Five Hours

A primary goal of the NIH R15 mechanism is to engage undergraduates in research. More specifically, to engage undergraduates in research who are attending universities that have received less than $6M of NIH funding, like Southern CT State University. Our university has 6,000 undergraduate students. Many of our students are women (61%), people of color (56%), and first-generation students (40%) who receive Pell grants (45%), representing communities that are underrepresented among our nation’s cadre of social science researchers. The SHAWN project uses a harm reduction approach to meet students where they are and offer myriad opportunities for participation.

Undergraduate RAs are hired to work 10 hours per week. Analysis of their hours during the first 18 months of the project find that SHAWN RAs work, on average, 5 hours a week (Table 1). To be clear, this is an average: some RAs consistently work 10 hours per week, others average 5 hours per week, and some contribute with 2-3 hours per week. Situations that prevent students from working the full 10 hours per week include transportation issues, physical and mental health, family responsibilities, academic demands, extracurricular involvements, and requirements from other jobs. In short, busy students who are negotiating multiple systems of economic and social disadvantage can find it difficult to consistently show up for this work. This is the reality of our students’ lives.

The empirical question that SHAWN asks is, how do we engage undergraduates from communities that are underrepresented in social science leadership in research? Our strategies to date have included investing in relationships, developing diverse opportunities for students to contribute in ways that align with their interests and schedule, and celebrating our accomplishments and progress. Moving forward, this experience invites us to build clear communication that explains and assigns discrete tasks with specific deadlines to make the best use of the time that students have available to them.