This summer, approximately 20 undergraduate students will receive up to $3,000 to conduct research in a field of their choice with guidance from Binghamton University faculty members.

The Summer Scholars and Artists Program is an eight-week program available to all undergraduate students at BU who want to pursue research. Beginning in 2012 with only two scholars, the program came about as a result of a University-conducted survey of undergraduates, faculty and alumni, which found that undergraduate research was perceived to be the No. 1 most valuable component of higher education for the coming decade.

Janice McDonald, director of the Undergraduate Research Center and the Office of External Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards, explained why the program is an excellent opportunity for students in all majors.

“We want students to pursue these types of opportunities because they are so important,” McDonald said. “They help reinforce what you’ve learned in the classroom. They help you decide if this is what you want to do for a career. Until you try something, you don’t really know.”

McDonald stressed the importance of undergraduates getting involved with research, regardless of their major. She said research should not be reduced to only science, technology, engineering and mathematics concentrations, since it limits students’ abilities to fully explore their passions.

“When we say research, we mean scholarly investigation in any field,” McDonald said. “For an artist, it is practicing their art. For someone in the humanities, it can be writing poetry or critiquing literature.”p

In order to be eligible for the program, students must be returning to BU for a full year after summer session. Most commonly, sophomores and juniors apply for the program, but freshmen are also considered. To be accepted, undergraduates must select a faculty mentor to work with whose job is to oversee the student for the duration of their research project.

McDonald said that she thinks the application process is beneficial for students because it forces them to narrate their research interests on paper, show the steps they want to take to achieve a research goal and consider future careers.

Last summer, program participants had a diverse set of majors including English, physics and music. Alexandria Tricoche, a senior majoring in biology, participated in the program last year. She tested the infectivity of a Lyme disease pathogen in mouse organ tissues for her research.

“I am hoping to build a career in infectious diseases post-grad, so being on this project was on track with the kind of research I want to conduct in the future,” Tricoche said. “Being able to have my own project with funding through the Summer Scholars and Artists Program was really valuable because it allowed me a lot of freedom to learn more about my research, as well as be independent and confident in my skills in the lab, and as a researcher in general.”

In his 2016 program project, Carle Wirshba, a senior double-majoring in music and integrative neuroscience, explored how music affects people’s understandings of emotional reality from a compositional perspective. He examined musical pieces and orchestration techniques from the 20th and 21st centuries and focused on five core emotions that could have been extracted from the compositions: joy, sadness, anger, fear and disgust.

“I truly believe the Summer Scholars and Artists Program is one of the best programs we have at Binghamton University,” Wirshba said. “It provides students with such a remarkable opportunity to learn, grow and explore their scientific and creative interests regardless of their career path or major. It allowed me to combine both my fields of study in a way that would not have otherwise been supported at the undergraduate level, and for that I am forever thankful.”