Research program geared to future grad students

As graduate programs across the country become more and more selective, VCU seeks to give prospective graduate students a more competitive edge through a special undergraduate research program.

Timothy Hulsey, director of the VCU Honors Program, said the undergraduate research program should make more honors students viable applicants for graduate school.

Once available, he said, he hopes the program will draw students from many academic and diverse disciplines.

“Research is broadly defined,” he said. “A lot of times people think, ‘Oh, research is just for the sciences,’ but it’s not.”

To fund the initiative, Hulsey said, VCU allocated $101,000 last July and will continue on a yearly basis.

Jacqueline Smith-Mason, assistant director of the honors program, will oversee the research program.

“Many of the graduate programs are looking for students who have done some presentations at conferences and actually worked on some research project,” she said.

To help students meet these criteria, Smith-Mason said the undergraduate research program will contain several components.

First, a six-week program scheduled for summer 2005 will pair 20 juniors and rising seniors with faculty mentors to conduct community-based research. Those 20 students then will present their research results at a symposium in fall 2005 or spring 2006.

“We just want them to get used to making oral presentations,” Smith-Mason said.

Hulsey said the concept of such a research program is not new. Nevertheless, VCU’s program will be an original because of its research.

“Our program is going to be unique in the country in that we are focusing on community-based research,” he said. “VCU has a very unique relationship with the Richmond community and we really see ourselves as partners who work hard to give back to the community.”

Incoming first-year honor students also will participate in an honors research seminar next fall.

“It’s still in the planning stage,” Smith-Mason said. “But we definitely know it’s going to happen at this point.”