Summer undergraduate research programs provide graduate experience
Friday, June 10, 2016
The 2016 participants of the Kansas State University Graduate School's long-running Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program come from colleges and universities across the nation. Back row, from left, LaQuan Johnson, Michaela Smith, Kara Nielsen, Sarah Seiwald and Ashley Michalski; and front row, from left, Alejandra Valadez, Bre'Anna Wyche and Kristen Hylen. | Download this photo.
MANHATTAN — Temperatures are heating up and so is undergraduate research at Kansas State University.
More than 100 undergraduate students from universities and colleges across the United States will spend their summer in a lab or out in the field conducting research and earning a graduate student-like experience through nine summer undergraduate research programs offered by the university.
The programs provide an opportunity for undergraduates from diverse disciplines to collaborate with a mentor on a research project or to join an existing research team. Besides getting to engage with multicultural students from different colleges and universities, participants learn about the graduate school experience.
The following undergraduate summer programs are being offered by the university:
• Chemistry Research Experience for Undergraduates
• Earth, Wind and Fire: Sustainable Energy for the 21st Century
• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of Changing Environments: Integrating Genomes to Biomes
• K-State Research and Extension Multicultural Summer Research Fellowship
• Laser-matter Interactions at the Atomic and Nanoscales
• McNair Scholars Program
• Research Immersion: Pathways to STEM
• Summer Academy in Sustainable Bioenergy
• Summer Undergraduate Mathematics Research
• Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program
One of the longest running summer research programs for undergraduates is the Graduate School's Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, or SUROP. First started in 1990, SUROP gives students a firsthand experience with the research process. This research experience is designed to help students prepare for the graduate school and other advanced study. Participation in the SUROP program provides an up-close look at the process of research discovery.
Students participating in SUROP will spend nine weeks this summer at Kansas State University collaborating with faculty members as part of their research teams involved with on-going scholarly programs. Students are expected to spend about 40 hours per week working with their research teams and to be contributing members of this group. By the end of the nine-week period, students should have produced tangible results from experimental research and will report the results in a special research forum.
The Graduate School provides participants with a stipend of $4,500, travel and room and board. For more information on the SUROP schedule, visit http://bit.ly/1Yc4HFh.
The following students are participating in SUROP 2016 at Kansas State University; included is the research area and the student's college:
Alejandra Valadez, Flagstaff, Arizona, English, Northern Arizona University; Ashley Michalski, Lake Elsinore, California, anatomy and physiology, Langston University; Sarah Seiwald, Denver, Colorado, chemistry, Regis University; Kristen Hylen, Highlands Ranch, Colorado, biology, Benedictine College; Michaela Smith, New Orleans, Louisiana, biology, Xavier University of Louisiana; Kara Nielsen, Fairmont, Minnesota, biology, Grinnell College; LaQuan Johnson, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, biology, Langston University; and Bre'Anna Wyche, Hampton, Virginia, diagnostic medicine, Hampton University.
SUROP participants also will attend weekly seminars to learn more about the graduate school experience and are strongly encouraged to attend other events and activities organized by the SUROP coordinators.
