Recently, the Skutt Student Center Ballroom hosted the All-University Research Fair. The fair showed off the various ongoing and completed research projects from nearly every single department on campus.
Research provides students of all backgrounds and majors the opportunity to expand their knowledge in unique ways and gives students an advantage for graduate and professional schools. The fair served to get students interested in research and also give tips to get involved.
“The easiest way to get involved with research is to go online and start looking for professors that you would be interested in doing research with,” Arts & Sciences senior Alex Stock said. “You want to base your search on projects you want to do after graduation. Once you have found what you are interested in, email your professors, start a conversation about what you are interested in and try to set up a time to actually interview with them and discuss options.”
With most applicants to graduate school having done research, it has become vital to most undergraduate studies. Research can also help students discover which areas they could study once they enter graduate or professional programs.
“Research has helped me to really open doors as far as what I want to do once I go to graduate school,” Stock said. “I’m currently looking at MD-PhD programs so that really gave me the push to really go for the PhD side and continue to produce research. Undergraduate research is really the push to see what you can do at the graduate level.”
Research is a strong part of an education at Creighton and the fair helped to make this clear. With everything from exercise science to English represented, nearly every student has the opportunity to get involved.
“Research was one of the primary reasons why I chose to attend Creighton,” Arts & Sciences freshman Evan Dalton said. “Attending the research fair affirmed my impression that it is very easy to get involved. In the near future I hope to get involved with research in microbiology. Their research interests me because the microbiome affects our daily lives more than we may realize. It was interesting to see that fields such as art, music and history had research projects as well. Naturally, upper classmen are favored for research, but there are so many projects that even freshmen can get involved.”