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On top of the challenge of balancing students’ time constraints, faculty point out that working with undergraduates requires more supervision in general, at least in the beginning. Many undergraduates haven’t developed a sense of confidence that allows them to question an unfamiliar term for fear they’ll be perceived as dumb, or to ask someone they are interviewing to clarify a confusing point. Organization and priority 
setting can also be issues, Ortiz said. Helping undergrads envision the research process through a timeline and by emphasizing the ultimate goals of creating knowledge and publishing provides structure to an often-fragmented undertaking, she said.
At the same time, it’s important not to stifle students’ initiative and creative thinking, Böttger said. “It is sometimes tempting to tell students the answer, but it is much more satisfying to let them discover it themselves.”
The benefits of research aren’t limited to USF’s undergraduates. Students help professors accomplish more and often require them to step back from their work for a fresh perspective, said Associate Professor Dorothy Kidd, who, along with Associate Professor Bernadette Barker-Plummer, oversees a team of media studies researchers. For example, through interviews, one of Kidd’s students identified a problematic media strategy used by a number of Bay Area nonprofits of focusing narrowly on company shareholders and politicians to promote change, rather than recruiting the public to their side through outreach and education.
In addition, working with undergrads requires professors to communicate findings and experiments clearly, rather than relying on the jargon and academic concepts so intrinsic among specialists in any field, Knight said.
The “More”
If research teaches students something about life outside the laboratory, and Marín assumes it does, then grounding that knowledge in USF’s Jesuit humanistic tradition is as important as ever, he said.
“Research for knowledge sake is important; and, it is at its best when it includes a search for the magis,” said Marín, referring to the Jesuit axiom of doing more for Jesus Christ, and, as a result, for others. Research like Knight’s on emotional well-being and Ortiz’s on understanding minority consumers are intended to improve the lives of others, which is at the heart of magis.
Magis can also be found in the research of media studies students working for Kidd and Barker-Plummer to develop effective communications strategies for Bay Area social change organizations. Especially timely in the context of the San Francisco Chronicle’s and other media outlets’ financial troubles, the project looks into the collapse and consolidation of Bay Area newspapers and radio and television stations in an attempt to measure the negative impact on communications published or broadcast in the public interest. A half dozen media studies students have been busy interviewing more than two dozen Bay Area nonprofits—among them the Asian Pacific Islanders Wellness Center, the Coalition on Homelessness, and the Rainforest Action Network—in an attempt to analyze their media coverage and implement strategies to reach more people.
“I would like students to realize that research into social processes takes time,” Kidd said. “What’s most important is to go into the community and to be a witness to what these organizations are doing for social change.”
Helping these often underrepresented groups gain a greater democratic voice, whether it be through mainstream media, alternative newspapers, blogs, or their own Web site, aligns perfectly with USF’s values of promoting justice, working toward the common good, and being women and men for others, Kidd said.
As she looks forward to graduating, Stephanie Luu, a senior media studies major who works for Kidd and Barker-Plummer, is 
enjoying her last few months conducting interviews with nonprofit leaders, and cataloguing and analyzing the trends associated with their media hits. “It’s been a way for me to really use what I’ve learned in my major,” Luu said.
She only hopes that future USF students have even better research opportunities, especially since so much of what she learned can be applied in graduate school or across any number of careers. “To be an undergraduate and work with your professors on their research is a really great opportunity,” Luu said. “I don’t know how many universities offer that chance.”
Merthe and other student researchers share Luu’s sentiment that undergraduate research has opened doors that might otherwise have been closed to them. In Merthe’s estimation, promoting research early in students’ education is one of the best opportunities we have for solving many of the world’s pressing problems, including global warming, a global energy crisis, and pollution. “Albert Einstein once said, ‘The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them,’” Merthe said.
Working closely with faculty has also emboldened students with a sense of self-assuredness and purpose they can carry into future studies and careers after USF. “This research has been a gift,” said Foertsch. “Under Dr. Knight’s guidance, my education in psychology has been given direction and I feel prepared to one day attend graduate school and carry out my own line of research.”
In the end, undergraduate research pushes students to confront problems outside the comfort zones of the classroom and textbook. And while student-faculty research is undoubtedly a symbiotic relationship, philosophically, it is very much about the students themselves, said Marcelo Camperi, associate dean of sciences.
“Limits being pushed and a mixture of coursework and research is what characterizes graduate school, and at USF our students get a taste of that early in life,” Camperi said. “Their curiosity is piqued to a greater degree and they want to know and do more.”
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