The Office of Undergraduate Research

History - 1998 to 2006

The Office of Research and Public/Private Sector Partnership at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro administered the Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA) program, the Scholars Travel program, the annual Undergraduate Research Expo, and sponsor the Undergraduate Research or Creative Scholarship presentations on Excellence Day. To fulfill the vision of Associate Provost Dr. Rosemary Wander, the Office of Undergraduate Research was created in 2006.

Mission
OUR at UNCG is dedicated to supporting and promoting undergraduate research, creative expression and other scholarly experiences for our students. These experiences can be part of an independent study or mentored by a UNCG faculty member.

Objectives
The office sponsors a wide variety of programmatic activities for students and faculty members including internal funding opportunities for faculty or student collaborations and a celebration of URA funded student research held during Excellence Day. OUR hosts a variety of student workshops, including student talking to each other about their research, how to create an effective poster, how to identify the right research program and what to expect from a research experience. The office also hosts faculty development seminars on topics such as building research skills into the curriculum and how to mentor research students. Specifically we:

1. Provide opportunities for UNCG students to engage in an undergraduate research experience.
2. Provide opportunities for UNCG students to learn about the benefits of undergraduate research or scholarly experience.
3. Provide opportunities for UNCG students to disseminate the results of their research.
4. Develop additional programs that support undergraduate research experiences.
5. Develop an assessment program for the undergraduate research experience.
6. Participate in local, state, and national dialogues or meetings devoted to promoting undergraduate research.

Who We Are

The OUR staff consists of:

Director, Dr. Mary Crowe

When she was an undergraduate she did research and it transformed her life. She is committed to helping others have the same sort of experience. She believes that involving students in undergraduate research is not only a powerful pedagogical tool but that undergraduate students can contribute a lot to faculty member's research program. As a faculty member, her research focused on the behavior of crabs but now she is very interested in documenting the intellectual gains students experience as a result of being involved in research with a faculty member. (abbreviated c.v.)
Click here to read about the election of Dr. Mary Crowe to serve as the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) President-elect for the 2011-2012 year. CUR, with its 600 institutional members and more than 6500 individual members, supports faculty development for high-quality undergraduate student-faculty collaborative research and scholarship.

Research Programs Administrator, Adrienne Middlebrooks

Ms. Middlebrooks is a life-long resident of Guilford County and a Joseph M. Bryan School of Business and Economics alum. Her career at the university began in research as a staff assistant on the Race and Slavery Petitions Project in 1996. In 2010, she earned a MA in Liberal Studies with a Certificate in Global Studies. Read an article about Ms. Middlebrooks in the Campus Weekly "Five Spot."