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Paid Summer Program Description

Exposure of undergraduates to basic research, scholarly, and creative activities serves several purposes. First, it provides a strong teaching tool through "hands-on" experience and provides the means to develop critical thinking. In other words, these activities allow students to move beyond the mere repetition of printed information into a new level in which they learn how this information is discovered and disseminated. These ideas have recently been addressed in a report by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching entitled "Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America's Research Universities" and have been echoed by the administration at the University of South Alabama with the creation of UCUR in 1998.

Students receiving Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships will be expected to:

  • Devote about 20 hours a week to their project: The time commitments will vary from discipline to discipline. Time allocation may also vary given the unpredictable nature of most scholarly activities.
  • Write or present the results of their studies in a format considered appropriate for their discipline.  Appropriate formats should be discussed with your mentor, and will also be addressed in workshops.  Your final submitted document will be evaluated for an outstanding project award to be given at the fall symposium.
  • Meet with other students and their mentors on a regular basis: Undergraduates involved in the summer program will meet three times during the Summer semester, in small groups, to present and discuss their projects with participants from other disciplines. This will be done to train students to present ideas in a non-technical format so that even non-experts will be able to understand. These meetings will be organized and supervised by the Program Director and will be facilitated by faculty mentors.
  • Present their results to their peers on Campus: All undergraduates conducting scholarly and creative activity during the summer will present their results in poster or short oral format, as an exhibit or performance during the Undergraduate Symposium to be held in the Fall semester. This symposium on campus is designed to stimulate awareness among students and faculty.
  • Attend an organizational meeting (end spring term), professional development workshops (summer) and complete a responsible conduct of research online training program.