How Undergraduate Research Eases the Transition to Graduation

By: Emily Saccuzzo, OUR Peer Research Ambassador

When I first started at UConn as an undergraduate I had absolutely no idea what I wanted for my future career. I came in undeclared with only a vague idea that I knew I loved science in high school. I first started taking chem classes and realized that this was something that maybe I could see myself making a career out of but still I didn’t know what I wanted that career to look like or even what a career in chemistry could look like. I decided to join chemistry club in my sophomore year and quickly learned from other students about the undergraduate research that they were doing.

I started to become intrigued by the idea of working in a lab. I figured if nothing else undergraduate research is certainly an experience that could at least tell me if I wanted a career working in a lab. It was because of my decision to join a lab that I realized research was exactly where my true passion was. I find myself here, 3 years later in the same lab, excited and sure that graduate school is the perfect next step for me.

However, joining a lab is more than just deciding if you want to go to graduate school or not. Working in a lab exposes you to different research that is occurring in the world. It can start to give you an idea of exactly what specific type of science is most suited for you. It can also start to show you what kind of careers exist in your field. As you watch different graduate students and post docs leave your lab for their new job positions you can see where the road of research could potentially take you.

For me the best part about joining a lab was opening a door to communication. I was able to talk to various graduate students and post docs and my research professor about my future career through my time at UConn and they were able to help steer me on a path that helped me to achieve my goal. For me, since I knew about a year or so back that I wanted to go to graduate school, my research professor helped me to work on an independent project, practice writing a thesis and working the summer in her lab.

The idea of graduating can certainly be very scary given how many unknowns it contains. Undergraduate research helped to give clarity to what my future could look like and it helped me to set the path in a way that best allowed me to get in to my dream grad school. Undergraduate research can also be very useful if you are unsure if graduate school is for you in the sense that some people realize throughout this process that it isn’t. Either way, this experience certainly helps you to determine what path is right for you one way or another.

Emily Saccuzzo is a senior majoring in Chemistry and minoring in Molecular & Cell Biology. Click here to learn more about Emily.