Reflection #4

Yesterday on January 28th, I spent an hour at an Academic event, “So You Think You Can Research?” on the first floor of Smith-Steeb Hall. There, I attended a question and answers based discussion with a panel of undergraduate students seeking to better inform us about research opportunities and their experiences with research on campus. The activity very much opened my eyes to wealth of different research opportunities and the many different routes to take when conducting research or assisting in such. For example, when I heard the word “research,” up until this event I had always only associated the word with scientific studies and experiments. Naively, I never thought that the word could be applied to many different fields like the arts and humanities or economics and international studies; I found the variety and many the many different possibilities to be very interesting and encouraging should I decide to pursue research at all. 

This event, while not obviously related to International Affairs, is tied to the area in its scope because, as I have learned, there can be research done in many different disciplines and International Affairs encompasses a variety of these different fields done. While this event does not relate to any other topics I have learned about in my coursework thus far, I gained a lot from this event academically. Beyond learning the range of possibility when coming to the area in which research can be conducted, I also learned a lot about the different types of research conducted across these different areas. The levels of commitment and the methods of conduction for the different types of research across the different disciplines was interesting, and the variety of options and personalization in deciding the type of desired research was also appealing. 

It was great to hear how much all of the students on the panel loved their research experiences, too. They spoke very highly of their research projects, and they were very passionate about their exploration in their given fields of research. One pice of advice imparted on me that they stressed very highly, though, was that you should only participate in research that you actually care about, and that if you are committing time to a project that you are not happy on and that does not interest you then you should drop it and all parties involved will be completely understanding. Another thing I found to be very cool in the overall idea of research was where these students had started and where they were taking their research. Now, they are writing their own theses and leading their own studies which I found to be very inspiring and impressive. 

After attending this event, I would love to learn more about the different research possibilities within business and possibly those outside of Fisher, as well. I would definitely like to better understand what I could do to take part in research on campus and to see whether or not research is something for me. Overall, I very much enjoyed the panel, and I am glad to have had my eyes opened to such unique and enriching opportunities.