\u201cI feel that every undergraduate student who comes into my lab needs to have the full research experience and scientific adventures,\u201d Jaga explains. \u201cThey do the whole scientific process: hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and evaluating their data. They thoroughly develop a project and learn to write, to speak, to analyze data and statistics and, in my lab, genetics. They\u2019re not repeating anyone else\u2019s data; they own it.\u201d She adds: \u201cThe mentoring is a team effort and Eileen Chow, who is an excellent Research Assistant in the lab, trains students in everything from keeping flies happy to measuring gene expression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jaga brings undergraduates in her lab into meetings with her entire research team, and students share their findings as full members of the group. \u201cThey see that scientific research is both an individual project and teamwork,\u201d Jaga says. \u201cIt\u2019s rewarding to see how they blossom and develop their own ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trevor Nash, a senior majoring in biology with minors in chemistry and psychology, has experienced this firsthand. He was testing what happens to fruit flies when they live their entire lives in the dark, expecting that fruit flies living in complete darkness would have shorter lifespans.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he comes in with the data and says, \u2018They live longer,\u2019\u201d recalls Jaga, \u201cand I said, \u2018Are you sure?\u2019 He repeated the experiment with the same outcome, and this led the team to look at the effects of blue light on flies, to consider, maybe there is a part of the light spectrum that\u2019s harmful. We credit him with discovering this, and now the whole lab is working on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has so much understanding and patience,\u201d Trevor says. \u201cShe was always teaching and re-teaching, allowing us to make mistakes on our own and trusting our analyses. I feel really lucky. Jaga has been sort of a saving grace for my undergraduate experience. To get involved in research and have success \u2013 it\u2019s not an IQ contest. It\u2019s more about the experience you\u2019ve had. Jaga gave me that experience. She was able to take a student like me, who didn\u2019t have a strong background in science or in a lab, and give me the best OSU experience and education I could have.\u201d<\/p>\n Trevor says Jaga also helped him improve his writing as he practiced compiling findings for journals. He has co-authored posters with Jaga, and she helped him apply and prepare for conferences at Harvard, the University of Central Oklahoma and Stanford \u2013 where his poster was recognized as most outstanding. She urged him to apply for Oregon State\u2019s Undergraduate Research Awards (URSA), to complete a 20-hour certification with the Genome Research Center and she nominated him for various Honors College scholarships and for the<\/p>\n College of Science Student Advisory Board. \u201cLiterally half of my resume is from things she\u2019s encouraged,\u201d Trevor says.<\/p>\n \u201cTime and time again,\u201d Jaga says, \u201cI\u2019ve found [the thesis process] mutually beneficial. It\u2019s a nice contract between student and professor, culminating in an honors thesis. It motivates me to look deeper into scientific questions. Their data are oftentimes part of a bigger project, and I show their data when applying for grants. These students really do help us move the research forward. Without them, we wouldn\u2019t have as many hands, and I wouldn\u2019t be as stimulated to form good questions for them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBeyond the lab, she\u2019s just a fun person to be around.\u201d Trevor says. Jaga knows everyone\u2019s birthdays and has cake or celebrations for all the lab members\u2019 special occasions.<\/p>\n \u201cI try to build their confidence even outside of research. In the lab, we\u2019re like a family. They have a place to come study at night, and we chat as I come to prepare a lecture. They\u2019re part of a group and feel they belong.\u201d She continues to keep in touch with students she\u2019s mentored over the years, even attending many of their weddings.<\/p>\n And no matter what students go on to do in the future, she says, it is important to her to give them a strong foundation in research, which sets them up for success in many fields.<\/p>\n \u201cI want them to have a more fulfilling college experience,\u201d Jaga says. \u201cThey learn critical thinking that you can\u2019t get in regular classrooms; in research, you\u2019re always asking, \u2018How should I interpret my experimental results?\u2019 I love that they take away that basic research is vital for understanding human health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n By Jared Tence: Student, College of Science<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Following years of outstanding mentorship of honors students, Department of Integrative Biology Professor Jaga Giebultowicz was named the Margaret and Thomas Meehan Honors College Eminent Mentor for 2018. This award recognizes one honors faculty member each year for their mentorship of honors students, particularly through the thesis process. Students and recent alumni can nominate their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9506,"featured_media":3488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1205,1163399,82],"tags":[1375,1782,523,911],"class_list":["post-3484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-courses-faculty","category-features","tag-college-of-science","tag-honors-college","tag-research","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9506"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3484"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8781,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3484\/revisions\/8781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/files\/2019\/01\/Jaja-Body-Photo-1.jpg\")
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