Advice from Students

Erin Nasson: Ran Off

"I wanted to do extra things that made me stand out [on my resume]. I thought research would show that. A way to make me shine....This research has made the path of where I'm going."

"I love what I do, and I'm excited about it. It's nothing I would have ever expected."

Nasson is now working in Salt Lake City, UT in a kinesiology lab, where she studies the movements of professional baseball players who come into the facility for therapy.

Justin Dyer: Jail Break

"Maybe you're not a straight A student. Maybe you don't do as well on multiple choice tests as you'd like. Maybe you have those brain freezes. This experience will put you way ahead and set you apart."

"You learn how to learn, you learn how to write, you learn how to think."

It was Dyer's research experience that got him into the doctoral program at Illinois last Fall.

Taylor Turner: A New Antibiotic

"If you're working forty hours, quit twenty hours and go get to know a professor. It makes all the difference. I came to Dr. Pitt and I didn't know anything. You have to start somewhere. The earlier the better."

Turner plans to pursue not just an MD in medical school, but a PhD so he can research in the medical field, and perhaps choose academia in medicine.

Heather Shull: Crawfish Queen

"Research is great if you like to do things, discover things, and understand things in a way that you can't always get in a class."

Nathan Lambert: Beggars Can be Choosers

"I ended up getting accepted by every [graduate] school I applied for and was offered full-tuition scholarships and huge living stipends from almost every institution."

Nate hand-picked Penn State University, though they feel the other way around. They offered him $150,000 in fellowship and scholarship money just he would go to their school.

Jeff Baxter: 0 to 60 in 8 Seconds

"You have got to have the desire to get out there...and make sacrifices of other things, maybe even your grades, to learn."

Baxter's team recently set a world record in the quarter-mile drag race this year held in Maryland, thanks to the funding they have received from GM, the Ira Fulton School of Technology, Maxwell Technologies, ORCA, and other generous donors.

Baxter plans to pursue Business and Advanced Project Leadership.

Marissa Widdison: New York Daily News

"This project gave me a lot of confidence in my own abilities as a journalist, writer, and professional in general. I now face every trial in life knowing that I accomplished a goal that was both challenging and enriching."

Marissa has been accepted as an intern at the New York Daily News.

Sean Taylor: The Past and the Future

"I am indebted to the efforts of my mentor, and I now recognize that these resources have been provided through the generosity of friends and donors to the university."

Sean is now earning his PhD at Yale with the aid of a $185,000 fellowship.