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UROP was so helpful, and I truly couldn't have had this experience without their financial help. My research position was unpaid, so having funding from UROP gave me the opportunity to be able to carry out the project in another country—and enjoy my experience while there!
Sophie Castillo

I am so excited to have had this opportunity and really appreciate the doors it has opened for me. It’s not just about the research but also about networking with great minds in a field you are interested in—while bridging the gap between coursework and real-world applications.
Cassidy Bliss

I would recommend UROP to other students interested in doing undergraduate research. I found it a superb opportunity to work with my mentor and the rest of the lab to design and carry out a project with the flexibility necessary to allow for effective and interesting science. A fundamental part of research is failure, brainstorming, and troubleshooting—all of which the UROP grant allowed me to grapple with as my project took unexpected twists and turns.
Keala Gapin

I would absolutely recommend the UROP to others! I am extremely thankful to have had this opportunity, so I could participate in the research process, conduct my own experiments and gain a deep appreciation for the scientific method. My entire experience was very valuable, as now I have grown confidence in conducting my own research, reviewing relevant research literature, critically evaluating research methods and results and synthesizing evidence to formulate results.Ìý
Ashley Darrah

I was impressed with how streamlined the whole process was.Ìý There were no major hurdles to apply, which was a huge help during the school year.Ìý I will definitely recommend it to my friends!
Ben Peterson

I have had a really wonderful experience with UROP, and am so grateful for the funding that it has provided me to work this summer. It has empowered me in so many ways and helped me develop skills important in my field.
Jordan Lee

UROP was a great place to start in my pursuit of conducting research. It gave me the means as well as the freedom to explore a topic I am passionate about and has allowed me to gain my first bit of research experience for the future.
Cat Simmon

This experience has been positively transformative for me! I genuinely don't think I've ever felt so excited about my academic path. My mentor and his graduate students created an amazing experience for me. This summer reinforced that research is something I want to do for the rest of my life. I've grown as a scientist and a collaborator—and learned to think outside the box.

Jacob Ziegler

My mentor always makes me feel valued and included. She encourages me to learn and does not make me feel bad when I struggle. She is an amazing role model both in the lab and in her personal life. I also love the fieldwork component of my research. It helps me see how the work applies and why it matters, which is important to me in a job.

Kiersten Maxwell

My mentor was extremely helpful with engaging me throughout the semester and made sure that I was able to learn. His approach is more hands-off, which lets me learn as I did more things, but if there were more complex issues, he would offer advice.

Gianni Bonnici

Working with my mentor was amazing! He was the first mentor I have ever had, and it was a great experience. He never left my side when I needed help and allowed me to learn many things.

Lucas Guerrero

This experience helped me figure out where I want to go professionally.

AJ Thomas

My mentor’s passion for group unity provided a safe space to grow as an academic in a diverse community. Every part of the project from real experience in astrophysics research to graduate school advice and getting familiar with the daily life of a professor has been beyond valuable.

Olivia Blevins

The most valuable part of working with my mentor was feeling respected and valued on this team. I really appreciate how he is welcoming of all, and how he sees mistakes as a way to learn—not a reason to yell at someone.

Sarina Borden

My mentor is very kind and approachable. I always feel I can come to her with questions.

Sam Lippincott

Working with the iGEM team has been an amazing experience! I appreciated the opportunity to learn from others and work in a great environment!!

Zani Liddell

My mentor was always enthusiastic to help everyone develop their ideas and worked with them to ensure that they could effectively express their knowledge and abilities within the group.

Jordan Kassanoff

The most valuable part of my experience was the hands-on experience working with proteins because I now have a clearer understanding of what future research could look like.
Alfredo Vargas

I like being surrounded by students who were willing to support me in the lab. Many of the graduate students would put down their work to help me with mine.
Kimberly Fung

This was such an incredible opportunity to participate in an honors thesis and receive funding. As a self-supporting student, I typically work 2-3 jobs. Had it not been for the financial support, I'm not sure I would have been able to devote the time. Because of this project, I decided to pursue graduate school and was accepted into the Speech-Language Pathology program at ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ!
Abigail Matthews

The identification of parasites was initially challenging, but my mentor always encouraged me. It was this encouragement that motivated me, and my passion for parasitology grew stronger in the marine ecology field. This is a testament to how a good supervisor and work environment can positively impact those that are in uncharted territory.
Evelyn Esparza

My experience taught me that adaptability and resilience are crucial qualities to possess, not just in research projects but also in life. Being able to adjust to new circumstances and setbacks, while maintaining a positive outlook is essential to achieving success.
Ethan Meyer

The lab fostered an environment where I could work independently while still being confident in the development of new skills. When collaborating with other students and discussing my research with them, I felt like questions were always welcome, no matter how simple they seemed. Overall, this experience confirmed my interest in science and my interest in pursuing lab work as a career.
Sophia Bourdrel

The most valuable part of this experience was the connections that I made with others in the field—and the friendships that will go beyond work. I got to work with some incredible people from many different backgrounds and I learned a lot about life, work, and everything else.
Eitan Kochavi

Having to work on a project for ten months without many hard deadlines. I learned how to manage a project of this scale and prioritize my work.
Ben Woods

The most valuable part of this experience was being able to share my work with others in the field, which, in turn, has led to many other great opportunities.
Morgan Knuesel

I really enjoyed the opportunity to do a project that brought into play my interdisciplinary interests. It made me confident that I can produce high quality academic work.
Caleb Schmitz

This project allowed me to really understand how passionate I am about research and parasites—and encouraged me to begin thinking about getting my doctorate. I learned many valuable skills from doing this project, including presentation/public speaking skills, scientific writing, and more.
Jasmine Groves

I am extremely grateful to be able to participate in this program and look forward to helping with my mentor’s project in the summer with the further help of UROP.
Nicholas Golden

I am very grateful for the opportunities UROP has provided. I learned that I love the discovery process and sharing my results: doing the thesis program and being able to focus solely on it because of UROP has helped me clarify what I want out of my career in the future.
Allison Fultz

Receiving the UROP grant really excited me and pushed me to continue my research.Ìý I learned so much from the research process that I never had the opportunity to do before and I feel like I gained so much knowledge.
Tessa Ruth

I gained much more experience performing qualitative research working on this outside project than I could have hoped for within the regular undergraduate curriculum. The skills I developed have made me into not only a better researcher and student, but has also given me a better grasp of the variety of academic work in the world.
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My mentor is always there when I need advice, and helped me with many different aspects of this project, including getting in touch with many professionals in our industry.
Lou Abecassis

The most valuable part of this experience was learning the administrative part of research. Before this project, I had not realized that a research project requires a lot of professional conversations. With this project, I was able to learn how to navigate those interactions.
Bhawana Paudel

The most valuable part of the experience was working closely with the data to understand what kind of impact COVID-19 had on the mental health of individuals my age. This was valuable because I believe that destigmatizing mental health is important since it's so rampant during the transitionary period from high-school to college.
Nina Le

Working with my mentor has been one of the best aspects of attending ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ Boulder. She has helped me understand the research process and given me multiple opportunities to hone skills that will be valuable in my future career.Ìý
Rachael Hargrove

This project gave me the ability to surround myself with many role models—including my mentor. It was extremely valuable to have so many individuals as resources so that I could ask questions and grow my skillsets. My mentor is always excited about her work and to involve her team members. She makes herself available as a resource to everyone at all times and is extremely understanding. She values hard work, dedication, as well as the mental health of her lab members—and always makes everyone feel comfortable.
Juliana Czar

At first, I didn't think I was cut out for research, but my mentor invited me to join her group and I figured it was an opportunity I couldn't refuse. As I learned about the graduate students' projects throughout the semester and took other research courses, I began to understand and appreciate data collection and analysis—and especially talking about my results with peers. My mentor was critical in guiding my research interests this year. It's an honor and a privilege to work under such a kind, strong, driven, and responsible female scientist. Overall, I found the experience of being given the time and space to explore my interests and follow in my mentor's footsteps an extremely valuable experience.
Mia Williams

I learned that I can always learn more. Even if I'm fluent in a specific topic, there’s always more to learn and other experts to take experiences from.
Laycea Atao

Working with the specific group of students was a very different experience than anything I've ever been involved in. It introduced me to new parts of teaching that I never had dealt with before, such as trying to figure out how to manage a classroom of students that didn't always pay attention, and working with students from all sorts of different backgrounds. I have taken away so much knowledge from this experience and feel more confident as a teacher after spending time working with these students.
Elise Ehlert

My mentor achieved a perfect balance between working with her research assistants while also providing them with opportunities to work with librarians and complete research tasks on their own. This balance between guidance and independence really helped me learn a lot and become more comfortable with the research process.
Shelby Glenn

This project has been crucial to my development, and I would not feel prepared to teach without it.
Ashley Civelli

As a first-year student, it provided very early experiences teaching multiple students in a classroom setting.
Liam Kiernan

I learned an incredible amount of technique in developing and improving on cloning and recombinant DNA technologies. I feel that working with my team helped me develop critical thinking in designing experiments and understanding how synthetic biology techniques work beyond simply following a procedure.
Jordan Kassanoff

Before I started work in my mentor's lab, I was coming out of two years of COVID, and my labs had digressed into on-line point-and-click projects that made me a bit disillusioned with my major. This project gave me the motivation and purpose I needed to find my joy in science again.
David Birkhaeuser

For me, the most valuable part of working with my mentor this year has been the leadership experience that he has bestowed upon me through my position as Chief RA of the project. Being Chief RA has not only helped me develop my leadership and management skills, but also boosted my confidence in both the work that I do and the type of person that I am.Ìý Working on the project has also helped confirm my fascination with human language and my desire to improve the efficacy of its use in psychological contexts.
Olivia Walt