REU's & Internships

"Summer Research Program Students Search For Birds" Aleta Wiley, 2010, Harvard Forest.

REU's & Internships

The photo above of undergraduate students perhaps no better exemplifies the central thesis of this blog post. REU's, internships, and other opportunities for undergraduates can have an important role for students of any background or discipline in shaping not only their careers, but their skillsets and perspectives.

Historically, and within many of the sources you will find at the bottom of this page, these opportunities have primarily been for students in STEM fields. This makes perfect sense. Beyond the obvious, drab, possibly intimidating element of grants and economic "desirability" of those fields, typically it's more straight-forward how a hands-on experience would benefit both the STEM student, but also how it'd reciprocally benefit the department, with lab hands and assisting the process of lit. review.

As well, these opportunities are less likely to include humans, who present unique challenges to research, in which having a student worker may actually be compromising. However, even with a less hands-on approach, (which already describes the aforementioned lit. review quite well) a student may be able to synthesize some rudimentary skills from compiling transcript data of interviews or the bibliography. This interview example from a Sociology Student detailing their experience, and the bibliography from a friend of mine in a research program.

A loft, but inspiring anecdote lies in the interim of research tedium and revelation. In the photo above, it is not clear what backgrounds the people searching for birds come from. They could be ornithologists, biodiversity ecologists, or any number of related researchers. This doesn't even cover their possible career paths, only their academic interests.

I'd like to posit a pipe dream that one of them is the next Henry David Thoreau, gaining experience watching birds while constructing their Walden. Unlikely, but especially at a liberal arts college like Coe, not as unlikely as you may think. I'm sure there are poets at Coe with STEM majors. This is somewhat facetious, but it is true that interdisciplinary studies are more conducive to real world application, and that fulfilment doesn't always come from work, but some could, or at least be inspired by experiences or ideas had at work.

Research opportunities may find you a more well-rounded person at their end. You're also likely to make friends, possibly with fellow students who are equally interested in research, or faculty who will help you land future careers and make more connections. Curating faculty relationships is often cited by REU websites themselves as their greatest boon.

REU's can help you decide if you want to go to graduate school

Or pursue a career in your chosen opportunity, or help ease the stress associated with applications as you build the confidence, resume, and connections to have a pretty reliable chance of acceptance. Most things are better when you try a little before taking a whole lot. Recall your most recent semi-nasty, possibly wholly nasty, slice of pie. I hope you started with just a little.

The aforementioned faculty relationships can give you a more nuanced perspective of what grad school and further careers in research are like, beyond just learning the skills specific to research. You can learn livelihood and other more practical skills. You could see the grant writing process firsthand, and how much time you actually get to dedicate to research.

In addition to this, I wanted to spend some more time talking about the sorts of things you'll read if you look up "REU's and Internships" on Google. What I learned in doing this is that there is no better way to engage with something than to actually do it. Most of what I'd consider new information came from directly reading about and getting involved in local initiatives, not theoretical overview. It was something experiential and specific to that moment; like seeing a new word and picking up its meaning through context clues.

In the words of Nike, "Just do it."

Reflections on my own experience: (somewhat) of a time capsule of the Global Pathways Program's start from the point of view of one anthropology student

I always find case study to be more informative. Perhaps this reflects on my strong inclination towards research; perhaps it doesn't, since in this case the 'study' is just an introspection on my recent attempt to apply to one of these opportunities.

What I applied to was called the Global Pathways Program, which is a very holistic, 5-pillared opportunity over the summer to work with multiple organizations on producing deliverables, for them and their Kosovan collaborators. It would have been invaluable to a career in anthropology, as "weighing obligations due collaborators" is principle four of the AAA statement on Ethics. It would have given me experience I can only get from real-world examples.

Experience with this would have been invaluable to me individually in terms of growth and fulfilment, and ten times more so for those involved as Kosovo legitimizes itself through foreign recognition, which is why I understand why I wasn't selected, possibly due to my lack of experience in an initiative that's quite integral to politics frankly larger than I am. So at this point, I'm feeling quite somber. How do I dip a foot in? Well, possibly through more localized efforts. There's opportunities all around me! While community service has a smaller scope, the foundational skills of building relationships and producing deliverables are still attained; however, the skills of handling institutional, globalized, and cultural forces which are useful in a future career are not.

This summer, I'm also applying to places like the Catherine McCauley Center who work on educational and supportive pillars for vulnerable populations. I also, in my excitement for this program, did lots of research on Kosovo, a country I otherwise wouldn't have known much about. I did a project on it for an International Studies class.

I learned some interesting facts about the Albanian language from my professor, (Kosovars speak the Gheg dialect, but the Tosk dialect is often what's taught.) which introduced me to learning more languages, (which was Romanian on Duolingo right before their AI debacle, so now I've moved onto Turkish on Rosetta Stone, the closest Indo-European language available there.)

I still made connections to the faculty leading the program by attending all of the seminars on it. That is valuable in of itself to show enthusiasm. There are other opportunities locally as well, and this isn't the end. I'll apply again next year.

Furthermore, as the program worked with organizations of whom I have a list, it's not necessarily even the end of working with those particular entities. I can still reach out to them all individually for work.

I chose to write my blog post so late into the academic year by the logic of the program, actually. I wanted to hear back from them before I wrote it, so I could write this section. Originally, I envisioned a walkthrough of the process of my application, but this is not where life took me.

This echoed in a conversation I recently had with a professor at Kirkwood. He told me his experience, how life had brought him where he was by happenstance. To me, this doesn't mean laissez-faire nihilism or Taoist Wu wei as it once meant to me. It means opportunities are everywhere.

At the risk of sounding antithetical to the original purpose of pursuing REU's, I believe my biggest opportunity for experiential learning this summer is within my own community, which I did not imagine when starting this post. I never thought of what I had already been doing as an opportunity, but nonetheless it shaped me, and I shaped those I worked with.

Conclusion

I hope if anything sticks from this entire blog post, it is that putting yourself out there (even by

writing a blog post) is a form of actively shaping yourself, whether it's the mold you thought you were following or not. As well, the importance of trying and of being passionate. I promise you it is fun!

I've appended lots of links, shared with me by Dr. Jane Nesmith and Dr. Erin Todey, who have been instrumental in my own engagement with internships and REU's.

The Writing Center is happy to help everyone with application and personal letters of any kind, even if you don't intend to apply right now it's a great way to explore your motivations and self, and having it written may make it easier for you to apply when it's time. I hope my experience resonated with you, and that you find the right experience for you.