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Episode Notes | Transcript | AskTheGuest

 Hi Fives (5 Highlights)   Click for 2-Minute Listen

In this Podcast for High Schoolers, Dr. Raines shares about how UG Research changed his career trajectory. He discusses Emory’s UG Research Program, How CUR helps Emory, the Resources they offer the Students & Faculty, Student Successes, and his Advice for High Schoolers.

Dr. Tim Raines is the Senior Associate Director, Undergraduate Research Programs at Emory University.

Hi-Fives from the Podcast are:

  1. Importance of UG Research
  2. Role at Emory
  3. CUR Support
  4. Student Success Stories
  5. Advice to High Schoolers

Episode Notes

Episode Title: Dr. Tim Raines of Emory University: Undergraduate Research is a Strategic Priority.

In this Podcast for High Schoolers, Dr. Raines shares how UG Research changed his career trajectory. He discusses Emory’s UG Research Program, How CUR helps Emory, the Resources they offer the Students & Faculty, Student Successes, and his Advice for High Schoolers.

Dr. Tim Raines is the Senior Associate Director, Undergraduate Research Programs at Emory University.

In particular, we discuss the following with him:

  • Dr. Tim Raines’ Background
  • UG Research at Emory
  • Program & Student Successes in Research
  • Advice for High Schoolers

Topics discussed in this episode:

  • Introducing Dr. Tim Raines, Emory University [0:42]
  • Hi Fives - Podcast Highlights [1:45]
  • Professional Background [4:13]
  • Importance of UG Research [5:27]
  • Why UG Research is Important for Students [6:42]
  • Role at Emory [8:42]
  • Challenges Students face [10:02]
  • Freshman Introduction to Research [12:00]
  • CUR Support [12:59]
  • Connect_UR Conference [14:14]
  • UG Research Grants and Resources [15:52]
  • “Is UG Research for me?” [20:59]
  • Program Successes [22:55]
  • Student Success Stories [26:06]
  • What’s Ahead? [29:38]
  • Faculty Participation [32:23]
  • Advice to High Schoolers [35:20]

Our Guest: Dr. Tim Raines is the Senior Associate Director, Undergraduate Research Programs at Emory University. Dr. Raines graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University. He received his Master’s degree in Biological and Physical Sciences and PhD degree in Oncology and Cancer Biology from the University of Virginia.

Memorable Quote: “My advice has always been for, for all students, whether from high school to college is to try Research, just try it.” Dr. Tim Raines.

Episode Transcript: Please visit Episode’s Transcript.

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Episode Transcript

Transcript of the episode’s audio.

<Start Snippet> Dr. Tim Raines  0:14  

I believe students go to college because they are trying to boost their resume to get the job that they want. And so they're adding new skills, communication skills, critical thinking skills, problem solving skills. These are three main skills that are so important for any career that you gain and research. And then the personal benefits are the sense of accomplishment and independence that you get from doing research.

Venkat  0:42  [Introducing Dr. Tim Raines, Emory University]

That is Dr. Tim Raines, Senior Associate Director, Undergraduate Research Programs at Emory University.

Hello, I am your host, Venkat Raman.

Undergraduate Research is a Strategic Priority at Emory.

Freshman learn about UG Research when they set foot on the campus, in an introductory course called the Emory Edge.

Currently 70% of the UG students at Emory engage in some form of research.

Venkat Raman  1:13

Dr. Raines joins us on our podcast to talk about UG Research at Emory University, The Importance of UG Research, CUR’s Role, Resources they offer the Students & Faculty, Success Stories, and Advice to High Schoolers about Research.

Venkat Raman  1:31

Before we jump into the podcast, here are the Hi-Fives,  Five Highlights from the podcast:

Tim R  1:45  [Highlights - Hi Fives]

[Importance of UG Research]

Undergraduate research is so important to me because it opened my mind to a new career path. So I enter College majoring in Biology and as most students coming in, in the sciences, they think in order to become a doctor, you must go the medicine route become a medical doctor. That's the only thing I knew about I was unaware that there is a research doctorate PhD available to me.

[Role at Emory]

In all of that, I am looking for ways to touch populations of students that typically won't come to my office to do to talk about undergraduate research. And I try to partner with anyone and everyone to get to get research out there and in the minds of students.

[CUR Support]

Also, what's wonderful about being a part of this CUR community and having this institution membership is that we we are able to fund any faculty second student who would like to also be a part of her and learn about more about the community.

 

[Student Success Stories]

Ro is first generation. She is from Boston. She is working with Dr. John Lindo, who's an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology. Ro has been highlighted in Emory News. So the work she's doing ancient DNA lab mapping little little explored human lineages. Row has helped to analyze DNA that she extracted from ancient bones on Earth in Uruguay.

[Advice to High Schoolers]

My advice has always been for, for all students, whether from high school to college is to try research, just try it. It opens so many doors. You gain so many skills.

Venkat Raman  3:25

These were the Hi5s, brought to you by “College Matters. Alma Matters.”

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Venkat Raman  3:36

Now. I'm sure you want to hear the entire podcast with Dr. Raines. So without further ado, here's the podcast with Dr. Tim Raines!

-----------------

Venkat Raman  3:47  

So, Tim, let me welcome you to the podcast, College Matters, Alma Matters. Thank you. Thank you so much for making the time. So today, we wanted to talk about undergraduate research and as it pertains to Emory. So before we kick it off, maybe we can start with your background. Tell us how you got to where you are right now.

Tim R  4:13  [Professional Background]

Yeah. So I am a first generation college student, and the youngest of nine. So the first of my family to earn a Bachelor's, Master's and a PhD. They I earned my Bachelor's and Master's from the illustrious American Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina. And then I went, I went on to earn a Master's of biological and physical sciences and then my PhD in microbiology at the University of Virginia. And much of my research focused on cancer research with my dissertation and thesis focusing on ovarian cancer.

Venkat Raman  4:52  

Wow! So, I guess that explains the research part. So yes, So how long have you been at Emory?

Tim R  5:04  

I have been at Emory since September of 2019. And prior to Emory, I worked as the Assistant Director of Undergraduate Research at the University of Virginia and their Office of Undergraduate Research.

Venkat Raman  5:20  

So maybe we should start with, why do you think undergraduate research is so important, and so important to you?

Tim R  5:27  [Importance of UG Research]

Yeah, so, undergraduate research is so important to me because it opened my mind to a new career path. So I enter College majoring in biology, and as most students coming in, in the sciences, they think in order to become a doctor, you must go the medicine route, become a medical doctor. That's the only thing I knew about I unaware that there is a research doctorate PhD available to me.

So I soon learned after completing two summer research, internships, as well as working with faculty during the academic year that I love the process of research and the freedom that provided me, it allowed me to have the options to pick my schedule, design my questions in ways that excited me and also impacted my life. Undergraduate research showed me that earning a PhD was another option to be called a doctor. And honestly, I say it was the best decision I made for my life. I, my PhD has allowed me to move into a career and a space that allows me to work with students to inspire students each day, and I love what I do. Absolutely love it.

Venkat Raman  6:34  

Maybe the next question there is Why do you think it's important for students? I know, I know it has shaped your career, do you think it can do the same for all students?

Tim R  6:42  [Why UG Research is Important for Students]

I do. In a couple of different ways. So I see the importance for students broken down into sort of three categories, academic, professional, and personal benefits. So academically, it definitely helps students to improve their learning, it helps them to even think about their curiosity. So they're taking these classes they're putting out there in research, they can put these classes into action. And then one of the biggest things I think is important for students academically is the relationship they develop with faculty. So I believe networking is key to everything you do in this in this world. And so having a faculty member that you can connect with, that can be your reference that can write a letter of recommendation for you. They can even be your sponsor, that will speak your name and spaces that you're not yet seated. And so I always tell my students, say you're applying to go to go to Yale for graduate school, and you have this faculty member who, who has connections at Yale, they can, they can reach out to their colleagues and say, hey, I want Sarah to go to come here, she's a wonderful student, you should really accept her, and then by by them speaking your name, you could get that opportunity. I also think it's important professionally, one of the major things I think is important for professional is that it's a resume booster. So I believe students go to college because they're trying to boost their resume to get the job that they want. And so they're adding new skills, communication skills, critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, these are three main skills that are so important for any career that you gain and research. And then the personal benefits are the sense of accomplishment and independence that you get from doing the research, develop your critical thinking, problem solving skills, and then overall, being creative. Research is about being creative, and designing, designing your questions the way that you want them to be.

Venkat Raman  8:31  

So let's talk a little bit about your role as the Senior Associate Director of Undergraduate Research at Emory. What does it entail? What do you get to do?

Tim R  8:42  [Role at Emory]

Yeah, so when coming into this opportunity, which I was super excited about, what I learned was that undergraduate research is the str... strategic priority of Emory. And so I've been charged with increasing faculty and student engagement in this high impact practice. So we know we know from data that about 70% of students engage in in some type of research, they say undergraduate research, and they do this by their senior survey. I would like to get that number to 85%, my personal goal is to increase that by 90%. And so in my day to day work, and what I do, I direct the strategic planning, development and implementation of undergraduate research here. And I do that by expanding the support infrastructure, I increase department and program participation, and I establish specialized programs that target students with specific academic and research interests. And so in all of that, I am looking for ways to touch populations of students that typically won't come to my office to do to talk about undergraduate research. And I try to partner with anyone and everyone to get to get research out there and in the minds of students.

Venkat Raman  9:52  

So what do you think are the barriers for these students who you know, the 30% or so, that do not explore research? So what do you think the challenges are?

Tim R  10:02  [Challenges Students face]

Yeah, so some of the bits or some of the barriers, have some of the barriers that have been for students, financial barriers. So say a student, a student may be low income, and they must they have to work. What in oftentimes, undergraduate research at many institutions, it's, it's, it starts off as a volunteer ship. And so students aren't afforded the opportunity to be able to do research on a volunteer basis, they need the money to support themselves support their families, also the the timeline of working. So I think many institutions are looking at being more equitable when they present undergraduate research to students as far as being flexible and the timing of when students can do this. But in some instances, it's sort of been very restrictive, that you have to do research on this, this timeline, or this time frame of the day. Well, some students are unable to do that, because they want to have classes or if they want to do in the evenings, they may have they may have caregiving responsibilities. So they may be taking care of a sick parent, or they may have children. And so those could be barriers. Another barrier that I also I I'm aware of, at least here is students are unaware my office exists.

Venkat Raman  11:12  

Okay. My question? Yeah, yeah.

Tim R  11:16  

That's another that's a big barrier, that they're unaware that we are here to help them. And that they, they find out about research in very, very peculiar ways, sometimes. So I work with my staff to develop advertisement and and so our social media platforms to get research out there to students to say, hey, come talk to us. We provide these opportunities for you, that will help you to get started in research.

Venkat Raman  11:47  

How does a student an undergrad, a freshman, learn about undergraduate research? Now, you just mentioned that you do ads? And is there anything in the orientation or anything else that they'd get to know?

Tim R  12:00  [Freshman Introduction to Research]

So yeah, so our first year students take, they take a sort of intro to Emory course called Emrich called edge. And so in this edge course, there is a week in there where we talk about experiential learning opportunities. And in that we talk about undergraduate research. And so we, the students will learn all about what my office offers that can offer to them, and they they learn about that way. Additionally, my office holds weekly workshops, talking about ways of getting started in undergraduate research. So that's usually the first couple of workshops we do throughout the semester is how to get started in research. And we talked about the benefits. We talked about the how to send emails to faculty and how to interview and how to prepare for that process. And then what it looks like once you're once you're in that process. Um, so those are the ways that we do it currently.

Venkat Raman  12:53  

Now how does CUR help you guys or help you with all the stuff you do there?

Tim R  12:59  [CUR Support]

Yeah, so Emory is an institutional member of CUR and as an institutional member. It is institution members. Our membership is designed to assist secondary and post secondary institutions with developing, supporting and sustaining their undergraduate research efforts. So by being an institutional member, my office myself my program coordinator, and then the dean of sciences here we're all members of curve and that allows us to engage with the community that allows us to attend the certain events at discounted rates like the our one upcoming event, the inaugural annual conference that connects your Connect you are also what's so wonderful about being a part of this community and having this institution membership is that we we are able to fund any faculty second student who would like to also be a part of CUR and learn about more about the community. The community is a wealth of knowledge and all things undergraduate research, there are so many things you can learn and so many questions you can ask different colleagues across the nation about undergraduate research.

Venkat Raman  14:05  

Now, you mentioned this inaugural annual conference, now it and you're playing a leadership role in that tell us about that. What do you get  to do?

Tim R  14:14  [Connect_UR Conference]

Yes. So I, I am one of the co chairs and the other coach here is Dr. Winny Dong from Cal, Cal Poly Pomona. And we are we are charged with ensuring that the annual conference supports professional development, learning and networking objectives that aligns with current strategic planning values. And so this is an exciting time because this is our new this is the new inaugural annual conference that CUR is wanting to develop. And so the primary goal for this Connect UR is to provide a forum where attendees can draw on knowledge exchange, group discussions and community building building to explore new possibilities in the field of undergraduate research. And so I would like to put out there the dates. We plan to do that the conference will be held virtually June 23, through the 24th. And then we we will hold an in person part of the conference in Washington, DC, June 27, through the 29th.

Venkat Raman  15:12  

Now who all can attend this or who can participate?

Tim R  15:15  

All are welcome to attend that are that have any interest in undergraduate research. So faculty, staff, students are welcome, graduate students, postdocs, all are welcome to attend. We are currently reviewing all of the submitted abstracts, and many, many abstracts selected the target audience for their their presentation. And it ranges it covers everyone. So all are welcome to attend.

Venkat Raman  15:42  

That's awesome. So so it's an inaugural conference. So I guess, you get to, innovate and pioneer something here. So that's awesome. Yeah.

Tim R  15:52  [UG Research Grants and Resources]

So that's the exciting part about it is that this is a new idea. And we're we're taking what has been done in the past. So CUR has typically historically done a conference every other year, that sort of was very much of this platform. And then in the off years, the division that I'm a part of under CUR, the undergraduate research program divisions, we will hold a conference there. And so we're taking these two ideas and trying to bring them together for this annual conference. So everyone is engaging in this the conversations at the end of every year.

Venkat Raman  16:27  

Alright, yeah, I mean, considering CUR has a huge membership body. I mean, I would imagine Yes. Annual is a great idea.

Tim R  16:37  

Yes.

Venkat Raman  16:41  

So coming back to Emory, then what kind of, you know, resources and infrastructure Does your office provide students. And so you know, a freshman is interested, then what?

Tim R  16:57  

Yes, yes, sss. So, we offer two programs. And then we have two granting opportunities that we can provide to our students. So our first is our scholarly and inquiry and research experience program, SIRE program. This is for rising second and third year students who are new to research. What's wonderful about this program is that we develop this interdisciplinary community of scholars. So we mix the students up according to the their interest in disciplines of research, so that all students can learn about every area of research. And every discipline of research is that we do this primarily because we know students come in sort of with this one track mind, um, I want to be Emery students are many of them want to be medical doctor, so I need to do wet lab research, right. And by mixing them up, they get to see what research looks like an art looks like an art history, they get to see what research looks like in sociology and anthropology. And we've had incidents in the past where students come in saying, like, I want to do wet lab, and recognize I actually prefer art history, and humanities research. And we talk we talk to students about about that here. Being that Emory is a liberal liberal arts institution, I tell the students to explore all their options. while they're here for this four years, this is the time to do it. Don't just settle on one opportunity, explore every research opportunity that we have available and see what you'd like to see if you love it. So that's one of our programs. The other program is our summer undergraduate research experience program. SURE. And this program is open to Emory students, as well as external students. So non Emory students, and so students come in for 10 weeks to do research with us. And so students take responsible conduct of research training with us, they learn professional development skills, we talk about how to how to communicate your research to, to the larger community, how, how to apply to graduate school, if you're interested in MD PhD, we bring in our MD PhD colleagues to talk about that process of what that looks like. And so that's the short program. And in the short program, we offer students a stipend support, they get housing with us. And then we also provide them with fun activities to do over the summer. So not just academic enrichment, but personally enrichment activities.

Venkat Raman  19:23  

So this is a competitive program, right? So people have to apply.

Tim R  19:26  

Yes, yes, yes, for sure. It's definitely students have to apply. And we, our application process just ended this this year, January 17. And so we're in the process of reviewing applicants right now.

Venkat Raman  19:40  

Cool, and so, yeah, go ahead.

Tim R  19:42  

Oh, and then we have our two granting opportunities. We have our independent research granting opportunity where Emory students that have their own independent project that they would like to do, they can apply for funding with us through that. The only requirement is that they have they must develop their project and write a proposal and they I need a Emory faculty mentor to support them in that project. And so they're able to do that we have three granting cycles, students can apply for the fall cycle, a spring cycle and a summer cycle. And then lastly, we provide students conference travel grant funding, so we support students and going to conferences to present their research. And so we we, along with many of the departments and programs, here we, we are funding supplements, what they what they provide, to help to fully support the student while they're out traveling and presenting.

Venkat Raman  20:34  

Is there a, so you mentioned the SURE, which is, you know, which is selective, but, and then these are individual programs, which are just great. Now? Is there is there a place for people to come and try out? You know, if undergraduate research is for them? How do you how do you help somebody who's getting started?

Tim R  20:59  [“Is UG Research for me?”]

Yeah, so.So there, we do that sort of in that in that conversation, or workshops, and tell them to explore their options that way. We also have a research ambassador. So these are senior level or up upperclassmen students who have done research, at least for a summer or a year at Emory, that meet with students to talk to them about what research looks like, and how to get started and get involved.

And I often times speak with students early on, especially first year students, I tell them to explore the options that are available to them, and then see if they can shadow. So go in and spend the semester with a faculty member and just go in and shadow and see what research looks like, don't initially commit yourself to research right away, but just explore the options, see what's available to you. And then as you're moving towards your second semester of your first year, then consider you're then tried to see if you can nail down a research opportunity.

Venkat Raman  21:55  

That's a great idea. Yeah. So, you know, how many disciplines participate? What's what's sort of the breadth of participation?

Tim R  22:05  

Yes. So we we are we serve all the disciplines, I will, I will say, majority of our students are interested in STEM. So the natural sciences and biomedical sciences, a majority of our students will go that direction. But let's see students in the humanities and social sciences, as well as arts and creative expression. So we help we cover everything we, we we partner with our I was at a business school, and they had, they had a program at one point where they're helping students doing to do research in business and learning about research in that area. I've talked with our film and media department, Media Studies Department to to get students to engage in research with them. So we cover it all.

Venkat Raman  22:48  

Maybe it's time to share some success stories, and what would you sort of highlight?

Tim R  22:55  [Program Successes]

Yeah, so I would like to in this, I would like to highlight some students, but as also one of the new programs that I that I just put out. So in the new program, I actually have a first year research experience program fire, this new program that I started spring of 2021. It was it was me recognizing that I think first year, first year, students need a place and a space to meet with someone to discuss academic research and help them navigate that process. So I target second semester, first year students, and I help them to get into research quickly. And I pull from two populations of students. So either students who have completed AP Capstone credit from high school. And so this is a two year research experience that students can earn this AP credit from. And so they're able to apply for my program that way. And the other population is a pre orientation program called stem pathways. And so stem pathways is a program that supports Natural Sciences and mathematical students who are first generation in our family to attend college or in groups that are historically underrepresented in STEM fields. And so I have these two populations of first year students that I work with, and they work with, I work with them for three semesters. So they start in their second semester, first year, and they stay with me all the way through their second semester in their second year. And what's so great about this program, this program, as well as the fire program that I didn't mention is that we're able to compensate students in two ways. So students are able to earn research credit through my office by taking this course with us. And so they get between one to four credit hours, depending upon the number of hours they work in a week, and we have students that about 15 hours per week. Now, if our students are federal work, study eligible, we're able to hire them through our office and pay them for to do their research. So I believe that students should be offered some compensation in some way and not just do free opportunities, because free opportunities typically are more privilege, students can do the free opportunities and those students who don't have the privilege to do it, so the background to do it. And so I want to ensure that Austin's have some form of compensation. So we do that through this program. And then also my fire program. What's so great, what's a wonderful about is that the students have an option to stay over the summer with me after their first year to do our, our short program. And so they are able to do 40 hours of research a week, they participate in all things that we do in shore, and the stipend support, free housing, as well as participate in our enrichment activities.

Venkat Raman  25:36  

Sounds wonderful. Sounds great.

Tim R  25:40  

I am so excited about this because I started I had my first cohort that started spring 2021. They're in their second semester now. And they're doing it Yeah. Wonderful. I had about 21 students in that cohort. My new cohorts cohort started this semester, and I have about 19 students. It's I'm super excited to see where they go.

Venkat Raman  25:59  

Very good. So what about some students that yes, you feel have changed a bit or a lot due to this?

Tim R  26:06  [Student Success Stories]

Yes. So I wanted to highlight to young ladies who founded a new student organization that I am their faculty advisor for. It's called Black, Black and Latin X in STEM, BLIS at Emory. So BLIS provides a community and peer mentoring for students that are interested in STEM graduate school and research careers. So the first lady Christina Chance, she's the president. She's a senior from New Jersey, and she participated in my cyber program last year. What I find that so special about Christina is that she is brilliant and will succeed at everything that she puts her mind to. She just does not recognize it. And what is so what some great news that happened for her recently that shocked her was that she received an offer to attend UCLA, his Ph.D. program in computer science. She was yes, like super excited news. She just she did not believe she was qualified for any Ph. D program that she would get in. She has like a 3.8 GPA and like you will get it you will do wonderful, I promise you. She is working. She's currently working on her honors thesis with Dr. Dorian Arnold. He's an associate professor in the Department of Math and Computer science, or thesis is focusing on creating more robust commercial grade speech recognition tools to better support African American Vernacular English.

And then, the second student I would like to highlight is Rosseirys De La Rosa, she's the vice president of BLIS, I call her Ro. Ro is first generation. She is from Boston. She is working with Dr. John Lindo, who's an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology row has been highlighted in Emory news, all the work, she's doing ancient DNA lab mapping little little explored human lineages. Row has helped to analyze DNA that she extracted from ancient bones on Earth in Uruguay. And so what's so wonderful is that a lot of the work that she started doing that was highlighted in this in this news article was due from my short program, so she participated my short program in the summer of 2020. So right at the height of the pandemic, we had to transition our shore program to all remote until she was able to transition her project to remote and she worked from home in Boston, from Massachusetts, and she was writing computer codes needed for the analysis of DNA extracted and prepared earlier, and it's spring semester, right at home. And what, what I will say is that what I love so much about Ro, is that she is authentically herself all the time. And she has such a strong, inquisitive and questioning nature that I know without a shadow of a doubt that she will be successful in earning her PhD. And so she is currently interviewing for many different doctoral programs and anthropology right now. And we're waiting to hear back from her first offer.

Venkat Raman  29:08  

Awesome, awesome. Now, these are great stories and examples as well.

Venkat Raman  29:17  

Where do you see this going? I know, I know, you set out a goal of you know, 85 to 90% of the students engaging. What else? What is there more that you could do by way of infrastructure resources to attract people different types of research? What's ahead?

Tim R  29:38  [What’s Ahead?]

Yes, yes. So what is ahead for us is that we are really we're working hard with the different departments and programs here to get a faculty member or staff member to be their representative, director of undergraduate research. So we put out we started this last year and asking each department chair or program director to To ask someone to be this person, and so they can partner with us to help students do research in that discipline. So I'm a small office, I'm an office of three. And Emory has over 6000 undergraduate students that I want to serve. And so in order to do that, I believe in being strategic and having partners to help with that. And so I envision my office to be the centralized huddle knowledge that I can send students out to whatever Director of Undergraduate Research to, to, for them to meet with to learn area, or to help them connect with faculty in that area. And so that's one big big initiative that's going on right now to to to build the infrastructure to with more staffing and faculty support that way. The other side of it is, right now students in order for students to find a faculty mentor, they send out emails, these are and oftentimes students are, they find that you have to be very, very difficult to do. So we are working to bring in a platform called forger one. So this platform connects students with faculty on research projects. And I like to describe it as tinder, a research research Tinder. We are working, or we're gonna afford you're one to help students get matched with faculty and faculty to match with students. And so that's on the that is coming up for us, we are hoping that we can start this implementation this spring semester. And then we can get this platform up and running late summer, early fall semester 2021. And I think that would help students to be able to connect with faculty easier, and not having to send out 10 to 15 emails, and possibly being rejected 10 to 15 times, faculty can elect to to have their profile to be displayed and ready to look for students, or they can toggle that off and not be shown to students. So students are aware of where to go. And it's an easy process.

Venkat Raman  32:01  

You said that some faculty either have the time or are willing to do it or not willing to do it. What fraction of the faculty at this point is engaged in working through your office on undergraduate research as much as mentors and as guides?

Tim R  32:23  [Faculty Participation]

Yes, so the best data I can give on that is based upon the students that come through my office. On average, we annually we have about 300 or more students who come who have come to my office in the various programs or granting opportunities. And so in that, we see, we see a good number of faculty working with the students and doing that. So I will take the sire program, for example, this year, we were able to increase our numbers to fold. So typically, we bring in about 60 to 50 to 60 students this year, we have about 100 students that are SIRE, and out of that 100, about 10 Students could not find a faculty mentor right now. And we're working with them. So 90 of them were able to find faculty mentors, and we have faculty who are working with students on group projects, but some of the science students are working as a as a team as a team effort. So we see it, we see a lot of faculty wanting to engage in undergraduate research. One of the one of the barriers to that is that many some faculty don't know we exist also. So yeah, it's getting the information out to departments and letting them know we're here to support and help you in any way that we can. So I go out and meet with go to departmental meetings, faculty meetings to share what we what we can offer faculty and my office and makes it very, very easy. We administratively support the students in any way we just ask faculty to just mentor. So any administrative side we will take care of.

Venkat Raman  33:55  

Sure. Now, Do you have some sort of annual or, you know, symposium or something? I do? Yeah.

Tim R  34:05  

Yes, we do. So we do. We have our spring symposium, which happens during Undergraduate Research Week. And I know for us this year, it's going to happen on April 21. And so we help hold a symposium but also during that week, we have other departments and programs that also host oppose them. So I know our biology department does this oppose them, our psychology department history department, and they do one. And so my office helps to coordinate those dates. And so they're different supposedly occurring on those days. And we put out an advertisement to the Emory community, to let them know come in and attend at the port these students. So I know for our symposium we on average have about 150 to 200 students who present.

Venkat Raman  34:49  

Okay, so no the reason I was asking is that that would be probably your best forum for advertising and yes,

Venkat Raman  35:02  

Before we wind down here, Tim, I wanted you to share some advice for students in high school that you think are to develop some skills for research, or doing research. So what would that be? What What kind of advice would you give?

Tim R  35:20  [Advice to High Schoolers]

Yeah, my advice has always been for, for all students, whether from high school as a college is to try research, just try it. It opens so many doors, you gain so many skills. And as I mentioned earlier, the three main skills that jobs look for employers look for our communication skills, problem solving skills, and critical thinking skills. You gain all that in research, and you can, those are all transferable to any job you want to do. It's all just they try it. And if you learn that you love conducting research, that's great. Please keep going. If you learn that you hate it. I also think that's great, because you just learned that's not the direction for you. That's not your chosen career path. And so you now are free to explore other options. But you have gained so many great skills by at least try and get for a semester or a year. And you also connect with a faculty mentor, that could be a recommender or a reference for you for your next steps. So you still gained so much. So obviously, just try it.

Venkat Raman  36:20  

I think that's a great advice. Most of the time we don't try and that's part of the problem. Yes. So, so, Tim, this has been really, really illuminating fantastic, great discussion. And I thank you for all the efforts that you're putting into the Emory undergraduate research program and for all the students that you're helping. So I'm sure we'll talk more, but for right now, take care be safe. Thank you so much.

Tim R  36:50  

Yes, thank you. Bye, bye.

--------------------

Venkat  37:00 

Hi again!

Hope you enjoyed our podcast with Dr. Tim Raines of Emory University about their Undergraduate Research.

Specifically, Dr Raines talked about:

  • UG Research infrastructure, resources, grants available to their students and faculty;
  • CUR’s Role;
  • Engaging with students in their Freshman Year;
  • Program & Student Success Stories;
  • Finally, advice to high school students.

I hope you take a hard look at research during your undergraduate years and explore Emory University.

For your questions or comments on this podcast, please email podcast at almamatters.io [podcast@almamatters.io].

Thank you all so much for listening to our podcast today.

Transcripts for this podcast and previous podcasts are on almamatters.io forward slash podcasts [almamatters.io/podcasts].

To stay connected with us, Subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify or visit anchor.fm forward slash almamatters [anchor.fm/almamatters] to check us out.

Till we meet again, take care and be safe.

Thank you!

Summary Keywords

Undergraduate Research, Podcast for High Schoolers, College Majors, US Colleges, College Podcast, High School Students, College-bound UG Research, Emory University, Emory, CUR.


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