Counselor Edition: How They Started Research

5 Vignettes to Inspire High Schoolers about UG Research

Apr 17, 2025

We can all agree that College is a transformative experience.

Doing Undergraduate Research changes, forever, the career trajectory of the young researcher.

And yet, a significant number of college graduates do not experience any form of UG Research!

In fact, in 2019, national data showed that 5% of first-year students participated in research with a faculty member, while 22% of graduating seniors reported having participated (NSSE, 2019).

For the benefit of High Schoolers, here are 5 stories below about how students got started with their UG Research.

1.Gavin Fry had a passion that started young

Gavin Fry is a Goldwater Scholar studying Earth Sciences with Physics and minoring in Public Policy at Dartmouth College.

Gavin Fry: It was the summer before I went to Dartmouth, I did a little bit of self research on the on the faculty research profiles at Dartmouth, specifically in the earth science department. I knew, broadly speaking, that I wanted to go into research centered around weather, around meteorology, always been fascinated by it, since I was a little kid.

So I wanted to see who I might pair up with at Dartmouth, to do this kind of research.

I came across my now research advisor, and his profile that talked about him doing climate research and weather research. And I reached out to him introducing myself and saying, I'm really interested in the research that you do, I'd love to be part of it.

And as soon as I was eligible to do any kind of research at Dartmouth, I worked with this professor, toward the end of my first term on campus.

That's when I wrote I wrote my first ever research proposal to something called the Irving Institute for Energy and society at Dartmouth, which is generally focused on anything energy and climate related.

2.For Megan Mitchem it was very personal

Megan Mitchem is a Goldwater Scholar who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Megan is currently pursuing a PhD in Biological Sciences at UNCC.

Megan: The summer before I transferred to UNC Charlotte, we had found out that my dad was in liver failure. Well, there was a professor here who studied livers and I was like, I want to be in that guy's lab.

So I kept emailing him. And I had talked to one of my advisors, I was like, I haven't heard back, I want to be in his lab.

And so he reached out for me.

When I went to interview, the professor said, you know, I'm in phased retirement, right?

And I was like, Okay, I need to learn everything I can from you in the next two years.

And so, he accepted me in his lab, I got to learn a lot in his lab. As you know, for two years, I got to spend time in his lab. It was just amazing. I went from doing self guided research to I was in an actual research lab and that that was a weird experience.

3.For Kayla & David Suisse, it happened while on a Hike

Kayla and Davis Suisse pursued undergraduate research at Utah State University. Kayla majored in Biology and David in PreMedical Studies and Global Communication.

Kayla: This one started, I think, the first summer that we were doing research in this lab with Dr. Kaundal. So almost three years ago, one of our graduate students needed more plant specimens for her for her project. So you're going on a hike through the canyon, that's just right off campus.

And you've got about halfway up and our professor who is who's from India, kind of stopped and said like, hey, is this sagebrush?

And we're like, yeah, like sagebrush is. I mean, I don't know about any Ralston country, but in Idaho and Utah, like it's just sagebrush everywhere, like it's a sea of sagebrush.

So we're like, yeah, that seems correct. It has absolutely nothing special.

And she said that she had heard about sage brushes cousin, which is an urban China that has been used before, they were doing research on if you can treat cancer or not. So she got so excited at the sight of sagebrush, and I was just so confused, because I just grew up knowing that sagebrush was nothing special.

So she said, I really want to see like there are Native American practices, and some medicinal practices where they use us for treatment on a lot of different ailments. And I want to see if there's anything legit in that.

She kind of started me on it. And then I pulled David in on it. And we've been going with that question ever since. And we've just been working so hard for so many years to work out all this research, it's been really cool.

4.With Anna Quider, her Prof wanted somebody to distract her

Anna Quider, a Goldwater Scholar, graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics & Astronomy, and Religious Studies & The History and Philosophy of Science, from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Quider holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Cambridge.

Anna: I was interested in astronomy coming out of high school, I knew I really wanted to study this. Now, I didn't quite understand the purpose of office hours that it was supposed to focus on, like, specifically answering questions about the content of the course.

So I took introductory astronomy for majors fall freshman year, so I would go to office hours, every single office hours that was offered. And like, a lot of times nobody else shows up. So I just viewed that as like my hour to ask this astronomy professor, every question I'd ever had.

And so my understanding of the story goes, that after a month or six weeks of this, this astronomy professor started going around the department saying, look, I've got this girl, this lady is really keen on astronomy, “Will somebody please give her a project so she's occupied, and doesn't just keep spending all of her time in my astronomy office hours asking me a million questions?”

And so that's how I came to meet the Professors in the Quasar research group.

So November of my freshman year, I went and had an interview with them, and we hit it off, they, you know, they studied, they studied spectra, so like light that's gone through a fancy type of prism from galaxies that are really far away.

5.Kayla Smith and Academic Advisor

Kayla Smith is a Goldwater Scholar who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering at the Central State University in Ohio. Kayla is currently pursuing her doctoral studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

It was Kayla’s sophomore year, spring semester at CSU.

Her academic advisor reached out to her and said, “Hey, you're doing really well. Do you know Caltech?”

Kayla said she didn’t, but did a quick Google search, and continued, “Yes, I do know CalTech. Why do you ask?”

The advisor told her that a professor at CalTech was looking for a student in the Environmental area to do research, and that he had recommended her.

To which Kayla exclaimed, “Wow!”

Kayla hadn’t really thought much about research, much less what kind of research she wanted to do.

But she was surprised that her advisor had reached out to her, because she didn’t really know him all that well. Actually she hadn’t met him much due to COVID.

Anyway, Kayla quickly got on a Zoom meeting with the CalTech advisor and the group she was assigned to do research with.

The research project involved using a coding model, a computational model to analyze atmospheric chemistry on Mars.

Kayla had no idea how to code.
She didn’t know what a photochemical model was.
And, she had doubts whether she would be able to assist the group in their research.

But graduate students, professors, and her academic advisors helped her get started.

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