This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program?s objective is to provide undergraduate students with the opportunity to actively participate in policy research, and to attract qualified, interested students, especially minority and women students, to quality Ph.D. programs in economics, public policy, and other social science disciplines. The project will build upon the experience that the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies (AYSPS) at Georgia State University (GSU) has had during the past six years hosting a REU site. Students work one-on-one with a faculty member on a policy research project that is chosen originally by the faculty member, but that evolves with input from the students for the duration of the program,as they become active partners in the research. The AYSPS program seeks to guide, educate, and challenge students in the research process.
" during the summers of 2008, 2009, and 2010. The short-term goal of this Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program is to provide undergraduate students with the opportunity to actively participate in policy research. The program is also intended to achieve the longer-term objective of attracting qualified, interested students, especially minority and women students, to quality Ph.D. programs in economics, public policy, and other social science disciplines. During the three year grant period, we hosted a total of 30 undergraduate interns, many of which came from colleges and universities that do not have a strong focus on research (such as Ithaca College, Berry College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Simmons College, Bard College, and Clayton State University). Among the 30 interns, 19 were female, 6 were African-American, 4 were Hispanic, 4 were Asian, 1 was of middle–eastern dissent, and 1 was handicapped. Each of these 30 interns was assigned a faculty mentor, completed a draft of a research paper and presented the results of their work in a formal presentation at the end of the program. These research papers represent tangible output of the program and provide evidence that the program achieved its short-term objective of getting the interns actively involved in policy research. Our long-term objective is to increase the interns’ interest in graduate studies. In our summer 2008 cohort, 6 of the 10 interns entered graduate programs in economics, education, and business in such top schools as Duke University and Michigan State University. In our summer 2009 cohort, 5 of the 10 interns entered graduate programs immediately upon graduating from their undergraduate institution. One intern enrolled in the joint public policy / MD program at the University of Chicago and the others are participating in policy or economics programs at such schools as the University of Maryland and Northwestern. Our summer 2010 cohort is currently finishing their senior year of undergraduate studies. More than half of this cohort has applied for graduate studies in the fall and some of them have already been offered admission from top schools such as the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina, Cornell, and Georgia Tech. Therefore, in the fall of 2011 more than half of the 30 interns funded under this grant will be enrolled in graduate programs. We expect many of the other interns to pursue graduate studies in the future, since several of our former interns take a few years off before returning to school. We view this as a measure of success in achieving the long-term objective of the program.
