Harry Potter and Homer have both already found their ways into freshman seminars, but now freshmen will have the opportunity to launch their own epic journeys into research through the Student as Scholar Program (SASP). Thanks to a $250,000 grant from the Keck Foundation, a new lineup of research-based seminars will involve a group of incoming freshman in the initial stages of academic research. Classes are available in a variety of disciplines and cover topics from body image to digital communication to Spanish cinema.
The grant will expose students to research immediately upon entering college and hopefully expand undergraduate research. According to Public Relations, SASP will place 190 students a year for the next four years into one of nine or 10 seminars.
“New students have the potential to immediately engage and contribute to their field. I know students can do it,” said biology professor Stephen Davis, who, along with Associate Provost for Research and Strategic Initiatives Lee Kats, drove Pepperdine’s development of the grant proposal and new seminar curricula.
During the semester, each student will conduct a research project dealing with a subcategory of the class topic. Depending on the class’s focus, students will have some liberty to tailor their projects to their own specialty. Freshmen will learn research methodology and proper data analysis through this project.
Then at the end of the semester, students will have the opportunity to earn research funding from the Keck grant by submitting their own research proposals. The students who receive funding can carry on this research throughout their careers at Seaver. Davis estimated that about 30 percent of these students’ project would be funded.
Students’ proposals can be about “whatever drives them, however they’d like to make a difference in the world,” Professor Dorothy Andreas said.
Though other universities have experimented with freshman research, with generally positive results, Pepperdine is pioneering with the scope and availability of the program to students from so many disciplines. “Isn’t it exciting to do something innovative and new and risky? We don’t have a model for this,” Davis said.
One goal of the initiative is to increase awareness about research opportunities in areas other than natural science. Andreas’ seminar will examine the communication regarding nuclear power, and she hopes that her class will show communication students that research opportunities do exist in their field. “As older students see what younger students are doing, maybe they will want to get involved [with research] too.”
Andreas also sees this type of class as preparatory for students to better engage in a broader societal context. “Nuclear power needs to be part of our national discussion. As a society, we’ve got to learn how to talk about one of our energy options better than we do now,” she said. Research-based seminars will teach students to generate knowledge rather than repeating facts they can just get from the Internet, she suggested. “That’s a more authentic way to teach.”
Andreas’ class sessions will be half content-based, teaching the substance of the nuclear energy issue and research methodology, and half will be workshop, where students can discuss and get feedback on their research projects. Junior and senior seminar mentors will be heavily involved in guiding students toward rigorous projects.
An expected benefit of the program is the additional credence that early research will give to students’ fellowship and graduate school applications. “We’ve predicted it will double the number of people going to conferences and doing scholarly research, double the number of applicants for Fulbright and [other] research scholarships,” Davis said.
Because the classes will require extra initiative from students, professors hope the material will be especially relatable. Professor Jennifer Harriger is teaching a seminar on body image and anticipates the research will be interesting to each student because of its relevance for her students’ age group. “This is a time where there’s a lot of risk for unhealthy behaviors. This can be something that’s really more personal,” she said.
The professors teaching the seminars met together with Davis and Associate Dean Constance Fulmer throughout last spring semester to discuss strategies and generate ideas. The seminars are unique for professors in that they will not simply lecture on established ideas. “My job in this class is to teach them what they don’t know,” Harriger said. “The focus needs to be on how to come up with research questions.”
Harriger also recognized the challenge of encouraging new students to do serious research without overwhelming them. “We want them to be excited about research and not feel like, ‘Oh, I can’t do this.’”
