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Student Researcher Profiles - Johanna Prose
An Interview with UNCG student Johanna Prose
Johanna got paid $1000 to participate in the URA program.
How did you find out about the research of the faculty member you worked with?
I was asked if I would be interested in working on a project with diversity that was a continuation of a Diversity I interview exercise completed during the Fall of 2008 semester in CST 399, and I was told that my GPA was within the criteria for a student researcher.
Did you receive academic credit and/or pay for doing your research?
Yes, pay is to be received this summer with continuation in the fall.
How long did your research project last?
Our meetings were held from May-July so far, and we met about 1-1.5 hours per week with additional individual work time in between.
How has your involvement in the research project helped you with respect to your college experience?
I have thoroughly enjoyed working on this project with Dr. Kinefuchi and have learned a lot more about what kind of work will be required of me as a student when I am in graduate school. Having a faculty member that is willing to explain and offer advice from her experiences has been so helpful in respect to my motivation and in completion of the research work required for this project. Also, having an opportunity to get more familiar with research methods is helpful in understanding how important this kind of study can be and in finding out how students communicate with each other.
Has your research helped you with respect to understanding the content in the courses that you have taken? Can you give a specific example?
Absolutely this experience has been helpful with course content. This research has been a continuation of a project completed during CST 399, in which the foundation for this course is research methods in communication studies. This project has given me an opportunity to use these methods that we practiced and explore and practice them in a context that I am associated with as a student on UNCG campus and as a student‐interviewer.
What was the most positive aspect of your research project? The most negative?
The most positive aspect during this experience is having the ability to work on a project that is interesting to me and alongside a professor that is very knowledgeable and fun to collaborate with. I honestly feel very fortunate to be earning pay this summer and this has been the best summer job experience I have ever had because I am using skills I will need later in my academic career and I am also very much enjoying this kind of work.
The one negative aspect I can recall is in the very beginning of our research when I felt somewhat overwhelmed by the material and unsure if I was grasping the method of "coding" correctly. With patience and guidance from Dr. Kinefuchi though, I was assured that I was doing what I needed to as a student researcher and discovered alternate ways of analyzing that worked for me in collaboration with her work to complete the coding process.
What is the title of your research? Briefly describe what your research is about.
The title of this research is "Learning about opinions and perspectives on Diversity in a college campus setting as understood by students." This research is about deciphering the discrepancies surrounding the concept of diversity, specifically on the UNCG campus and also gaining an understanding of college students' perspectives of and experiences with the concept through analysis of student conducted interviews.
What do you plan to do after graduation? Has this research experience influenced that decision at all? If so, how?
I plan on continuing my education in a graduate school program and pursuing a career in speech pathology. This experience has inspired my interest in doing research within this field one day or even taking time between the transition from undergrad to graduate level course work to pursue other possibilities including doing research in the field of communication studies and/or speech and hearing.
