“The Big Six”
Want to feel prepared for your post-college life and career? Students are finding undergraduate research a ready source of experiences strongly linked to post-graduation satisfaction.
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It’s logical, of course, that challenging research experiences guided by wise mentors open doors to new ambitions and achievements, but it helps to know that data back up this conclusion. An extensive Gallup-Purdue Index survey in 2015 identified what experts call “the Big Six,” a core set of college experiences strongly linked to graduates feeling well prepared for their lives and careers. Did you have a professor in college who made you feel excited about learning? Then you experienced one of the Big Six. How about a professor who cared for you as a person? Having one is another factor contributing to a sense of feeling better prepared for life after college, as is having a mentor who encouraged you to pursue goals and dreams, and participating in a project that took a semester or more to complete.
Involved faculty members have looked at this list of six and noted a very close match with what students encounter through mentored research, at least five of the Big Six experiences. And testimonials from former student reseachers attest to the dividends they reap as they move beyond Marquette. (See “The Key Holders.”)
When she was a sophomore majoring in writing-intensive English and French literature, Megan Knowles, Arts ’17, didn’t yet know how many of these key experiences were there waiting for her when she enrolled in Ethnography of the University, a course created by Dr. Beth Godbee, assistant professor of English, to engage students in academic scholarship while harnessing their passions for examining relevant campus issues.
Using her research to wrestle with a question that gnawed at her as she observed peers’ reluctance to contribute in class — do students today see higher education as an obligation or an opportunity — Knowles saw her project evolve in fortuitous ways.
After writing a research paper for the course based on observational field notes and student interviews, she received a $3,500 undergraduate research grant from the college to spend the summer diving deeper — surveying students, hosting focus groups and conducting a literature review. Another grant covered her travel to a national conference in Houston, one of two where she presented an academic poster summarizing her findings.
“When I entered Marquette, I never expected research to play such a big
part in how I’d develop skills during my undergraduate years and in my path toward a career in writing and editing,” says Knowles. Less than a year after receiving her bachelor’s degree, she is building a career as a writer- reporter for a major health care publisher in Chicago’s Loop, where she regularly finds herself grateful for Godbee’s course and mentoring.
“At work, I’m constantly refining my writing process, thinking of ways to ask better questions and working to better communicate with my sources and co-workers — all skills Beth helped me develop,” she remarks. “Even though I’m new to the team, I don’t feel nervous about speaking to high-up professionals in a public setting — another skill I can thank Beth’s course for.”
For Godbee, such outcomes are gratifying, validating a course design that challenges traditional models of college instruction based on “conceptions of teachers as experts, students as sponges, and schools as places of sitting quietly in one’s seat. Instead, students are acting as agents over their own learning, fired up by curiosity and commitments.”
With 35 percent of Arts and Sciences graduates reporting having engaged in faculty-mentored research as undergraduates, far above the university average of 19 percent, the college is already a good place to benefit from these opportunities. But there’s always room for improvement. To reduce the chance that high-achieving students fail to get research on their radar screens until late in their undergraduate careers, the new MU4Gold Scholars program matches high- achieving freshmen with faculty mentors and research projects. Supported by a grant from the Marquette Strategic Innovation Fund, it helps a freshman cohort get on track to apply for prestigious scholarships such as Rhodes or Fulbright fellowships, or aim for attractive graduate programs. After all, the benefits of undergraduate research are too important to leave finding them to chance. “We hear it again and again from graduates who are doing impressive things in their careers,” says Stuart. “The faculty-mentored research they did as undergraduates stands out as something pivotal in their Marquette experience and their personal development that prepared them to forge a meaningful path through life and their careers.”
THE BIG SIX
Take it from college graduates: Undergraduate experiences make
a huge difference in determining how prepared one feels for post- college life. Here are six key ones closely linked with feeling a sense of well-being and engagement after graduation:
- Had one or more professors who made you feel excited about learning
- Had professors care about you as a person
- Had a mentor who encouraged you to pursue your goals and dreams
- Worked on a project that took a semester or more to complete
- Had an internship or job where you applied what you learned in class
- Were very active in extracurricular activities
Source: Gallup-Purdue survey of 30,000 college graduates (2015)
— By Jennifer Anderson and Steve Filmanowicz
This section is the concluding chapter of “The Discoverers,” a multi-part story on undergraduate research opportunities in Marquette’s Klingler College of Arts and Sciences.
