MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — A Penn State Harrisburg student was awarded a Penn State Discovery Grant, which helped her spend the summer researching people’s perceptions of safety when riding the Metro, the public transportation system in Washington, D.C.
Criminal justice major Kate Bukowski was one of 31 Penn State students awarded a Discovery Grant. The grant program, which supports summer research projects, is open to all current undergraduate Penn State students at all campuses, regardless of major.
Bukowski, who is studying for both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees through the college’s accelerated degree program, said she began the research project for her honors thesis. She had previously worked with Jennifer Gibbs, professor of criminal justice in the School of Public Affairs and Bukowski’s thesis supervisor, who encouraged her to apply for the grant.
“It was validating to know that other people are interested in what I'm doing,” Bukowski said of receiving the grant. “It was very motivating.”
Bukowski’s project focused on safety perceptions on the Metro in Washington, D.C. Being from D.C. herself, she said she remembered the agency overseeing the system — the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority — announced in 2023 that it would increase police presence to try to reduce crime rates.
That thought lingered in Bukowski’s mind in college as she started learning about different criminological theories, she said, and she wondered how they would translate to public transportation. Metro began measuring perceptions of safety in 2021, she said, so she decided to gather her own data measuring people’s current perceptions of safety, about three years after the 2023 changes.
Bukowski, who is also a member of the women’s volleyball team, spent part of the summer gathering data. She visited the three busiest Metro stations, where she handed out small flyers containing information about her project. The flyer included a QR code riders could scan to answer questions.
The process of gathering responses from busy commuters could be a little disheartening, she said, but ultimately, she found it pleasant. She found that it helped to emphasize that she was a student, and she gathered about 270 responses.
“It was fun, because a lot of people would come up and ask about the research, or ask what I was doing, where I go to school, that kind of thing,” she said. “That made it really enjoyable to talk to people.”
Bukowski has now completed the basic statistical analyses needed to write her honors thesis, she said.
Gibbs said Bukowski proposed a project at a high level for an undergraduate student.
“But that research can be accomplished when students are funded to work exclusively with faculty mentors,” Gibbs said. “As an honors student-athlete who is a high performer in her classes, Kate was able to take an understudied concept, transform it into a full research proposal, win funding for the project implementation, stand outside the Washington, D.C. Metro throughout the summer to collect data, analyze the data and draft her results.”
Discovery Grants award students up to $5,000. Bukowski said the grant helped cover costs like the printing and laminating of the handouts, taking trips on the Metro and more.
“It just helps ease the research process a little bit, because I can just focus on my part of completing it and enjoying it while I do it,” she said. “It's less stressful. For me, it's made the process a lot more enjoyable, because I can just really dive into how I'm going to do the research, putting my time and effort into it. Because I know it's worth it, and someone else sees that worth as well.”
Gibbs said she is grateful to the Penn State Undergraduate Research and Fellowships Mentoring Office for sponsoring the Discovery Grant for students.
“This award creates the opportunity for students to exponentially enhance their education and experiential learning with hands-on research in the field,” Gibbs said. “Kate, in particular, benefited tremendously from the challenging experience of applying classroom material to real-world research.”