"Undergraduate research is, very simply, the reason I am where I am today. As the first child in my family to attend college, I had no idea what I was in for. I was accepted to the University of Kentucky and offered admission into their Honor's Program. As a freshman, I was exposed to a number of very talented and dedicated professors, and one young professor in particular (an alum of the University of Iowa, by coincidence) was willing to invite me into his laboratory and show me what research in the biological sciences was all about. He showed me what being a faculty member was like and directed me toward graduate school. We ultimately published a paper together and he even helped me gain some teaching experience as a freshman lab instructor during my junior and senior years. I am forever grateful to him and to the experience for launching my career into higher education."
Sally Mason
President
University of Iowa
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