Established in 1987, the U.S. National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF REU) program offers students the opportunity to engage in a hands-on research environment at roughly 700 sites around the country.
Each REU site brings together student cohorts to network and collaborate actively with faculty and other researchers in an array of scientific fields. Guided by a mentor, undergraduates are encouraged to delve into their interests and build their skills through substantive research projects. An REU is also a great way to learn about potential graduate schools. Each student receives a stipend and even help with housing and travel.
Not surprisingly, applying for an REU opportunity is a highly competitive process, as Jessica Carter ’25 knows all too well. The psychology major from Oregon applied for several REUs during her sophomore year, but unfortunately, she says, “I didn’t get any.” Undeterred, Carter prioritized as a junior the kinds of REUs she really wanted to pursue. She then worked with Jeffrey White, director of Career and Life Design at Hollins University, to find them.
“He helped me a lot with identifying the best websites for finding those experiences as well as navigating the application process,” Carter recalls. “I ended up applying to five REU sites and was accepted at the program offered by the University of Missouri (MU). Last spring I connected with the faculty member who would become my program mentor, and I became convinced this was the one I wanted to do.” In late May, she made the trek to Columbia in the Show Me State to join eight other undergraduates for a nine-week summer session.
The NSF REU site at MU focuses on the “Scientific Study of Interpersonal Relationships Across the Lifespan,” which the program states “is important to our broader understanding of the human experience. Increasing insights into how close relationships and human social networks function and impact well-being across the lifespan is important to consider in training the next generation of scholars.”
For Carter, “interpersonal relationships are a niche interest of mine, and my program involved several different angles related to that topic. While my mentor centered on sibling relationships, others were exploring romantic relationships or parental relationships. The program was also very interdisciplinary with sociology and communications researchers as well as those from psychology.”
Carter explains that there were three components to her REU experience. “One part emphasized professional development, where we attended seminars and talked with professors from different departments about preparing for graduate school and careers.”
The second part gave Carter the chance to actively engage in laboratory work with her mentor and graduate students. “I helped with all aspects of the lab process, from coding interview transcripts to facilitating procedural activities with interview subjects.”
With the third piece, “I had my own research project,” Carter says. She investigated the relationship between sibling power dynamics and disclosure and her work culminated in a presentation to the program’s students and faculty at the end of the summer. “I was looking at how relative power between two siblings affected what they told one another. I would say power does have a huge effect. Older siblings, if they have more power in the relationship, are more likely to disclose things to their younger siblings. Younger siblings obviously have less power in the relationship and they’re not going to tell their older siblings as much, particularly if it might get them into trouble with their parents. When siblings coexist more equally in terms of power, that dynamic levels out a bit and there’s more sharing between them.”
Carter states she was able to conclude that her work “aligned pretty well with other research” that had been done on the subject.
The psychology department at Hollins prepared her well for the REU experience and what lies beyond her undergraduate career when she graduates next spring, Carter says. “Our professors are amazing, and I’ve really benefited from their personal approach and one-to-one interactions with all of them. I’ve talked extensively with them about my interests and my goals, and they’ve been extremely helpful with direction and figuring out what I want to be and how to get there. The psychology department here has a great thing going on.”
In turn, spending her summer at an REU site located within a large research institution, Carter adds, gave her considerable perspective on what to expect when she gets to graduate school. “I talked with a lot of grad students who were in the program. It really helped me figure out what’s expected out of a grad student and further concentrate my areas of interest. Moving forward I want to get more into cognitive developmental psychology.”
Carter is currently immersed in her senior honors thesis, in which she is exploring “AI-generated communication models such as ChatGPT. What kinds of people tend to be more likely to use it? How do they interact with it? What kind of personality do they have, and what is the status of their mental health?” she explains.
The REU at MU, Carter says, “definitely cemented that I want to go on to grad school and pursue a Ph.D.” after she graduates from Hollins next spring. She knows the application process, which she is starting this fall, will be very competitive. “But if I can’t get immediately,” she notes, “I’ll definitely work in a laboratory setting for a couple of years.”
