MAKING THEIR MARK : Students Distinguish themselves with Engaging Academic Research.

"By the time our students graduate, they'll have five or six presentations behind them. Students with this kind of experience grow up academically faster than their peers."

--Dr. Joanne Altman, Director of Undergraduate Research and Creative Works

Seanna Naylon sat nervously, watching presentation after presentation at the State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium. A group of 14 students from High Point University, including Naylon, had left campus early that morning for a day filled with academic research presentations. It was the culmination of many hours of hard work spent poring overa plethora of subjects.

Naylon, a freshman from Florida majoring in international business, is just one among a distinctive crop of students who are taking part in student and faculty research projects. These projects ultimately help students build a unique set of credentials that distinguish themselves from among nearly 2 million others nationwide they'll graduate alongside.

It's all part of the plan for students involved in the Undergraduate Research and Creative Works (URCW) program at HPU. The program encourages collaborative partnerships between students and faculty--leading students to learn high-level skills--graduate level skills, explains Dr. Joanne Altman, director of URCW.

As a first-year student, Naylon is relishing an opportunity that most universities don't offer to freshmen, but HPU does. The university shows students how they can make their mark through academic research opportunities with Research Rookies, a program designed to engage freshmen and first-semester sophomores as academic scholars.

Altman, who designed Research Rookies, says the program exists to teach students how to not only go about getting involved in research opportunities, but how to become active researchers. "The goal of the program is to prepare them to be ready to research; they're learning how to enter the culture of research and learning how to embark in these opportunities,"says Altman. "Students are gaining critical thinking skills, creating surveys and learning how to utilize programs like Excel."

Students in Research Rookies are also tasked with completing several activities to help build skills in all facets; they even attend conferences to get a first-hand view of what presenting research actually looks like. Following completion of the program, students connect with faculty members to get involved in various research...