Research: Upon graduation, honors students will have demonstrated the ability to exhibit information literacy skills, synthesize and integrate ideas, produce original research or creative works, and contribute to knowledge.
Research Synthesis
When I first began the Honors program, I did not think there would be many rich, exciting opportunities to learn how to research and apply it to my future career. However, I have been able to participate in many unique and valuable types of research during my time at Minnesota State University, Mankato. I began the process of becoming a research all-star by learning how to develop my information literacy and synthesis skills. I then began to do my own original research and studied how to efficiently disseminate what I’d learned.
My first contact with research at MNSU was during freshman year in my Honors FYEX class. In this class, I learned that I was not quite as informationally literate as I had assumed I was coming out of high school. I was also able to learn how to efficiently synthesize the information I’d researched into a cohesive hypothesis or thesis statement. During that same semester, I was also able to integrate my newfound research skills into the Philosophy Paper I wrote for my Intro to Ethics class. I improved my skill of downsizing pertinent information I’d find during my research into smaller, manageable chunks for the people consuming my writing, and helped me be more open to research topics that were outside of my comfort zone. That spring, I got to continue applying my literacy and synthesis skills in my final Geography Paper for my Intro to Geography class. This essay gave me practice on the art of writing a cohesive research narrative and helped me gain discernment of high quality vs. poor quality research.
My second year in school, I was able to pivot to doing original research and disseminating said research. My first opportunity for original research was in my Exploring Personal Leadership class. I was able to research homelessness and near-homelessness in addition to developing a project that would help spread awareness of those communities in the Mankato area. I got to see research as a beginning-to-end process during this experience. I also got to practice research from beginning to end in the Integrated Business Experience that same semester. In this experience, I got to research and build an entire financial information system for my company, as well as analyzing financial scenarios for my company’s loan. I gained a lot of knowledge on how to most efficiently complete the research process. I also got experience in disseminating the results of my company’s research and performance to interested parties. My newfound knowledge in original research and dissemination from these two experiences helped me greatly when I was preparing an Accounting Presentation for my Intermediate Financial Accounting II class. This helped show me what information needed to be shared, and helped hone my presentation skills to be a clear and concise speaker.
Throughout all my research experiences at Minnesota State, I have seen tremendous growth in my ability to comprehend and analyze complex – and sometimes contradictory – information. I have learned that the purpose of research is to gain an understanding of a topic that can then be shared with other interested people, and am excited to grow these skills during Graduate School and, afterwards, implement them into my career as a CPA!
My first contact with research at MNSU was during freshman year in my Honors FYEX class. In this class, I learned that I was not quite as informationally literate as I had assumed I was coming out of high school. I was also able to learn how to efficiently synthesize the information I’d researched into a cohesive hypothesis or thesis statement. During that same semester, I was also able to integrate my newfound research skills into the Philosophy Paper I wrote for my Intro to Ethics class. I improved my skill of downsizing pertinent information I’d find during my research into smaller, manageable chunks for the people consuming my writing, and helped me be more open to research topics that were outside of my comfort zone. That spring, I got to continue applying my literacy and synthesis skills in my final Geography Paper for my Intro to Geography class. This essay gave me practice on the art of writing a cohesive research narrative and helped me gain discernment of high quality vs. poor quality research.
My second year in school, I was able to pivot to doing original research and disseminating said research. My first opportunity for original research was in my Exploring Personal Leadership class. I was able to research homelessness and near-homelessness in addition to developing a project that would help spread awareness of those communities in the Mankato area. I got to see research as a beginning-to-end process during this experience. I also got to practice research from beginning to end in the Integrated Business Experience that same semester. In this experience, I got to research and build an entire financial information system for my company, as well as analyzing financial scenarios for my company’s loan. I gained a lot of knowledge on how to most efficiently complete the research process. I also got experience in disseminating the results of my company’s research and performance to interested parties. My newfound knowledge in original research and dissemination from these two experiences helped me greatly when I was preparing an Accounting Presentation for my Intermediate Financial Accounting II class. This helped show me what information needed to be shared, and helped hone my presentation skills to be a clear and concise speaker.
Throughout all my research experiences at Minnesota State, I have seen tremendous growth in my ability to comprehend and analyze complex – and sometimes contradictory – information. I have learned that the purpose of research is to gain an understanding of a topic that can then be shared with other interested people, and am excited to grow these skills during Graduate School and, afterwards, implement them into my career as a CPA!