Faculty-Student Collaborations Foster Mentoring & Achievement
Whether it is to boost their resumes for employment or curricula vitae for graduate school, students who engage in faculty-student collaborative work through research, scholarship and other creative endeavors are taking their first steps to success.
Beyond career preparative benefits, these experiences offer students key learning opportunities. Students can delve into projects within their major or extend their studies to related and even unrelated fields.
In some cases, projects can include precise laboratory work, where students and faculty probe complex scientific issues through research studies – the findings of which may later be published in scholarly journals and/or be presented at prestigious conferences.
Other projects may involve students and faculty collaborating in the creation of original work, which may be utilized for theatre productions, art shows, Conservatory of Performing Arts programs or similar activities.
Through undergraduate research and creative studies, students can:
- Build competencies at the undergraduate level that sometimes can be likened to those gained at graduate school
- Utilize collaborative and collective approaches to learning that simulate real-world situations where teamwork can be crucial to success
- Clarify personal, professional and career goals
- Increase their level of self-reliance, confidence and skills
- Foster ongoing opportunities for faculty-student mentoring – which can be beneficial when students seek employment or graduate school admittance