In a fast-paced world, the four years many students spend at an undergraduate institution can fly by in the blink of an eye. Most arrive on campus doe-eyed with a world of opportunity at their fingertips, yet still find themselves shocked upon graduating to find their resumes still missing critical talking points. A lot of students wait until their junior or senior years to even consider the importance of applied experience, or the impact that it can have on their educational experience as a whole. Coupled with the common stress of holding a job to make some extra income while still in school, many students push all possibility of informal training opportunities aside in an effort to make ends and earn their degrees meet without breaking the bank.

 

And so, Westfield State University’s Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) has been rolled out by Dr. Lamis Jarvinen, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity, in an effort to give early-career students the opportunity to gain funded, mentored research or creative project experiences throughout their undergraduate careers. Through a collaboration between CURCA, Federal Work Study, and faculty or staff mentors, students participate in paid opportunities to explore their field of interest while gaining valuable transferrable skills—and getting paid for it, too.

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Many undergraduate students arrive on campus with the idea that they’ll be washing dishes in the dining commons, or serving desk duty at one of their university’s resource centers on campus. While these jobs may work with their schedules and provide a steady source of income, very seldom is a student paired up with not only a work study job they’re passionate about, but one that helps build their portfolio with incomparable skills for the workforce one day.

 

Included in the CURCA Research Apprenticeship Program are specific avenues for students to be able to expand on their applied experience as undergraduates, in addition to forming lasting relationships with faculty mentors that extend far beyond the traditional classroom setting and bounds of discipline-specific research. Working a general average of 5-6 hours/week up to an awarded $2,000 for the academic year, students participating in CURCA-RAP are given the rare opportunity to channel their academic interests in a way that also helps to alleviate the financial stressors that often accompany a drive for higher education.

 

Regarding the critical need for students to make meaningful contributions to research or creative activity projects, the RAP program allows students to learn about the process of scholarship in their field of interest—all the while alongside a faculty mentor who gains a full member of their research or creative team at no additional cost to their department.

 

In efforts to help facilitate between incoming and current first-generation, low income, economically disadvantaged, commuter, or adult learners who may otherwise not participate in applied experiences at Westfield State University, CURCA-RAP provides a stipend relative of minimum wage to allow students the flexibility of receiving work-study related funds in a way that tailors to their specific interests in their field of study.

 

“The intent behind the CURCA- RAP is to create a centralized location for any faculty or staff to post project jobs and for interested students to view and apply for them,” says Dr. Jarvinen.

 

“RAP is intended to be a win-win experience

where faculty and staff are getting help with

their projects while exposing and training

students to handle large data sets, catalog

information, run through laboratory work, or

transpose music. Whatever it may be,

the intent is for students to engage and

contribute in small but meaningful ways.”

 

Included in the CURCA Research Apprenticeship Program are specific avenues for students to be able to expand on their applied experience as undergraduates, in addition to forming lasting relationships with faculty mentors that extend far beyond the traditional classroom setting and bounds of discipline-specific research. Working a general average of 5-6 hours/week up to an awarded $2,000 for the academic year, students participating in CURCA-RAP are given the rare opportunity to channel their academic interests in a way that also helps to alleviate the financial stressors that often accompany a drive for higher education.

 

However, students are not the only ones who will benefits from a program such as CURCA-RAP. Many professors believe the program is a unique opportunity to participate in as well, in terms of the workload that the federal work study students could help alleviate.  

 

“For faculty who may have routine, non-time sensitive work for students to complete, CURCA-RAP is an ideal program,” says Princy Mennella, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Psychology at Westfield State.

 

Mennella utilized the Research Apprenticeship Program in order to allow one interested student help another student in a larger scale research project that consisted of videos of fruit flies being collected and analyzed. The RAP student collected videos, while the other student analyzed them for a project, and in turn a great deal of routine work was able to be completed for multiple individuals while a work study student gained invaluable experience.

 

“As a concept, RAP is a great opportunity for students to get paid to do research, rather than just earn credits through an independent study,” says Mennella.  

 

According to Providence College, a private institute of higher education in New England also using Federal Work Study (FWS) funding to promote research, the benefits of undergraduate research are incomparable: developing one-on-one mentoring relationships with faculty; engaging in the creation of new knowledge that can be applied to the real work; acquiring deeper understandings of students’ respective academic disciplines; and enhancing academic critical skills and credentials to support students in applications for future scholarships, awards, career employment and entry into graduate and professional schools.

 

Universities across the nation have also assigned value to the benefits of using Federal Work Study funds to facilitate undergraduate faculty-mentored research and creative projects. The University of Central Florida has pioneered their own Florida Work Experience Program—or “FWEP”—while across the country at Utah State University students are offered positions through the institute’s Research Opportunities through Work Study or “ROWS”. Regardless of where a program may take place, they all share one common goal in mind: removing the barriers that underrepresented students may face when having to choose between applied research experiences and supporting themselves or their families.

 

In addition, programs like CURCA-RAP can sometimes even offer students the opportunity to navigate the different elements of their future career path in ways that the traditional classroom setting may not allow them to otherwise.

 

Sabine Dizdarevic, a Psychology major and recent Westfield State graduate of Spring 2023, was offered the unique chance to serve her mandated practicum placement with the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity as an intern with a focus on project planning and web design.

 

“The practicum helped me gain both interpersonal and administrative skills that helped me further expand my knowledge,” said Dizdarevic.

 

“I will be able to apply all of these new skills to help me further my career educationally and through employment.”

 

Following a nontraditional path to Westfield State, Dizdarevic had transferred from Holyoke Community College and was also working two jobs within area hospitals while working to finish her undergraduate degree. But through utilizing platforms she was originally unfamiliar with to help expand the CURCA webpage and given planning tasks with pressing deadlines in preparation for the Spring 2023 CURCA Celebration, she was given hands-on experience in understanding the fundamentals of public relations: an element she never realized was so intertwined with her future career in the medical field.

 

“I was able to get an insight of how to navigate and put pieces together to help students’ research come to life, all while working behind the scenes,” she said.

 

“Dr. Jarvinen is a thorough and caring mentor who is always there when you need her and is passionate in her work of undergraduate research and applied experience.”

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Since joining the University in March of 2018, Dr. Jarvinen has remained passionate and focused on allowing students of all backgrounds to expand on their research and creative activity both in and out of the classroom.  

 

“Our hope is that we initially can support a robust cohort of federal work study students through research and creative projects from day one,” says Dr. Jarvinen.

 

“It’s our intent to expand this program to include any student who is interested in participating regardless of their federal work study status through donors and other funding opportunities.”

 

Students and faculty should be aware that CURCA-RAP is open to any student who qualifies for federal work study. To learn more, students can visit https://www.curca.westfield.ma.edu/copy-of-funding-opportunities-1. For faculty interested in creating a job posting, please visit https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=mAA_3j8DSku5kSt4EoPZDuPA9CRgv8FHl6uCehvcoAtUMEpTMUJaNzYzOEUwQVRMTDhaNjRSRUpSUy4u