Courtney Santos, director of undergraduate research and fellowships at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, connects undergraduate students to research employment opportunities, scholarship and fellowship programs, and mentors who build bridges to their futures. By developing relationships with students, Santos is able to guide them to the right fit for their goals.
“Students see the real world impact, that if you can do field work or if you can do research that shapes policy, that’s extremely transformative,” Santos said.
Santos grew up in California and first started working in research environments at her alma mater, the University of California, Irvine. While supporting teams studying biomedical engineering and digital media and learning, she realized that her own background in English and creative writing could be useful.
“I learned I could help students to write narratives about their work that would help them to secure funding and open up doors for the future,” she said.
Santos was struck by how working on these projects propelled students through their educational journeys and pathways to careers. They had the opportunity to make documentaries, build apps or create prototypes for new farm equipment.
“Right away, I noticed the quality of mentorship and how that has a transformative impact on undergraduates,” Santos said. “When students feel encouraged, validated, supported, like they can belong on a research team, that’s evidence of a high-impact practice for undergraduate education. I am able to see it at the ground level, interacting directly with the students and watching them flourish.”
Santos has now been at UNL for more than three years, but prior to her employment, she had never been to Nebraska, other than a weekend in Omaha. During her application process, she was impressed by the student success programs Nebraska had in place and the work of people like Amy Goodburn, senior associate vice chancellor and dean of undergraduate education. She has enjoyed settling into the Lincoln and Nebraska communities, she said.
“I love that everybody’s very welcoming and the way Lincoln comes together as a community, such as entire families watching our student presentations or our Homecoming parade,” Santos said. “After being in a big urban place like Southern California, to see a close knit community that’s a bit smaller has been wonderful.”
With these values in mind, Nebraska’s undergraduate research programs are designed to build community among student researchers, including the Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experiences program, the Aligning STEM Trainees for Enterprising Research program, and the First Year Research Experience.
Through individual advising and group events, Santos gets to know the students and their stories individually to help them identify their path and research projects that will most interest them. Some have a long list of passions, and she helps them prioritize.
“I help them to narrow and decide what they want to work on first,” she said. “Say I have a student who’s really interested in computer science. We want to talk about if they’re interested in machine learning and artificial intelligence, approaches to big data, or software application development. The process of making choices can feel overwhelming, but it’s possible to create priority lists with them based on where they’re feeling that passion.”
Developing relationships with the students is also crucial to recognizing challenges a student might be facing. Santos was a first-generation college student, so her own college experience demonstrated to her how important it can be to have support, guidance and resources.
“I can tell students that I relate to the challenges of navigating higher education for the first time and being the representative of your family and your community,” she said. “It’s important to me to listen to their unique experiences, at the same time, and make sure I understand how I can support them or what questions that might have.”
Collaborating with faculty and advising staff across campus has become another valuable way of facilitating more opportunity and support. The office of undergraduate research and fellowships maintains an online directory of faculty mentors who are recruiting student researchers and provides a template note for students who would like to contact faculty. Other students identify potential mentors from prior coursework experiences.
“The kind of questions coming up for them after a favorite class are meaningful and something to reflect on further,” she said.
Santos is also a master’s student in educational psychology, focused on career and vocational counseling to better assist students. As she frequently noticed students revealing concerns like anxiety around presenting in front of large groups, she became fascinated by the connection between mental health and lifelong learning.
“I kept seeing those themes emerging,” she said. “Counseling psychology, with its focus on holistic wellbeing and human potential, has many parallels to helping students discover their path and believe in themselves.”
Symposia and conference events, like Student Research Days and the Nebraska Summer Research Symposium, are some of Santos’ favorite moments on the job, when she gets to see student researchers share their work with family, friends, other researchers and the public. For Santos and her undergraduate research and fellowships colleagues, Kali Patterson, project coordinator, and Ioanna Kipourou, graduate assistant, it’s deeply meaningful to see the fruits of students’ labor and how their community supports them.
“Student Research Days is a great way to get to know the variety of the research being conducted at UNL and the stories of our students,” Santos said. “So many community members come out to celebrate the students with us.”
