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Students Scholars Day is the one event on campus that- it's a Grand Valley tradition,
where we celebrate student's creative work, their research, as well as other scholarship work that they may do.
There are so many values to undergraduate research, like making yourself
more eligible for careers, graduate school, as well as just exploring your interests in
whatever you want to do. Student Scholarship Day is all about the joys of learning.
You're in an environment where you are surrounded by people who understand the scholarship in
the field, who are willing to give you feedback, and who are very approachable.
You learn skills that you don't learn in the regular classroom.
Undergraduate research shows that you have initiative and drive and that you are creative and innovative.
Students don't often think that research is a big part of creativity, but it really is.
It's just pulling you in the right direction, like the research I did,
I enjoyed it and now I feel like I'm in the right place and doing the right thing.
You learn something new that you don't get from the classroom
and that's independently driven work, and it's completely different from someone saying,
"Do this now and you'll get a grade for it." It's very much you call the shots, you make
the rules, you do the work. It's a very different environment, and I think it's very beneficial.
I think the most exciting thing about doing research with students is helping them get
from a kernel of an idea, that they are really interested in, and then to develop it through
understanding that has already been done, and what they can add to it, and keep working
with them over a long period of time until they end up with something that they are really proud of.
Research is a way for me to express some of the things that I am better at within
the field and and you actually learn that about yourself.
They often come away surprised finding out it's possible to do research in something that is important to them
that they never thought of before class.
I have been in a lot of labs for classes, and I have learned
a lot of techniqes, but it's nothing like being in an actual lab in the real world and
helping kids while knowing everything that I'm doing for neuroblastoma to help treat kids with cancer, it's a cool feeling.
I think it's a great opportunity. Even if you're not really sure what your research is, but know
you'd like to do something, you can talk with a professor in your department and they will
definitely help you.
I think the major thing that I value is the close contact you get with the students and the ability to get to know them.
It's a really great way to get involved on campus and with what you're interested in.
Just the skills that you obtain, they last with you forever.
It was interesting, it really teaches you how to research well,
and that was really one of the things I learned a lot. This was my first project and it felt
really good when I finished it and know I'm going to do it again.
It's ongoing doesn't stop with that doesn't stop with that paper. It's important to keep that research going
and to stay interested and to keep asking those questions.
All of that tough work that students do over the year, but it's in one location, and you can go from a research presentation,
to a biochemistry presentation, to a marketing presentation. It's really a fun day for a lot of folks.