By Anabelle Bergstrom, Peer Research Ambassador

Research is often advertised as being an aspect of the college experience that is geared towards STEM majors. You spend hours in a lab, dissecting animals, and writing detailed mathematical reports on your findings. You suit up in your lab coat, safety goggles, and closed-toes shoes to look at different molecules under a microscope. Did you know there is another world in research, one world that exists in your dorm room, or at your state’s legislative building, or through conversations with your peers?

Many students are surprised to know that social sciences and humanities majors can participate in research just like their STEM peers. These opportunities may not be as visible as those pertaining to biology, but I can tell you from experience they do exist. You just have to know where to look. Continue reading →

By Paul Isaac, Peer Research Ambassador

Most research articles that you’ll read in Nature or Science will come across as immaculately performed. The data will look amazing, every test and statistical analysis appears carefully orchestrated to elucidate a meaningful result. However, what doesn’t come across is the extensive string of trial and error involved with actually completing these projects and fleshing out the research questions they aim to answer.

Mistakes, setbacks, and failures are natural parts of life and are just as naturally occurring in the lab. As you begin to get involved with research, you’ll inevitable hit your first roadblocks: accidentally pipetting the wrong reagent and messing up an assay, getting results that are the exact opposite of what you were expecting, and the dreaded experience of performing statistical analysis only to be met by non-significant results. During these moments, it’s easy to feel like you’re not “good enough” for research, that your hypotheses were fundamentally wrong, or that your research has hit a dead end. But, just like Rocky said, “It’s not about how hard you can hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” If anything, good researchers aren’t defined by how good they are at getting their questions and results “right” the first time, but how well they can correct, pivot, and investigate their mistakes.

While the Rocky quote might help with your mood, what can you do when you experience setbacks in research? While I can’t provide you with an exhaustive list, I can provide you with some approaches that have worked for me throughout my research journey. Continue reading →

By Erik Choi, Peer Research Ambassador

As with many things, the key to becoming a better researcher is practice. Reading more peer-reviewed publications, repeatedly attempting a difficult technique in the lab, scouring through Stack Exchange; these are all effective ways to hone your skills, but it can feel repetitive at times. Constantly being surrounded by the same area of research can feel exhausting and mundane.

One of the best ways to become a better researcher is to pause your own work and hear from other researchers. Learning from other researchers provides a valuable opportunity to learn about relevant topics and techniques from experts in their field. Research in fields of study adjacent to or outside of your field of study has the added benefit of contextualizing your work, showing how your research is interconnected with other areas of research.

For students who are looking for research opportunities, this can be a fantastic foray into research. Presentations and events often gather faculty and graduate students with a variety of research interests and provide a conducive environment for networking. Continue reading →

By Elisa Shaholli, Peer Research Ambassador

An integral part of the research process comes near the end: presenting and sharing your work with various audiences. The sharing process is the culmination of the time spent, words written and edited, and knowledge acquired throughout the duration of your research project and can be a very rewarding experience. It can also be one of the more anxiety-inducing aspects of research, especially if it may be one of the first times you are sharing your work with others. In this blog post, I’ll be sharing my experience presenting at my first conference in Ireland this summer, and tips that I found were helpful in doing so! Continue reading →

By Kira Cuneo, Peer Research Ambassador

One common misconception when it comes to research is that it is only something that students who are interested in attending grad school are eligible to participate in. As someone who will not be going to grad school, I am here to tell you that that is not true.

When I started to consider research as a freshman, I could honestly not tell you what I wanted to do with my life after college. I only knew two things: I wanted to explore my major outside of the classroom and I did not want to spend another summer working as a lifeguard at the lake in my hometown. Getting involved in research the summer between my freshman and sophomore year seemed like a perfect place to start. Although this did not go exactly as planned, (I mean it was 2020… did anything go as planned?) I began working on the Crumbling Foundations project in the fall of my sophomore year and it has been such a positive experience in my undergraduate career. Continue reading →

By Alyssa Daniels, Peer Research Ambassador

College is wonderful! It is a place where students can grow, learn more about themselves, and pave their way to success. However, college life can be extremely stressful due to the amount of pressure placed on students today.

Sometimes it feels as though there is so much to get done in such a short amount of time. I personally felt completely overwhelmed when I started college. Classes, research, organizations, clubs, sports teams – there were so many things to do! UConn has so much to offer, but it can be easy to overdo it. This can leave students stressed as they try to manage crazy schedules while still maintaining a healthy lifestyle and a social life.

So, what should you do when you’re feeling overwhelmed or like you have worked all day yet have accomplished nothing? Here’s my take. Continue reading →

By Chloe Zampetti, Peer Research Ambassador

Research is often associated with the mental picture of a scientist doing bench work in goggles and a white coat. Your research project may very well involve just that! However, as many undergraduate researchers have established, there are so many different ways to conduct a research project. Undergraduate researcher at UConn includes field work, focus groups, working in communities, and more.

In the case of my project, the field is confined to the 13 inches of my laptop screen. I have been working to synthesize data from existing literature pertaining to mercury and selenium in fish tissues to draw conclusions about human health. Without any fish tissues or humans as a part of my investigation, I’ve been working with nothing but data for the past two years.

If you are working through a data-driven project that doesn’t involve much collaboration, I am sure you can relate to the frustration and isolation that comes along with it at times. Even still, I don’t couple my research experience with a sense of boredom or negativity. While it has involved countless hours behind a computer screen, there are things I’ve implemented into my research practices that have helped me maintain my overall well being and allowed me to enjoy the work I’ve done. If you are working through a project right now that is causing you to feel isolated, I hope my experiences are helpful for you! Continue reading →

By Mahima Mehta, Peer Research Ambassador

Going to college comes with a lot of new prospects — new friends, new classes, new clubs: new responsibilities.

Should you only commit to one thing? What if you’re interested in a bunch of things? How can you give them all your full attention? Although time management is an imperative skill, it can take a LONG time to develop — oftentimes through trial and error. Here are some points I have gathered along the way that have helped me with managing my time and being able to commit to all of the things I am interested in.

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By Chloe Zampetti, Peer Research Ambassador

Your months of hard work and dedication to your research or creative project are finally summed up in a poster. First and foremost, congratulations on completing that huge step! It is now time to present your work!

It is both exciting and nerve wracking to be recognized at a poster conference or exhibition. I presented my own research project for the first time at the Fall Frontiers Undergraduate Research Poster Exhibition. To help you feel more prepared for your presentation, I am going to explain my experience so you know a bit more about what to expect, and then give you some tips and tricks on how to prepare your talk. Please note, Frontiers was not a competition-based poster exhibition, so if you are preparing for a competition, be sure to seek out additional resources along with this one.

Continue reading →