• To foster closer research partnerships between faculty members and students
• To create opportunities for student leadership through research and professional-level scholarly activity

Carleton’s long-standing commitment to teaching engages both students and faculty members in an environment that provides rich collaborative experiences to all members of the learning community. While opportunities for student and faculty collaboration on research and scholarly activity exist throughout a student’s academic career, the most beneficial opportunities for professional-level interaction at Carleton are the senior comprehensive exercise and summer research projects.

The Senior Comprehensive Exercise

Opportunities for students to do significant, meaningful independent work in close collaboration with a faculty member are the hallmark of Carleton’s senior comprehensive exercise, or comps, as the process is commonly called. Technology is changing the nature of these student and faculty interactions. Today, students have desktop access to data, research done by others, and visual and narrative information, which brings multiple opportunities for project-based, authentic scholarly activity across the disciplines. Students are able to design and conduct sophisticated research projects, engaging faculty members in partnerships that differ according to each student’s interests.

Gifts to the endowment will enable Carleton to continue its commitment to providing these unique educational opportunities.

Summer Research Opportunities

A particular strength of Carleton’s undergraduate science curriculum is the quality of research experiences available for science majors. Each summer, 40 to 50 junior and senior students engage in guided independent research with faculty members, supported by external grants from the National Science Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and other agencies.

Carleton increasingly recognizes that early (first- and second-year) research experiences are key to student success and achievement in the sciences, particularly among women and students from traditionally underrepresented groups. Students’ earlier and continued involvement in scientific research provides opportunities for student-to-student mentoring and leadership, as well as deepening and accelerating students’ scientific understanding.

Summer research opportunities extend beyond the sciences to creative endeavors in arts and literature. In the humanities and social sciences, students are involved in small-group, interdisciplinary-based projects, with each student bringing disciplinary expertise to bear on a broader problem while she or he is engaged in a mentoring relationship with a faculty member. The College also recognizes the need for student and faculty collaborative projects that build on and strengthen students’ off-campus studies experiences.

This campaign presents opportunities to stabilize and increase funding for summer student research and scholarly activity through endowment support.