A nursing student from Macomb Community College discovers a fondness for research that opens doors she had not previously considered.
A cell and molecular biology and biomedical engineering dual major doesn’t take on a science-related internship but finds herself making lesson plans and conducting research for a school readiness program.
A student with an interest in humanities and social science research finds a perfect match with a project that examines how schools across the United States handle their responsibilities under Title IX.
These are among the stories of students taking part in a summer program that allowed them tackle a range of research challenges.
The Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program at the University of Michigan has for 30 years placed freshmen and sophomore students into research settings with faculty mentors. UROP began in 1988 with 15 students and 15 projects, and now has grown to have more than 1,400 students involved with 1,100 projects led by 900 mentors.
“We engage students in undergraduate research in a way to connect one-to-one,” said Luciana Aenasoaie, assistant director UROP. “This is more of a dip your toes in experience to see if you even like it. For first and second year students, they don’t really know what they want to do,” she said, adding that some find out it is not for them while others are inspired to seek additional education and careers involving research.
Like the academic-year UROP program, the summer experiences immerse students in research in a variety of settings. It does so through six programs: Community College Summer Fellowship Program, M-Cubed Scholars Program, Detroit Community Based Research Program, Biomedical and Life Sciences, Intel Semiconductor Research Corporation, and the Summer Research Fellowship in Women and Gender Studies.
For Mikiah Binion, who hopes to transfer to U-M’s nursing program in 2018 from Macomb Community College, the experience has shown that she has options beyond caring for patients.
Her internship was in a lab using high tech equipment to work with nanoparticles called dendrimers—something she had to learn from scratch. The lab is working to determine how these nanoparticles can best serve as carriers to take a drug to a target and release it slowly for better effect.
“I’m learning how to utilize the equipment and I’m learning about the importance of it. When I first interviewed I didn’t really have an idea what it was about until I had the hands-on experience and was able to ask questions,” Binion said.
“She’s very curious, which is what you need from a student. She’s very hard working,” Somnath Bhattacharjee, research investigator, said of his intern.
Another student interested in nursing worked with a Detroit program that serves families of small children.
“I want to go into the nursing field but nursing isn’t just about the body,” said Calahna Butler, a junior in psychology with a nursing path, who worked with preschool children at Brilliant Detroit. “It’s about well roundedness, and about their mental health and how they interact in different environments.”
This is the second year students were placed with Brilliant Detroit, a program that engages neighborhoods in a vision for children to be kindergarten ready and reading at grade level by the third grade, explains co-founder and CEO Cindy Eggleston.
“The way to truly change the world is to start with our kids and assure that they are ready for kindergarten, they are ready along the way, that they have the same opportunity as everyone else,” she said.
Even though the relationship with Brilliant Detroit is only two years old, UROP has been involved with community based work for more than 18 years, five of them in Detroit.
“Our students work on a variety of things, it’s everything from community development, energy efficiency, transportation to food justice, more general social justice work, as well as projects related to early education,” said Jenna Steiner, assistant director of UROP.
Students in the paid internship program work full-time for 10 weeks, and they live on the campus of Wayne State University. Steiner said this gives them a chance to learn from one another, as well as from the organizations.
Dominique Witten was in Detroit during regular school year for her first research experience with UROP. She gathered data on the ways people move on foot through the city of Detroit, recording every shortcut they take, during an experience perhaps more fitting of her science and engineering majors. But for the summer she chose to intern at Brilliant Detroit.
“I actually got to interact with humans. I don’t think I’m ever going to get a chance to work with kids in the way in which I get to do it.” Witten said. “I’m always in this creative mode and I don’t really have an outlet for it, so being here I get to use my creative juices.
“No one ever says research can be fun, so when I discovered research can be fun the doors opened.”
Some learned that research takes a lot of time.
Kalei Glozier, a psychology and women’s studies dual major, signed up to gather information on how 328 schools that receive federal funding comply with Title IV, the law that prohibits discrimination by any federally funded educational program or activity.
Prior to his arrival, graduate students had coded various materials from all the schools so that he could do the analysis.
“It’s kind of crazy when you put it in retrospect. They’ve spent 8 months preparing so I can do my 3-month project. I’ve learned how much effort has to go into research,” Glozier said.
“The research opportunities the University of Michigan offers are by far the best I’ve seen on college campuses. I feel very lucky to be a part of it.”
