REU Site: Psychology Research Experience Program

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The Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has an established record of providing research opportunities for its own undergraduates and successfully administered summer programs for students from underrepresented populations in 1998 and 1999. The Department has an internationally recognized research faculty committed to undergraduate and graduate education and eager to direct individual research projects. For the next three summers, 2000-2002, the Department will offer the Psychology Research Experience Program (PREP), a summer program to provide research experiences that will help to prepare undergraduate students from underrepresented populations for graduate school. In addition to support from the National Science Foundation, additional support will come from the University's Graduate School.The main goal of PREP is to attract motivated students who will pursue an academic research career. PREP will provide the opportunity for eight-ten students in each of the three summers to gain hands-on experience with faculty mentors in research laboratories. The eight-week program will foster learning of research techniques in laboratory groups of faculty, graduate, and undergraduate participants. The PREP undergraduates will come from the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as from other institutions. In every case, however, they will be from an underrepresented minority population, from a low-income background, and/or be from the first generation in their family to attend college.The entire process of research, from literature search through collection and analysis of data, will culminate in an oral and written presentation and, if appropriate, journal publication. In addition, faculty members will discuss various research areas in psychology in weekly lunch seminars, thus highlighting the diverse nature of the discipline.