Honors Colloquium Reflection

Research represents my favorite topic discussed during the honors colloquium, and because of this I chose it to be the topic of my capstone project. Prior to becoming an FSU student, I had absolutely no experience with research. I possessed only a nebulous idea of what constituted research and the ability of undergraduate students to involve themselves in it. On my first day of class of last semester (my first day as an FSU student!), I overheard my psychology professor discussing DIS opportunities with a student and immediately knew this was something I should participate in.

Beyond being a mere résumé booster, undergraduate research allows students to learn information about fields of interest that textbooks cannot touch on. Furthermore,

In the lecture about research, I learned about two programs in particular that are relevant to my goals as both a research and an aspiring graduate student: Global Scholars and the fellowships offered through the ONF. Being accepted into the Global Scholars program would effectively satisfy both my ambition to travel abroad and working in several types of research labs. Although the process certainly requires a high degree of commitment (entering the Global Scholars program requires taking a semester long course), I am genuinely thrilled about this opportunity to further improve my research skills while becoming more worldly. The ONF offers several fellowships relevant to my pursuit of different graduate school programs. Giving everything from generous financial rewards to truly unique experiences, the diverse variety of fellowships would make me a much better prepared applicant than I would be otherwise. Both of these programs empower me to shape my activities, both academic and extracurricular, here at FSU that I have never had access