Graduate student mentorship helps undergraduates build research skills

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — When Harman Singh began graduate school at Penn State, she didn’t just bring research interests, she brought experience. As an undergraduate, Singh had participated in the Department of Geography’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Connection (UROC) program, where graduate students mentor undergraduates through hands-on research. Now a doctoral student in geography, Singh has come full circle, serving as UROC’s graduate coordinator and continuing to mentor students herself.

UROC, coordinated by the Department of Geography, is open to undergraduates from any major and provides opportunities to join semester-long research projects led by graduate students. 

Singh who has mentored students in UROC since fall 2021 said that participating in UROC benefits both mentors and mentees.

“Graduate students gain experience in mentorship and project management, while undergraduates get early exposure to academic research in a supportive environment,” Singh said. “The only requirement is to be motivated and interested.”

This spring, Singh mentored two first-year environmental engineering majors, Maria Catalano and Laura Hendry, on a research project examining waste management policy in Bengaluru, India. The students are co-authoring a journal article with Singh on the topic, which they plan to submit to the Journal of Science Policy and Governance.

Catalano was recruited after completing a sustainability survey for another project. Singh noticed her interest and initiative and invited her to interview for a UROC position.

“In the interview, Harman mentioned some researching roles that she had available,” Catalano said. “Because I have a background in water testing and control, her water inland flooding research really piqued my interest.”

Before arriving at Penn State, Catalano worked as a lab analyst at an environmental testing agency where she conducted testing on water and sewage samples for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency compliance and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Her experience in applied water testing gave her the foundation and motivation to continue engaging in environmental research through UROC.

Hendry joined the following semester after seeing Catalano’s work firsthand. 

“I saw this large spreadsheet that Maria created, and I thought that looks kind of fun and interesting,” Hendry said. “Maria told me more about the flooding she was looking into, and how it was specifically in an urban environment, and that really interested me.”

Singh meets weekly with her UROC students, provides detailed feedback on their writing and data analysis and helps them prepare for professional development opportunities. This spring, Singh guided Catalano and Hendry through the design and presentation of a research poster for the Penn State Water Conference held March 20-21 at the Nittany Lion Inn.

“When I saw their finished poster, I was really proud,” Singh said.

Both undergraduate students said the conference helped them grow professionally and academically.

“It was very nice to see that other people were very interested in our topic as well,” Catalano said. “I’ve gotten to meet so many interesting people that I feel like I wouldn’t have been able to meet if I wasn’t involved in UROC.”

Singh said she sees mentorship as more than just task delegation. She helps students identify skills they want to build, such as writing, data analysis or preparing applications and then works with them to develop those skills over the semester. She’s helped students prepare for summer research experiences and graduate school applications.

“I hope the students get what they thought they would out of it,” Singh said. “That they feel fulfilled in that manner, that they picked up something that would be useful to them in the immediate future.”

Catalano said Singh’s mentorship had a significant impact. 

“Amazing. All caps,” she said. “Harman really helps me with anything and everything that you think of.”

Singh sees that broader development as central to UROC’s purpose. She said the program gives undergraduates the structure to explore research while allowing graduate students to define their mentorship style. Singh describes UROC as a low-pressure, high-impact opportunity.

“It’s not an intimidating process. It’s not a huge time commitment,” she said. “It’s what you make out of the process.”

As she continues her doctoral studies, Singh plans to keep mentoring through UROC and encouraging more students to take part.

“For the next year and a half, two years that I have left, I will definitely have more UROC students or continue with the same,” she said. “Every semester I find something fulfilling in this work When we sit down and I see students — even if it’s incremental progress — have some progress over a couple of weeks or every week, that’s what makes it meaningful for me.”