Early exposure to undergraduate research can heavily influence a student’s decision about careers through relevant tangible application of a focused field of study. Adoption of a mentor, a learned individual that helps guide the student through their educational and research interests, augments the undergraduate research experience and builds a relationship that aids the student beyond undergraduate school. Within chemistry there are many opportunities that a student could pursue to acquaint themselves with research, but environmental analytical chemistry (EAC) is unique in its ability to provide a universal foundational knowledge of lab work and a perceptible impact to the world. As a student, EAC elucidated the path to undergraduate research and provided the confidence to greater aspirations than medical school alone.  Starting in the laboratory time was busied with understanding sample preparation and the importance of EAC to the research and community, all the while the sample preparation aided a supervising graduate student in their work. Following the natural progression of knowledge, a project within EAC can be assigned to a new student confident in their abilities as a researcher. These experiences and skills are directly communicable to other research endeavors in different fields, such as biological stem cell research or toxicological endocrine research, which can further build upon that first exposure.<br/>

Environmental analytical chemistry research: An undergraduate’s perspective

249th National Meeting (2015)

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