job market for college graduates, showing that one has worked beyond the textbook can garner special notice.
Beyond polishing your resume, spending time working in a field of study can provide valuable insight into your interests. A fascination with a subject does not guarantee that you will enjoy the job that goes with it. Discovering whether a position feels meaningful early on can help steer you towards a truly rewarding career path, while also teaching problem solving skills which will be valuable in any environment.
For those who are already brimming with excitement about getting involved in research, the OUR provides some tips about one’s approach, namely to speak with professors whose class you have taken during office hours or fire off some emails to faculty in your department. They advise students to read up on the professors’ recent publications, so you come off as well-informed.
Although it may feel daunting to speak with a faculty member, most that I have personally spoken with are passionate about their work and will at the very least offer to discuss it, even if they have no projects open at the time. Not only is speaking to professors an interesting way of learning about the cutting edge of a field, meeting new people can open future research opportunities.
An alternate way of kick-starting or advancing your research career is to apply for a Research Experience for Undergraduates, a set of summer programs sponsored by the National Science Foundation at top colleges across the nation. The website contains lists of REU sites for a variety of fields, many of them STEM-oriented, but including a few that may be of interest to humanities students.
Students who manage to conduct their own projects have a variety of chances to present their findings, both at NC State events like the Undergraduate Research Symposium and at national conferences like the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research, which NC State generally sends a few students to attend each year. Besides the opportunity to travel across the country to present your own findings, these conferences are a wonderful way of representing the academic strength of the Wolfpack to the public.
Regardless of one’s desired career path, breaking from the traditional mold of a student whose sole purpose is to absorb information can ease the transition from school to life beyond. Moreover, research offers the exhilarating opportunity to create new knowledge in a subject area that you are passionate about. All students should consider taking this step to broaden their undergraduate experience through self-driven inquiry.