How To Give
Undergraduate Research Opportunities
As part of the Plan for Academic Enrichment, the nationally recognized Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) program allows students the opportunity to conduct intensive work with faculty members. This process introduces undergraduates to the demands of teaching and research endeavors in higher education.
Recent UTRA topics have covered a wide spectrum of interests. Scholars in the environmental studies department modeled a sustainable farm to be located on Brown’s campus, while researchers in education examined the socialization of learning beliefs among European American and Chinese immigrant children. Additionally, multidisciplinary UTRAs bridge academic departments in innovative and exciting ways. Scholars from the departments of biology and engineering recently teamed to explore the biology and physics of bat wings.
UTRAs provide a valuable opportunity for deeper exploration of a subject and allow a student to develop a more self-directed approach to his or her education. Your gift to the Brown Annual Fund helps ensure that the academic opportunities available to Brown students continue to match their intellectual aspirations.
“My UTRA on social policy in modern Russia allowed me to work alongside Professor Cook in the political science department, who is an amazing source of knowledge on this subject. Leading my own research project taught me new levels of self-discipline, scheduling, and goal-setting. It also provided the basis of my honors thesis; right now, I’m exploring the transition of central Asia from post-Soviet rule to democracy.”
Anya Rasulova ’08
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
“I took part in an UTRA that was an interdisciplinary team project combining students from chemistry and plant biology. Working together, we created compounds that can be used to inhibit or promote pollen tube growth. I really valued the experience because of the exchange of ideas that it provided. This is the kind of open dialog that an open curriculum affords.”
Jason Becker ’09
North Bellmore, NY
Active Learning through First Year Seminars
As part of the Plan for Academic Enrichment, Brown has created a schedule of courses exclusively for first-year students-the First Year Seminars. Designed to be an integral part of departmental curricula, these courses offer students a chance to participate in small group discussions that help them develop the skills and confidence for a life of creative, synthetic, and critical exploration of ideas and information.
First Year Seminars exemplify the kind of active, collaborative learning and open intellectual inquiry which has always made Brown such a special place. In just three years since the launch of the First Year Seminar program, the University has expanded its freshman seminar offerings to 60 courses for the 2005-2006 academic year-enough for more than 83 percent of the Class of 2009.
As a university-college, Brown participates in the transition of students from listeners to collaborators. The sooner that process starts, the greater the rewards. Your gift to the Brown Annual Fund helps to bring this opportunity to our first-year students.
"Teaching my first year seminar on film and Shakespeare has reminded me that art and the discovery of beauty make us all first-years. This rising generation has taught me about seeing the screen in new ways. And Shakespeare’s poetry is always new and necessary. As Wallace Stevens wrote of poetry: I am the necessary angel of earth,/ Since,in my sight,you see the earth again.”
Stephen Merriam Foley '74 P'04 '07
Associate Professor of
English
First Year Seminar: Shakespeare’s Present Tense
"Teaching a first-year seminar is fun because students are willing to ask naive questions. And, even better, they have not yet lost their enthusiasm. And running a course like this forces you to justify your research in public. Sometimes embarrassing, often informative."
James Anderson, Professor
Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences
Brain Science Program
First Year Seminar: Computing as Done in Brains and Computers
"I've always been interested in exploring neuroscience, and I feel knowledge of computers has become fundamental in today's society. Beyond the content, this first-year seminar has helped immeasurably with my adjustment to college. I have found it very easy to ask questions in Professor Anderson's class; the small discussion group is far less intimidating than larger lectures."
Minoo Fadaifard '08
Brooklyn, New York
First Year Seminar: Computing as Done in Brains and Computers
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