The purpose of our university is not the acquisition of knowledge, but the search for deeper knowing. Rather than imagine your education as downloading information or facts, reimagine your education as a process of seeking, questioning, probing, arguing, and creating. The primary responsibilities of faculty are to research, teach, and guide students. The primary responsibilities of students are to learn how to learn and to continue this quest for the rest of their lives. Faculty are primarily involved in the search for and creation of new knowledge, but faculty invite students to join with them to learn methods and approaches. After engaging in research with faculty supervision, students may dream up their own questions and create their own projects. In these ways, students chart their own paths toward original questions and deeper knowing. To find out ways that you can participate in undergraduate research, please refer to the following chart.
Students explore research methods through an introductory course to a field of knowledge (for example, ENGL-090, FMST-100, JUPS-202, PSYC-002, or SOCI-201)
Students join with faculty in a research project, serving as research assistants via GUROP.
Students bring back their summer research and develop this material into a thesis, capstone, or independent project in the senior year. Students present their research via on-campus symposia (including the College Academic Council Research Colloquium in the spring) and off-campus conferences (supported by PURPAS grants).
Students use their undergraduate research projects as stepping stones to further research, creative projects, fellowships, jobs, graduate study, public service, etc.
Continue to ask questions and pursue deeper knowing as key activities in lives of purpose.
Senior Advocates for Black Mothers Who Have Lost Children to Gun Violence
May 7th, 2021
Psychology major Denzell Brown’s (C’21) research aims to provide aid to Black mothers who have lost children to gun violence in Washington, DC. The senior will continue to develop this project while he earns his PhD in counseling from Howard University so that he may improve the lives of Black mothers in the district.
Biophysics Major Who Hopes to Help Fight Climate Change Contributes to Interdisciplinary Oceanographic Research
April 30th, 2021
Biological physics major Victoria Boatwright (C’22) has always been fascinated by the ocean. In a recent publication through the Georgetown Scientific Research Journal (GSR), the junior examined how biology and physics interact to affect the ocean, which she hopes will help contribute to climate change research.
Senior Completes Two Theses on Women’s Health, Plans to Work in Medical Equity After Graduation
April 26th, 2021
Biology of Global Health and Spanish double major Grace Keegan (C’21) is an unstoppable force. In addition to completing two theses that focus on women’s health, the senior has been an advocate for health equity on and off Georgetown’s campus. She plans to continue to work in this field after earning her medical degree from University of Chicago.
Goldwater Recipient to Use Scholarship to Continue Cancer Research
April 15th, 2021
Biology major Jordan Kramer (C’22) has been awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, which she will use to continue her work in cancer cell research.
College Alumni and Senior Make Award Winning Documentary in Hopes of Freeing Wrongfully Convicted Man
January 13th, 2021
Johnsenia Brooks (C’20), Cecily Burge (C’21) and Austin Riddick (C’20) recently released their documentary, Walk Tall: A Story of Innocence and Wrongful Conviction, that details the conviction of Edward Martinez, a man serving a 55 year sentence for a crime he did not commit. The trio hopes that this documentary, which won the Beeck Center Award for Social Impact in 2020, will garner public support in the case for Martinez’s freedom and advance much needed criminal justice reform.
