Dodson Fund Supports Summer Research for Undergraduates
Hunt Insights · Undergraduate Research
Dodson Fund Supports Summer Research for Undergraduates
A paid summer program gave eight Hunt College undergraduates time to develop research projects with faculty guidance.
Cohort
8 undergraduate students
Duration
12 weeks
Commitment
About 20 hours a week
The Big Picture
A first look at research.
Camila Sepulveda spent the summer investigating whether increased nearshoring after 2020 corresponded with greater economic activity along the U.S.-Mexico border.
After 12 weeks, she presented her findings to Hunt College faculty, giving her a preview of graduate-level and doctoral research.
Seven other undergraduates did the same, forming the first cohort of a paid summer research program at Hunt College. The program gave students room to develop individual projects with close faculty guidance.
The cohort included Sepulveda, Diego Triana, Ximena Garcia, Luis Carcamo Jimenez, Mariana Quinlan, Diego Gomez, Jessica Castillo Alvarado, and Francisco Alvarez Reyes.
Two students have since submitted their work for presentation at academic conferences.
Inside the Work
Their own questions. Their own papers.
Four Hunt College faculty members mentored the eight students: Fernanda Garcia, Ph.D.; Fernando Jimenez, Ph.D.; Yun Ke, Ph.D.; and Erik Devos, Ph.D.
Students worked approximately 20 hours a week for 12 weeks. They read academic literature, developed research questions, worked with data, and wrote their own papers before presenting their work to faculty.
Sepulveda worked with Devos. She entered the program expecting to assist with research already underway. Instead, she was responsible for developing her own paper.
“I liked that he guided me without doing the work for me because it helped me understand the research process better,” Sepulveda said.
Her project compared economic activity in eight U.S.-Mexico border counties with eight counties farther from the border. When the initial results did not provide a clear answer, she began refining the project around more specific manufacturing and warehousing measures.
The Access Piece
Paid time to pursue a question.
UTEP’s Office of the President supported the program in part through the Les and Harriet Dodson Endowment Fund. That support, along with funding from Hunt College, covered student pay and faculty mentorship.
The paid structure made summer research possible without asking students to choose between the experience and paid work.
The program gave students time to stay with a question, work through uncertainty, revise their approach, and produce something of their own.
What Comes Next
A clearer next step.
For Sepulveda, the experience clarified her next step.
“This experience helped me understand that I want to pursue a master’s degree in the future,” she said.
