Undergrads learn resilience by conducting research

By Cristóbal McKinney | UI Office of Strategic Communication | 11/15/2018

The University of Iowa’s strategic plan calls on the university to perform high-impact research and to provide a transformative academic experience that educates all UI students to be engaged citizens. Hundreds of faculty and staff at Iowa are quietly and busily teaching students to be inquisitive and to strive for discovery.

For decades, Robert Kirby has met with prospective students, coordinated with and trained faculty on mentoring undergraduate researchers, and collaborated with campus partners to expand access to and participation in campus research for undergraduate students.

“Research is just one of those tremendously important parts of what students are able to do at a place like Iowa,” says Kirby, adjunct associate professor of psychology and the director of the Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates (ICRU). “People like to say that students involved in research have higher grade point averages and are more likely to graduate in four years, but what I like to highlight is that students involved in research are more likely to get to know a faculty member on campus. They’re more likely to raise questions in class. They’re more deeply engaged in their education and that’s going to benefit them in so many different ways.”

Third-year undergraduate Isabella Penniston, a nursing major from Bellevue, Iowa, is on track to graduate in spring 2020 and already has three HIPs under her belt. She works as a nursing assistant at the UI Hospitals & Clinics, participated in the India Winterim study abroad program in 2017, and is currently conducting and assisting research into the effects of tele-communication interventions on the mental health of rural Iowans battling cancer.

Penniston works under the mentorship of Stephanie Gilbertson-White, assistant professor in the College of Nursing, who studies internet mediated interventions that are designed to help cancer patients manage their symptoms.

Click here to read the full article by UI’s Office of Strategic Communication

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