Opportunities/ Summer Undergraduate Research Program
What I Did Last Summer

Early in the summer of 2006, Sonia Fang ’08 traveled to the shores of Laguna Beach, Calif., with three Pomona students and Assistant Professor of Biology Nina Karnovsky to scrutinize the little-understood grunion—a small, silvery fish with the remarkable habit of emerging completely from the water during a few nights each year to spawn on Southern California beaches.

Over the course of the investigation, they dug for egg clutches, hatched eggs and assessed human impact on beaches. Fang collected tiny grunion ear bones for examination to determine the relationship, if any, between the age of the fish and the night it spawns.

“This research project showed me what it is really like to do biological research in both the field and the lab,” says Fang, whose preliminary results indicate that on nights when more fish flopped onto the sand, they tended to be younger. “Although we get a limited amount of such experience through our classes, this experience was much more difficult, intense and rewarding. The research also was validating in the sense that now I know I would enjoy a career in research or fisheries management.”

In mid-July, Karnovsky took students, including Allison Bailey ’07, to the Arctic to study small, barrel-shaped birds called dovekies. Living in the Polish Polar Station in Spitsbergen, the group from Pomona College worked with a nearby bird colony, watching chicks’ growth, measuring the birds’ stress levels and monitoring what they ate. Several days aboard the three-masted research vessel Oceania allowed for discovery of the birds’ foraging waters and related oceanographic conditions.

“It takes at least two people to make these measurements so having a student was extremely important,” Karnovsky says, adding that Bailey was “able to participate in an interdisciplinary, international research project, to be trained in the techniques used in this type of polar marine science, to carry out an independent project and to collect samples for a senior thesis project.”

Fang and Bailey were among a select group of students who took part in the College’s Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP), a competitive program that provides up to $3,750 in financial support for four to 10 weeks of extended, focused research. Students either work directly for a professor as summer research assistants or pursue independent research projects with faculty guidance.

While Pomona affords students other options to engage in undergraduate research, SURP is the largest organized opportunity offering financial support. Because it takes place in the summer, students can devote themselves to their project without school-year distractions.

A particular strength of SURP, says Associate Dean of the College Cecilia Conrad, is that students may undertake explorations in any discipline—liberal arts or sciences—regardless of the student’s area of study.

“A religious studies student doing a biology project is probably something that would not happen at a large university,” says Conrad. “I think it is an important part of the exploration that goes on here at Pomona.”

Not surprisingly, SURP is a popular program, with more students applying every year to participate.

“The program is growing,” says Conrad, who notes that out of 156 proposals from students hoping to do summer research this year, only 70 were funded—up from 49 in 2002. “Our only constraint is in terms of financial resources.”

The money for SURP—$217,000 this summer—comes from the College’s operating budget, several grants and endowments established by donors, including the Craddock-McVicar Award, the Richter Scholars and The Elgin Fund for Summer Student Research created this year by Robert Elgin ’66 and Sarah “Sally” Elgin ’67.

“We believe that a research or internship opportunity is one of the most important parts of undergraduate education, and that a full summer devoted to this is generally the best experience,” says Sally Elgin. “Most colleges and universities have limited resources to support such work, and most students need summer earnings. Frankly, we believe that funding for summer research should be built into the college or university endowment, like any other part of the curriculum, and hence the contribution.”

The inaugural recipient of the Elgin’s generosity is biology major Bobby Mendenhall ’08, who studied whether a particular enzyme helps plants tolerate environmental stress, such as high temperatures, that could otherwise disrupt photosynthesis.

“I took a lot away from this experience,” says Mendenhall. “I’ve learned skills and outlooks that I can carry with me and use in the future, both inside and outside of the lab.”

For their part, the Elgins—both of whom took part in undergraduate research at Pomona—are well aware of the advantages such opportunities afford students. Making everyone else conscious of those benefits is a goal for Sally, a biology professor involved with undergraduate research at Washington University in St. Louis.

Sally initiated the Survey of Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE). Conducted in 2003 by David Lopatto, professor of psychology at Grinnell College, SURE questioned 1,135 summer research participants from 41 colleges. The respondents overwhelmingly reported that summer research was a positive experience in which they learned a lot and would like to repeat. The study found no differences between college and university students and no differences among men, women or minority groups. “I’m very pleased with that,” commented Elgin. “It means that we scientists, collectively, are doing a good job mentoring a
diverse group of students in different settings.” In a follow-up survey of some of the same students, most said the experience made them more active learners, improved their ability to think independently and made them more motivated to learn.

“Students gain both academic skills and general self-confidence, helping them decide whether a lab career is right for them,” says Elgin of undergraduate research. “More important, they gain the insight and motivation to become more self-directed learners, more confident about asking questions.”

Similar results were reported in Pomona College’s survey of the 2005 graduating class, where students who participated in undergraduate research reported greater satisfaction with their major and a higher level of intellectual excitement.

Anecdotal accounts from Pomona students support the survey findings. American history major Cameron Blevins ’08 traveled to Connecticut this summer on a SURP grant funded by the Hart Institute for American History—established by trustee emeritus Gurnee Hart ’51—to examine the importance of land and property in the life of Venture Smith, an 18th-century slave who bought his freedom and became a successful businessman. “I’ve spent one day
a week participating in an archaeological excavation of his former property, which has been fascinating because I know nothing about archaeology, and the other days I’ve been doing research,” says Blevins. “The experience has been invaluable.”

Katie Lenhoff ’07 says the SURP experience helped solidify her plans to attend graduate school. Lenhoff, a Russian and Eastern European studies major, reviewed representations of women and motherhood in Soviet posters of the 1920s and 1930s. “At the end of last semester, I no longer knew if I would ever want to go to graduate school to pursue my Russian studies,” she says. “After doing this SURP, my feelings have changed. This project reminded me of what drew me to Russian studies in the first place.”

Not surprisingly, undergraduate research also benefits professors and, by extension, their classes.Assistant Professor of Chemistry Charles Taylor had three students working in his lab this summer analyzing arsenic levels in playground groundcover. One student, Sam Farina-Henry ’07 was supported by a SURP grant from the Schulz Environmental Studies Award—established by Jean Schulz ’59—while the other two were paid through a Joint Science Department Mellon Environmental Fellowship and Chemistry Department
endowed funds.

“The SURP benefits me by extending my ability to do research, essentially providing me more than my own hands to perform the work and additional minds to think about the results,” says Taylor. “I had not planned on performing this type of research when I came to Pomona, but having this additional support makes it possible. Some of the lessons learned in this work will be extended to my Instrumental Analysis course this fall.”

While undergraduate research is a hallmark of education at liberal arts colleges like Pomona, its advantages are attracting notice from larger universities. “Large schools are seeing the value of undergraduate research and building their own programs,” says Conrad. “We cannot afford to slack off on this. In addition to it being key to our mission, we have some competitive
pressure.”

Investing in Talent

The SURP program is, for many students, a defining feature of the undergraduate experience at Pomona College. The program offers young scholars a hands-on experience that allows them to collaborate with Pomona faculty in developing and carrying out a research project. Additionally, SURP offers many members of the Pomona College community—alumni, parents and friends—the opportunity to invest in our talented students. To learn more about endowing a SURP, please contact the Office of Major Gifts at (909) 607-7441.