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Tentative date for next year's URCAS: Fri., April 25, 2025!

NMSU has a longstanding and vital tradition of undergraduates working with faculty to advance their fields through hands-on, engaged research and creative activity. These are activities that may:

• Seek to answer real questions
• Address issues and ideas
• Express artistic visions
• Develop new designs
• Make and support claims

Research and creative scholarship cultivate rigorous habits of thinking and engaging with a field. The  National Council on Undergraduate Research calls it "an inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate student that makes an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline" (NCUR, 2021).  

Research and creative activity take many forms and can be structured in many different ways.  Your major may require a scholarly thesis, capstone project, or a senior recital or exhibition, and/or you may complete this work as an Honors Capstone Project.  In STEM fields, you may find work in a faculty lab or apply for a summer research experience like an NSF-REU.  Or your major might offer an Independent Study, Directed Research, or guided research course in which the class works together on a project from start to finish, like BIO 309.  In other fields, you might collaborate with a research team or work with a mentor on an independent research project or a creative piece. Regional and national organizations may support undergraduates in your field as interns or fellows.  Many research programs at NMSU offer their cohorts special training, professional development, stipends, and other forms of support, with the goal of elevating undergraduate scholarship and advancement to higher degrees.

Whatever your route, the Center for Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity is here to help you explore your interests. Drop by CHC 204 or email Dr. Miller-Tomlinson at tomlin@nmsu.edu.

Browse Opportunities

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First, set aside time to think about your interests.  What questions and activities in your field most engage you?  What are some throughlines that connect these?

Next, get to know your faculty.  Faculty at NMSU are productive scholars as well as teachers.  Professors in your field are engaged in research and creative projects, and some are able to include and mentor undergraduate reesearchers through direct engagement with this faculty-led work. Check out the faculty pages on your department website.  These will describe topics and projects on which your faculty are currently working, often with links to websites for their labs, studios, institutes, programs, or performance calendars. Also look at faculty pages for other departments that are adjacent to your own or that just really interest you. You may be amazed at what your instructors are working on.

At left, Prof. Motoko Furuhashi with metalworking students on Art; at right, Prof. Elba Serrano with students in her neuroscience lab.

You may already have met some of these scholars in your field as instructors or speakers. If not, don't worry. Either way, visit their office hours and introduce yourself. Ask how you can get involved in scholarly activity in your field. If you haven't seen their office hours posted in the halls, ask in the main office of your department where and when they hold office hours. Drop in! This is what office hours are for. If this is terrifying to you, try emailing. But nothing beats saying hello in person.  Also, find out whether there are Research Programs in your field that can help you reach your goals.  Student groups in your major may help point you in their direction.

CURCA activities aim to help you get a foot in the door. 

• Biweekly CrimsonOpps emails include upcoming opportunities you might consider. 
• At the fall Research and Creativity Open House, mentors welcome you into their university labs, studioes, and collections to see what research looks like in action. 
• The spring Research Programs and Fellowships Night introduces you to programs that support undergraduates with mentor networks, placements, and even funding to do research. 
• Come to URCAS in April to discover what other students are doing and their stories. 
• And, throughout the year, come to CURCA workshops and open office hours in CHC 204.

For more tips on getting started and student testimonials, go this Resources page.

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Have Questions? We are here to help.

• Check out our Frequently Asked Questions page.  
• Email Dr. Tracey Miller-Tomlinson at tomlin@nmsu.edu to drop in during office hours or schedule an appointment.

Photo Credits: Juried Student Art Show in Williams Gallery, photo by Robert Yee; Professor Elba Serrano, in yellow, works with students in her lab, photo by Darren Phillips; Michael Murphy presentes research at the Undergraduate Research and Creative Arts Symposium, photo by Robert Yee.