House Life

House Life

College House Undergraduate Research Program

At Penn, undergraduates learn how to be researchers! In support of these efforts and other fellowships, College Houses & Academic Services and the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF) coordinates one of the only interdisciplinary support programs on campus.  Each College House selects a Research Fellow (RF) who is given academic and monetary support to pursue an one-year research project of their own design. As the research project draws to a close, Research Fellows also have opportunity to present their research at our yearly College Houses Research Showcase.

Some of the topics that our fellows have researched in past years can be seen here.

Ellie McKeown, 2023-24 Harnwell Research Fellow "[The Undergraduate Research Program] is a fantastic program that certainly helped me really develop my proposal and research skills. While guided by both faculty and mentors, it also allows a lot of room to research something that specifically interests you and hone the skills you want to develop. The guidance from the faculty and from mentors is additionally very valuable and they are always there to go to if you need some help."
Ellie McKeown, 2023-24 Harnwell Research Fellow

Goals of the Program

• To involve more undergraduates in research at all levels and in all disciplines
• To provide instruction on how to put together a fellowship or research proposal
• To increase student contact with faculty inside and outside of the College Houses
• To build intellectual community within and across the Houses
• To give students tools for success that they can use inside and outside of the classroom (not only writing and research, but also public presentation/speaking, interacting with peer researchers, and event planning)

Role of the College House Research Fellow

Every College House RF will serve as a resource to other undergraduates, particularly residents of the House that selected him or her. They will have the responsibility for planning and organizing one or two informal research events for College House residents.

Each individual College House may further define the role of their particular research fellow, who may be asked, for instance, to present their research to other residents, or to help mentor the candidates preparing to apply for the following year's RF position.

Sometime after they are selected, the RFs will receive a short list of dates to hold the following spring semester for dinners and meetings with other College House RFs.

All RFs will work directly with faculty and staff in College Houses as well as the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CURF).

Applications OPEN now! Click here to apply.