The first sentence of the university’s mission statement lays out the institution’s approach to academics: Georgetown is a Catholic and Jesuit student-centered research university.

To meet the latter goal, the Hilltop promotes undergraduate research as a vital component of the curriculum.

One of the main vehicles for accomplishing this goal is the Georgetown Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, or GUROP. Now enrolling about 140 students a semester, GUROP matches faculty mentors with students to carry out research projects.

“GUROP aims to benefit individual students and faculty as well as the university as a whole by strengthening the connections between faculty and students and emphasizing that we all comprise a community of learners and scholars," director Sonia Jacobson told the College’s online science magazine.

“Research assistants develop specific research skills as well as a better understanding of the nature of research and of the wider research community. Faculty mentors advance their own research projects via the assistance of motivated students, and they have the satisfaction of introducing individual students to the excitement and challenges of their life’s work.”

GUROP is open to all undergraduates, and recent research projects have focused on English, government, environmental studies and foreign service.

“Research is not a ‘science thing’ – research is at the heart of learning,” says Charles Evans, chair of the department of human science at the School of Nursing and Health Studies.

“Mentoring is passing along one’s experience, expertise and wisdom to the mentee as they need and can use it in a supportive yet critical role,” Evans adds. “Put simply, it is opening the door time and time again so the student can go forward and continue to progress – guiding them through the experiential process including their mistakes and failures, and most importantly, celebrating their triumphs with them as prologues to the next step.”

About half of GUROP projects are science-related. Research this past summer spanned neurology, chemistry, biology, physics, psychology and more.

Daniel Dooley (C’08), for example, is a chemistry major who works with professor Faye Rubinson. The work they’re engaged in eventually may lead to developments in issues such as global warming because the process provides a way to reduce carbon dioxide.

The official name of their project is “Characterization of the Stability Constants of Transition Metal Ion-Dibenzotetraaza [14] annulene Complexes.” Dooley explains his research to non-science majors this way:
“Basically what I do is use compounds as a thin coating on a solid platinum electrode,” he says. “So using these modified electrodes, it’s then possible to reduce CO, changing it into carbon monoxide and other products.”

He pursued GUROP during the 2006 – 2007 academic year in order to become eligible for the GUROP summer grant he received this past summer.

“I think that undergraduate research opportunities are a very important aspect of the education offered at Georgetown because they have truly offered an extension and reinforcement of what I have learned in the classroom,” Dooley explains. “My experience has allowed me the opportunity to learn about the process of conducting research in a laboratory setting. It has also taught me how to apply the broad concepts that I have learned in my classes to my specific research topic.”

Rubinson says GUROP is a “wonderful aspect of the educational and research environment here at Georgetown on a number of levels.”

“It is a wonderful mechanism for introducing students to the excitement of scientific discovery,” she notes. “I have also found in my discussions with high school students visiting us that they are excited about the fact that Georgetown offers such a program.”

The GUROP summer fellowships are a great resource, she says, especially for junior faculty who often don’t have the funds to support students for summer research.

“Most importantly,” she says, “undergraduate research with students like Dan is one of the things that makes me look forward to coming to work.”

Cat Graves (C’08), who also did a semester and a summer GUROP, has worked with physics professor Jeff Urbach on neuronal cells since the summer after her freshman year. Her research is related to one of Urbach’s main projects – an attempt to understand the forces involved in nerve growth in terms of regeneration. Urbach and Herb Geller of NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute hope to one day find a way to encourage nerves involved in spinal cord injuries to reconnect.

In 2006, Graves was a co-author of a paper that appeared in Biophysical Journal.

“Most well-known research universities concentrate on research done by graduates, not the underclassmen,” Graves notes. “This seems to be a great oversight to me, as the hope is that undergraduates will get a taste for research, learn they like it, and then pursue graduate school. Without the initial exposure to research, it is difficult for an undergraduate senior in the sciences to know whether or not graduate school or a career in research is right for them.”

Graves already has been accepted to several graduate schools and is now considering which to choose among her top choices – the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California at Santa Barbara and Stanford University.

Urbach says Graves works so well independently he allowed her to be solely responsible for a project funded for a full-time graduate student that will serve as her undergraduate research thesis.
Urbach says Graves is “a natural” in the lab.

“She’s not afraid to make mistakes, but is careful and doesn't make the same mistake twice,” the professor notes. “She can learn from texts, online protocols, other researchers or trial and error, all very independently.”
Graves says she doesn’t know if she would have made a decision to pursue a Ph.D. in physics if she didn’t have research opportunities as an undergraduate.

“Professor Urbach has always encouraged me to do my own work, figure out problems on my own, and in doing so, showed a trust that I had not expected to encounter,” Graves explains. “Many early research experiences of undergraduate students are much more guided … in professor Urbach's lab, the entire scope of a project was explained to me – it was left up to me to ask questions and read the necessary literature to start grasping the concepts, and I understood, at least somewhat, the purpose of the experiments I was performing. My opinions on various projects were therefore valued, and I felt like I was a part of the lab instead of simply working for it.”

Elisabeth Karuza (C’09) works with professor of neurology Rhonda Friedman in the Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory and Center for Aphasia Research and Rehabilitation.

“This provided the perfect opportunity for me to investigate language impairments in people who have suffered a stroke or traumatic brain injury,” Karuza says. “Undergraduate research opportunities have been an invaluable part of my education at Georgetown. GUROP enabled me to develop a close relationship with my mentor and become part of an academic community beyond the classroom.”

She also says GUROP is “critical in providing undergraduate students with a competitive edge as they apply for graduate school or medical school.”

Friedman says she first learned of GUROP when she was approached by an undergraduate interested in her work.

“I quickly became a strong supporter of the program because of the extraordinary opportunities it provides our talented students,” she explains.

Katrina Heyrana (C’08) worked with professor Jennifer Swift on crystal growth and its role in pharmaceutical development.

“I’ve always been interested in scientific research, and programs like GUROP help me explore my interests and see what the field has to offer,” she explains. “Research at the undergraduate level has allowed me to refine my career goals and really see what areas of science I am most passionate about.”

Heyrana will attend Penn State’s College of Medicine in the fall to pursue a combined M.D./Ph.D. She hopes one day to work on drug discovery research for infectious diseases.

GUROP’s Jacobson is not surprised that such students find research so interesting that they want to go on to graduate school.

“Students are laying the groundwork for their future,” says Jacobson, who also serves as assistant for academic affairs in the provost’s office. “Students can really push themselves academically, dive into what they’re interested in and develop close relationships with faculty members.”