Teaching and Learning Centers Program Spotlight
Program Spotlight: Georgia College’s Mentored Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors Program
Image: Summer scholar Leah Dannenberg explains her summer research project at the 2015 MURACE Symposium. Photo by Steven Jones.
Georgia College’s Mentored Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors program (MURACE) was designed to enrich the lives of students through mentored research opportunities.
A program of Georgia College’s Center for Faculty Development, MURACE offers opportunities for students to engage in and showcase their undergraduate research by hosting an annual student research conference, providing travel support to undergraduate researchers who present their work at external conferences, and promoting the integration of undergraduate research at the curricular level. Following are highlights of the 2016 programming to support MURACE.
Student Research Conferences: Georgia College showcases student research in 2016 with three local and regional conferences. At Georgia College’s 19th Annual Student Research Conference, over 300 students—supported by over 70 faculty mentors—presented original research and creative works. In April 2016, Georgia College hosted the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) Regional Undergraduate Research Conference, with students representing six institutions around the southeast. In November of 2016, Georgia College will host the 5th Annual Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference.
Student Travel Support: Georgia College supported seventy-two students with travel funds to present at twelve separate professional and disciplinary conferences, including fifteen students who presented at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research.
Curriculum Integration: Two academic departments, the School of Nursing and the Department of English and Rhetoric, received planning grants to review and revise their curriculum to integrate undergraduate research as a key experience across the major.
For more information about undergraduate research at Georgia College, visit the MURACE website.
Image: (left to right) 2015 summer scholars Candace Cosnahan, Kelsey Van Boxel, their mentor Dr. Tsu-Ming Chiang, and summer scholar Megan Pind. Photo by Steven Jones.