Story by Katrina Hageman
It’s Saturday morning, and students are filing into a Heady Hall classroom for the weekly Saturday Morning Breakfast Club gathering.
Unlike the similarly named movie, these Iowa State University economics students are not there for detention, but to get help organizing research ideas and identifying feasible steps to get started on their research projects.
The club seeks to get undergraduate students involved in research in a group setting rather than the traditional one-on-one research advising model.
“Our mission is to give students support to produce a research project that allows them to learn about an area they are passionate about,” says Peter Orazem, emeritus university professor and interim chair in the Department of Economics, who also mentors the club. “This research takes a couple of years, so we try to get students involved early on in their college journey.”
Since the Breakfast Club was established in 2014, 61 undergraduate students have been involved, and 23 have had their research findings published in a professional journal.
“Since I’m new to the research process, I couldn’t do it without having experienced researchers guiding me,” says Adrian Newgard, a senior in economics.
“Having a dedicated time every week to focus on my project has kept me moving forward, and being surrounded by like-minded peers has made the initial jump into research more comfortable,” adds Ben Hansen, a junior in economics. “We all work together and share advice and ideas, and that makes it an exciting environment to be in every week.”
Graduate students benefit by gaining mentorship experience as they guide the undergraduate students.
“It’s great to see these young researchers show up every Saturday to work on topics they're passionate about,” says Aakansha Jain, a Breakfast Club graduate assistant. “So far, two of my students have published papers with me."
Students can also submit their research to contests hosted by various professional organizations and attend conferences where they can present their projects and interact with fellow researchers.
“The Breakfast Club is a way that students can distinguish themselves from others when applying for jobs or law and graduate school,” Orazem says. “Involvement means different things, and everyone has different end goals. For some students, they are doing it for course credits, and for others, they want to get research published. We work with students for as long as they need, even after graduation.”