Undergraduate Research for the Greater Good

The Paul H. O’Neill School of Public & Environmental Affairs at Indiana University offers two opportunities for undergraduates to conduct their own original research projects and write an undergraduate thesis presenting their results: the O’Neill Honors Program and the Certificate in Applied Research and Inquiry (CARI) program. During the capstone course for both programs, students complete a piece of original research and present it in several forms. They write a senior thesis (a 6,000-12,000 word research manuscript, akin to a scholarly journal article) and they do a 12-minute public presentation (akin to an academic research conference). They also communicate their research findings to a broader audience by writing a research blog post. This site is the home for those posts–and for students’ reflections on what they learned going through the research and writing process.

If you are in one of these programs–or are thinking about entering one of them–take a look at the Research posts for examples of the kind of work you will one day be doing, and check out the Advice posts for sage wisdom from your experienced elders.

If you’re anyone else… enjoy perusing the fascinating research and insightful reflections offered by these students. Feel free to comment (civilly, please). The post authors are eager to hear your thoughts. Some of them may continue pursuing these lines of research as they move on to their next academic or professional endeavors, so useful comments will be… well… useful!