Undergraduate Research

Many undergraduate students aspire to conduct research utilizing the resources available from their college institution. This is true many students at Tulane, as many undergraduates expand upon their coursework, relationships with professors, study abroad experiences, and access to labs to conduct research. To begin, there is a database available to all students interested in research pursuits. There are opportunities to find funding, gain research grants, to present at various conferences, and finally to publish your research. You can find more info here. Pasted below are blurbs from various undergrads about their research experiences from Tulane. 

Liberal Arts Research

Presenting my research on "Press
Freedom in Argentina"
in Alabama.

Liberal Arts students have many available opportunities to do research as undergraduates. Many upper-level courses require research projects and other research projects can be counted as academic credit. If students take the initiative, they can meet with their professors to try to publish in an undergraduate journal. For example, in my political science major, I have written three separate research papers of 20 pages or longer, and have had the opportunity to publish these projects with additional research and revisions. Professors are eager to help students pursue the plausibility of getting published. Additionally, there is a new Tulane Undergraduate Research Journal, which seeks research articles from undergraduate students in any major. The forum is specifically targeted for students who have worked with faculty on a research project, like an independent study course or other similar research.

There are also several grant opportunities available for Tulane students to present their research at various conferences. For example, I received a grant from Newcomb College to travel to Birmingham, Alabama to present at the 21st Annual Latin American Symposium at Birmingham-Southern College. About 10 other Tulane students also received these grants, and we were accompanied by a faculty member from the Stone Center for Latin American Studies.

The group after we presented!

Science Research

"My name is Adhira, and I’m currently a freshman here at Tulane. I do research in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology as a Lab Assistant. It’s a work study job, but there are a lot of opportunities available for students who don’t have work study too. I perform behavioral tests on rats and mice in order to check the stress levels in receptors in their brains. These experiments are done for grad students or Dr. Tasker/Dr. Shi for their research. I just perform the behavioral tests and they do the sacrificing of the animals, examining brain slices, etc. This job is useful to me for the experience of working in the lab with animals and will also help me achieve my dream of becoming a doctor. It helped me manage my time as well as learn how to perform these behavioral tests that may be useful to know if Idecide to pursue a career in research."

From the lab.

The Honors Thesis: 

Students in the Honors Program have the option of writing a thesis their senior year. To be eligible to write an honors thesis, a student must have an overall cumulative GPA of 3.4 or higher, and a GPA of 3.5 or higher in their major. The Honors Program guides students through this process, is available for appointments, and provides additional courses to prepare students to develop their topics. The Honors Program is a great resource for students with a high GPA to pursue quality research as an undergraduate.

Junior Year: Juniors have the option to take a 1-credit “Boot Camp” class (graded as satisfactory/unsatisfactory) to prepare them for an honors thesis. The course is designed to lead students through the process of developing research projects and the methodologies they will need to do so. It is designed for students of Social Sciences, Humanities, Public Health, or Business. The Honors Program recommends that students take the Boot Camp course, as there is a big difference in quality between the projects of students who have taken the course and those who have not.

At this time, juniors should also be thinking about potential advisors within their academic major or majors. By the end of the semester, it is important for students to have a good idea of what question their thesis will answer, what the methodology is going to be, and what sources or evidence will be used. It is generally not possible for students to develop a successful thesis in time for the September deadline if they wait until they return to campus for their senior year.

Senior Year: "An honors thesis, although technically a one-year process, really starts at the end of your junior year, when you start identifying a topic that interests you and faculty members that may be able to serve as your readers. The thesis requires a lot of independent work - definitely not a task to be undertaken by procrastinators! In the fall, you submit an overview of your topic and meet with your thesis readers several times to start focusing your research and to create a plan of action. Although the end product seems daunting - mine is 53 pages! - rest assured that there are several checkpoints and your readers are amazing resources to help you if and when you get stuck. By the beginning of the spring semester, you're about halfway through the body of your work, and throughout the rest of the semester, you really drill down on the important aspects of your chosen topic or question. You defend your thesis in front of your readers in April and turn it in right before graduation... And then the celebrations REALLY start!  I've found it to be a great way not only to learn more about a chosen subject, but also to develop research skills, learn time management, and develop a relationship with faculty members. Plus, it's a great tool to have when applying to jobs or graduate schools!" 

- Sophie Cranin, whose thesis is about Girls on the Run and physical activity interventions in New Orleans.

The girls Sophie coaches at Lusher Charter School
in New Orleans.

And The Best Po-Boy Goes To...

Guest Blogger: Sarah Swig

Having familial roots in New Orleans, the po-boy has been my favorite sandwich for some time now. My California friends have a hard time understanding, as we're very accustomed to turkey or chicken clubs with avocado on sourdough bread. But there's nothing quite like the New Orleans po-boy, and I have no shame in saying it's the best type of sandwich I've ever had. The original po-boy included bread, potatoes, and gravy, hence a "poor boy's" sandwich. Now, po-boys are the quintessential New Orleans sandwich, always served on French bread, generally with roast beet or seafood and dressed with mayo, lettuce, and tomatoes. There's even an entire festival in November each year called the Oak Street Po-Boy Festival, which is in walking distance from Tulane's campus.

Since coming to Tulane, my friends and I have explored many po-boy restaurants. Whenever we have visitors in town, we always find the time to try a new po-boy, wanting to try each type of sandwich before we graduate. Yet lately, we always find ourselves returning to one place to eat our favorite po-boy. My five roommates and I all unanimously agree that our favorite po-boy place is Parkway Bakery and Tavern.

Surf and Turf

Their best po-boy, in my humble opinion, is their Surf and Turf: Slow Cooked Roast Beef topped with Golden Shrimp Covered in Gravy. To quote one of my good friends, "the combination of textures between the gravy roast beef and golden crispy shrimp makes my mouth water". It's definitely a mess to eat, but it's so worth it. They have a huge tented seating area which is really awesome for groups, and the restaurant is also right across the street from Bayou St. John, so we sometimes go sit outside by the water to demolish our po-boys. Obama has even been there with his family!

Runner-ups include the Oyster po-boy from Domilise's, the French Fry and Gravy po-boy (but really, any po-boy) from Johnny's in the French Quarter, and finally both the Root Beer Glazed Ham po-boy and the Grilled Shrimp, Fried Green Tomatoes, and Remoulade po-boy at Mahoneys.




So, next time you're in New Orleans, I recommend a trip out to Parkway for a po-boy!!

My visiting friends try Parkway!

Career Development at Tulane

Guest Blogger: Sarah Swig 


As my senior year is rapidly passing me by, I am suddenly forced to make some very important decisions. Where will I go next year? What will I do for work? Who will I live with? When will I start my job? As a Liberal Arts student (Political Science and International Development Double Major, with a Spanish minor), the job possibilities are almost too endless; there are no obvious jobs to which I should begin applying to. I ruled out law school (at least for the time being) after interning with a law firm for eight months, and I am not wanting to immediately jump into any other type of graduate school. So now what?

my basic mentality during my 1st semester, and during Christmas dinner.

I spent my winter break researching careers and trying to figure out where I should go post graduation and what I should do there. However, upon my return to Tulane in the spring, I really began to take advantage of all of the opportunities Tulane has to offer. The three most important and beneficial things that I've done thus far: (1) visit the Career Center (2) attend Tulane's "Career Wave" day, and (3) enroll in a 1-credit Career Development course for Seniors.


1) Career Center 

my new business card!

Here, I got some of the "basics" out of the way. I brought my old resume, and a counselor and I went through each line, removing, adjusting, or revamping each and every aspect of my resume. The Career Center prints our resumes for free, so now I have a beautiful looking resume with all of the pertinent information about me an employer may need. I also now have 40 printed business cards, which the Career Center also prints for free. I've handed a few out and it's been really awesome to have those on hand - rather than having to carry around my resume everywhere I go.



2) Career Wave

This event was held on Saturday, February 8, and was open to Tulane Business and Liberal Arts students of all ages. The event provided an opportunity for us to improve our career planning skills through lectures and panelists, as well as providing an opportunity to hear from and network with Tulane's alumni and parents. The first featured speaker was Lindsey Pollak, a renowned career development expert and LinkedIn ambassador (she's been named one of the 10 Most Visionary Leaders in Career Services). She gave wonderful advice on how to improve our LinkedIn, how to network, what opportunities to take advantage of on and off campus, and how to best manage our "job-seeking" time. Other speakers included Tulane parents, alumni, current students, and Wendy Rothman, Ph. D, a career management specialist and businesswoman.

Students at Career Wave 2014

Each panel provided solid insight and advice for students. After leaving Career Wave, I felt so motivated to push my job search to the next level. I first spent three hours on LinkedIn that night improving my profile, taking much of Lindsey Pollak's advice (we even connected afterwards). I began to make a list of organizations that I am interested in working for, and am now sorting them into categories based off my desire to work there (mostly located in Washington, D.C.). I have spent the last month networking, sending emails to alumni working in the fields I am interested in, and asking friends and family for introductions. I left Career Wave feeling less overwhelmed by my job hunt, and with the feeling of "I can do this!". 

3) Career Development Course

This course has been the most helpful and beneficial part of my career development and job hunt. These optional courses are separated by each grade - freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior - and naturally, the course for seniors is all about networking and job-hunting. My course is set out to teach us 6 things: (1) the components of decision making, (2) how to connect our academic plan to our career plan, (3) interviewing and networking skills, (4) the necessary tools for a successful internship/job search, (5) assessment of personal and work-related values, interests and strengths, and (6) the importance of online career resources (LinkenIn, WaveLink, online job boards, social media, etc.)

We've spent time creating resumes, cover letters, sending professional emails (like asking for an introduction to someone in a field you're interested in, or to an alumni). We've taken various online assessments that show us what our best skills and personality traits are, and moreover how to best utilize these skills in our future careers. We will continue to hone our interviewing skills, learn how to handle business dinners (we will actually go out to a hotel and do this!), and learn how to create our own personal "brand". The class is small - about 12 people, so we are all really forced to do the assigned work each week and share with the class any and all new endeavors. 

Through all of these sources, I feel much more relaxed and at ease about my job search and career development. Tulane has provided me with the necessary information, advice, and skills to set out and make important decisions about my future, and now the ball is in my court to take advantage of and capitalize on these opportunities. Hopefully, by the end of the semester, I'll be writing a blog post about how I've found a job in a city that I am so excited about :).

Valentine's Day: Love Is In The Air at Tulane!

Hey Y’all,

For Valentine’s Day I wanted to do something a little different than the typical “Most Romantic Spots on campus” so I reached out to Nikki and Dan, a couple that met during their time at Tulane.  I hope their love story gives y’all the warm and fuzzies!

How did you two meet?

Nikki: Dan and I first met in the beginning of our freshman year through a mutual friend. Although Dan was my first Tulane kiss (at a fraternity party bus), we just remained friends for the first 3 years of school.  It wasn't until our junior year, that Dan invited me to his Sig Ep Formal in San Destin, FL. We didn't expect it to be a romantic weekend, but somehow by the end of the weekend we were inseparable. From that point forward, we spent every moment together. Four years later we were engaged, and a year and a half after that we were married.  Currently, we are happily married, living in the city we love (New Orleans, of course), in our newly renovate house (a Katrina house, which we gutted and renovated, located blocks away from Tulane), and had our first baby boy this past Christmas. 

What were your first impressions of each other?

Dan: The first thing I noticed about Nikki was her big, beautiful smile.  In fact, I would always go up to her and tell her how amazing her smile was (thinking I was smooth and cool).  But looking back, I sounded more like a pathetic drunk guy trying to get lucky.

Nikki: My first impression of Dan was that he was a very charming guy. He was the "life of the party" and I always had a good time with him. 

What was your favorite NOLA date spot?

Nikki: I’m not sure college life was very conducive to fancy date nights, but our favorite "date spot" during college was the fly. Going to the levee with a blanket, some good food, and a box of wine was our idea of a great date.   

How do you feel that Tulane was a catalyst in bringing you guys together?

Dan: Tulane Greek Life was a huge catalyst in brining Nikki and I together; without it, we most likely would not have found one another.  Throughout college we constantly bumped into each other at a variety of Greek events (ex. date parties, mixers, and fund raising parties). Our social lives revolved around Tulane Greek Life, and the Sip Ep Formal is where our relationship truly began.

BOUNCE MUSIC 101: NOLA’s (formerly) Best Kept Secret

New Orleans is famous for being the home of Jazz music. However, Bounce music is a genre that is so uniquely New Orleans it has only started to receive attention from the country in the last few years. With the re-emergence of “twerking” as a dance trend, more people began to pay attention to where it originated. Bounce music started in NOLA in the late 1980s, and underwent a few shifts before it became what it is today. Future Tulane students should get to know NOLA the way locals do, and what better place to start than with music? 

As a native Louisianian, I grew up with bounce music so it’s as common as any other music genre to me. However, once I came to Tulane I realized that not everyone actually knows what bounce music is. It’s really hard to explain, so I’ll just let y’all hear it for yourselves. “It’s simple, uptempo, heavy bass, call and response type music, and it has a lot to do with a lot of a** shaking,” as Big Freedia once said in an interview. Big Freedia, self-proclaimed “Queen of Bounce” is probably the most famous Bounce artist ever because of her national following and mainstream appeal. She’ll be at Tulane on the 19th of February to discuss race, gender, and cultural appropriation with Tulane professor Marc Perry as a part of the 2014 Black Arts Festival, and I for one am BEYOND excited to meet her. After setting the Guiness World Record for Most People Twerking Simultaneously, her popularity exploded leading to concerts around the nation and her own reality show on FUSE Network, Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce, which follows her rising career and family life. 

Like everything else unique to New Orleans, the best way to understand Bounce music is to experience it for yourself. If you come to New Orleans for a weekend, I can guarantee that more than a few clubs around the city will be playing Bounce music, and Club Republic has a Bounce Night every month, so check it out! Don’t be afraid to search for artists other than the most popular ones. Finding the older or lesser-known artists will give you a really good insight into New Orleans life and culture over the years.

Here’s the video for one of Big Freedia’s biggest hits, “Y’all Get Back Now”: 

And her Guinness World Record Attempt:

Big Freedia follows me on Twitter (seriously), and so should you: @TulaneAlex

50 Years of Desegregation: How Tulane is Celebrating

Guest blogger: Alex Williams

50 years ago, Tulane admitted its first Black students. This school year is a milestone for the university as it celebrates this very important anniversary. As the semester winds down, I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on everything Tulane has done so far to celebrate. In just the first semester of this year, Tulane has had 6 very distinguished speakers, which is almost unheard of. Among them are Michelle Alexander, legal scholar and author of The New Jim Crow, the book that was chosen for Tulane’s first year reading project; prison reform activist Jackie Sumell; and Angela Davis, Freedom Activist and former Vice Presidential candidate. As a freshman, it made me really happy to see how much Tulane does to commemorate important occasions. For more about the actual desegregation, check out this link from Tulane magazine: http://www.pageturnpro.com/Progress-Printing/53269-109569_Tulane-Sept13-Ptp/index.html#16

In addition to featuring a number of speakers, Tulane has held many events to commemorate the anniversary. On November 20, the Tulane Law School held a re-enactment of the court cases that led to Tulane’s desegregation. Current law students played the lawyers and judge. It was moderated by Tulane Law School professor Robert Westley; Laura Adderley, the chair of the African & African Diaspora Studies department; and Carolyn Barber-Pierre, the Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs and director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. Mrs. Barber-Pierre is the head of the committee that is sponsoring these events, which includes panel discussions and documentary screenings. 

“We have so much to learn from our history about race relations, justice, equality and the vestiges of desegregation we are still dealing with today,” says Barber-Pierre. “This re-enactment is designed to get our students thinking about the great injustices of the past and to help them navigate similar situations that are unfortunately still a part of our society in many ways.”

This year, special attention is being paid to the first Black students who attended Tulane, including the ones who filed the initial lawsuit that led to the desegregation. Stephen Martin, Sr. was the first Black scholarship athlete to play at Tulane, and the first Black athlete to play in the Southeastern Conference. Pearlie Hardin Elloie and Barbara Guillory Thompson were the two original plaintiffs in the desegregation case, and are featured in an upcoming documentary about Tulane’s desegregation. This documentary features many other groundbreaking Black students at Tulane, and is slated for release next year. A preview of the documentary as well as a short article about it can be found here: http://cooperproject.org/doctulane50preview/. Marilyn Bernard, a 1968 graduate of Newcomb College and one of the people featured in the film had this to say:

"It’s really interesting. When Carolyn called me and said, ‘It’s been 50 years and we’re doing this documentary.’ I’m thinking it never occurred to me that 50 years later somebody would want to know, ‘How did you feel when you did that, when you went to that school?’ because it was just part of my life. It was just a part of my entire 66 years." -Marilyn Bernard (photo from Tulane Jambalaya, 1968)

Although so much was done this semester, next semester is going to be just as great. More speakers, more events, and more awareness about the issues that we still face today. I will definitely update as the year goes on, so stay tuned!

When I’m not blogging, I enjoy the company of my dog and getting into shenanigans. Follow me on Twitter as I make my way through freshman year! @TulaneAlex

Study Spots

Guest blogger: Mara O'Brien-Hahn

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…finals.  As the dreaded tests approach even the most reluctant studiers are finally cracking the books and attempting to cram an entire semester’s worth of material into their heads.  Luckily, Tulane provides countless study spots and it’s easy to find a location to suit your studying preferences.  Find your “study groove” below and see my suggestions for study spots to fit your style. Happy finals!

Social Studier

For you, studying is just as much about showing off how cute you look in your oversized tortoise shell glasses as it is about learning.  If you’re the kind of studier who loves to be seen and can switch easily between paper writing and chatting, then PJ’s on Willow Street should be your go to study spot.  Grab a latte, park yourself in a booth, and text all of your friends to join you in your prime social studying location.

People Watching Studier

You’re serious about studying and don’t want to be distracted by loud talkers and YouTube video watchers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do some prime people watching while you work.  The Howard Tilton Learning Commons should be your go to spot.  You can check out everyone parading in and out of the library in their comfort-chic apparel while also ensuring you’ll have a relatively quiet environment to work in.  It also doesn’t hurt that you only have to walk ten feet from your computer to get a caffeine boost at the PJ’s in the library as well.

Silent Studier

You are the type of person who gets so in the zone that the drop of a pencil can throw you out of your groove.  Social studiers are your pet peeve and you need a study spot where you’re guaranteed absolute silence.  The James Lounge in the LBC, the Quiet Floors in Howard Tilton, and Nadine Vorhoff Library are all perfect locations for you.  At each of these spots you’ll have a silent space to crank out that final paper. Fair warning, don’t you dare be the person who eat a noisy bag of potato chips in a quiet area or you might be attacked by hoards of angry, sleep-deprived silent studiers.  If these spots ever feel too quiet just plug in your headphones and visit coffitivity.com for some ambient coffee shop sounds.