Utah State University was recently recognized as a national leader in research programs for undergraduates.
Undergrads at USU have many different opportunities to take part in research projects that go along with their majors and interests.
Osvaldo Gonzalez, a senior at USU, took advantage of this opportunity back in 2019.
“I got the opportunity to work in Dr. Fernanda Batistel's lab at Utah State University with the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences and her main research focus was on the nutrition of dairy cows," said Gonzalez. "In our research, we would focus on feeding fat to dairy cows.”
Research can be anything from an experiment in a lab, to a paper for class. According to Alexa Sand, Associate Vice President for Research at USU, 60 percent of majors require students to take part in some sort of research. Outside of the classroom, Sand said that about 27% of students are doing research.
“So many students participate in research without even knowing that what they're doing is research, you know, because in their field, they don't talk about it as research. They talk about it as artistic activity, or clinical work or whatever," said Sand.
Not everyone that does research during their undergrad program plan to after graduation but find the skills from it invaluable.
“Even if I did not go into research for grad school soon, I can still use these skills on how to read papers and how to read experiments for production on the modern dairy farm,” said Gonzalez.
