Not long ago, it was rare for an undergraduate to become involved in scientific research. These days, however, most grad-school-bound undergraduates do laboratory or field work beyond what’s required. Undergraduate research gives students a taste of what a career in science would be like and an edge in applying for graduate schools and jobs. But the edge isn’t what it used to be, because many graduate schools and employers have come to expect it.
In a move to ensure our students are school and work ready, campus leaders are working to develop the Bellevue College RISE Learning Institute (Research, Innovation, Service and Experiental Learning) and have named Dr. Gita Bangera as Dean of Undergraduate Research. In this newly created position, Bangera will support campus undergraduate research efforts through grant-funded projects, curriculum development, faculty support, and partnerships with other research labs, industry and community organizations.
Bangera will develop RISE from the ground up – including physical planning, coordinating faculty research projects, coordinating and developing undergraduate research projects, developing curriculum to support undergraduate research classes and programs, and identifying funding and partnership opportunities on both the local and national level. Bangera will also serve as the college’s primary liaison with the National Science Foundation.
She sat down with us one rainy afternoon to tell us a bit more about her goals for this new program and some of the ways she hopes Bellevue College will enhance educational opportunities for students from all walks of life.
Q: When did you come to Bellevue College and why did you choose to come here?
I came to BC completely by accident. I had never thought to teach – I went into biotech after my post-docs. In the summer of 2004, one of my colleagues told me that BC was looking for someone to teach a couple classes. I had never set foot in a community college before – I had a vague notion of what they were. I decided to go for it, but on my first day, I actually walked into the class with the wrong textbook!
Once I started teaching, and realizing what it entails, I started having fun and I got hooked! I think the fact that I didn’t know anything about community colleges and teaching was probably the best thing for me. There are all these preconceived notions of what a community college student is and what they can and can’t do. I think I was more adventurous with my curriculum without these preconceived notions holding me back. People will rise to the level that you expect them to achieve.
Q: Tell us a bit about your position and the RISE Institute – how will this benefit BC, Bellevue, our community?
We want to incorporate this idea of classroom-based research experiences. The idea will be to empower students to take control of their educational experience – to understand that learning is so much more than sitting in a lecture and that sometimes your teacher doesn’t know the answer – but that you can find one (or many) together.
This is also going to be about empowering faculty to go out for grants and bring research into their classrooms – and not just in the STEM field, but every department on campus. I want to be that resource. To be able to take research and build it into a classroom to create an experiential learning environment.
We want to teach students how professionals work in the field – to bridge that gap between academic learning and the application of that knowledge. Learning in non-traditional modalities; Learning in ways that really teach you how to be a professional.
Research happens in every discipline – so what would be great is if we could examine issues from multiple areas of study – chemistry, biology, anthropology, English, political science, psychology, business – helping students understand that every issue or project has multiple facets. That’s something that gets left out of education these days – anything you do is going to be multifaceted. I think if we have students working together on something, we can have deeper discussions on the myriad answers that come of a question. We need our future leaders to understand subjects beyond their silo of study.
Q: What are your hopes and dreams for the RISE Institute?
I would like to see this school become a destination. If you want to go into a certain career, you know that you’ll be given the tools to make that happen if you come here.
If you talk to someone in industry, they’ll tell you that a person with a bachelor’s degree from a standard university is not ready. They need on-the-job training. My goal is that students that come through this program will be work-ready when they leave our institution.
Additionally, many graduate programs expect that you have two years of research experience before you apply – many will not accept you without it. It used to be that you learned research methodology in grad school, but not anymore.
The current system of who goes into research is automatically exclusionary because you have to have prior knowledge of how research works and how to get there – it excludes anybody who is first generation, people going to community college, whose families are not connected enough to know who is who, those without an understanding of the cultural norms surrounding scientific research. So this means we end up predominantly excluding minorities, women, first-generation students, immigrants – it draws a socio-economic line in terms of who gets in and who doesn’t. Our point is that if we do what we plan to do, we begin to get rid of these inequities. When these students go through research as a routine part of their educational experience, they come out understanding and we effectively widen the pool of people in the research field.
Q: You’ve led the cause at BC for more undergraduate research opportunities – why?
We did an alumni survey once we had 100 or so students go through the ComGen class and of the respondents, most of them were continuing their education or working in the STEM fields. We’ve also noticed (anecdotally) an upward progression in student ambition once taking these classes – students that thought they were going to stop with an associates, decided to go for the BS or higher. And that was really exciting for us to see.
We also surveyed instructors outside our department to see if taking this class was a benefit to them outside the lab and we kept hearing that these students weren’t afraid to take risks – to think critically to find an answer. They knew how to observe and document and there was a confidence and comfort with not knowing the answer. I am so proud of that.
If we can teach students to do that, it’s worth every educational dollar spent. In the last few years I have been focusing on really teaching my students how to look for multiple answers to a question. It’s very empowering and I want my students to understand that they can do it!
– by Evan Epstein
Last Updated October 3, 2016