Research Assistant (RA) Information

Common Questions:

Why be an RA?

• Being an RA allows you the opportunity to receive valuable experience in research. This is especially helpful for fields in psychology/social, medical, and biology practices. It is even more helpful for people who plan on attending graduate school in one of these disciplines. 

• For undergraduates, being able to participate in research is also a helpful way to ‘try out’ research as a practice. Being able to discern that you love/dislike doing research can help guide your career/graduate studies path! 

• RA’s also have the added benefit of being able to use what they have learned in the classroom, in practice. Hands-on opportunities to learn and reinforce concepts that increase the understanding of many topics. 

• Being an RA is not a huge time commitment, as you dictate how much you want to get out of the experience with how much time you put in!

• Valuable opportunities like giving presentations at Stander or writing publications can improve application readiness for graduate school!

What do we look for in an RA?

• We look for individuals who are interested in research and ready to be involved! 

• We encourage people from majors related to social, educational, and medical/biological sciences, and undergraduate students are highly encouraged to submit an application. 

• Preferably, RA’s have some experience working with children. 

• We encourage people who are timely, organized, and positive to join our team!

What do RA’s do?

• RA’s might do one or many different things and that depends on the RA’s personal interests and choice in commitment! Some examples of things RA’s do in our lab are listed below. 

• Read books and administer assessments to children, or watch videos and note data. 

• Help maintain the lab.

• Help revise protocol, or review manuscripts.

• Prepare a literature review, or a stander presentation (juniors and seniors this is a great way to get connected and gain experience in research presentations).