Doing Research Remotely: How I Felt Seen for the First Time
In 2024, I had the opportunity to complete an independent research project with funding from a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) through the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research. My project focused on how stress and mental health impact reward-based decision making by college students. I had a unique experience of performing my experiment and analysis completely remotely. This involved recruiting participants to complete the study through Qualtrics, and having weekly check-ins with my mentor to discuss my progress. This came with challenges like being isolated and needing to wait for a response to questions. But being able to do research from home so that I could be with my family was, and still is, important to me.
At first glance, my research process seemed easy. I had to pick music for my study out of a list that had been used in other studies, run the study, analyze it, and write a report. Easy, right? Wrong. Each part of the way there was a roadblock I had to conquer independently. There was much time spent going back and forth, sometimes lasting a couple of days, trying to find the right music to fit each condition of the study: one with calm music (Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major, KV218, Mvt 2 by Mozart ) and one with stressful music (“Night Flight,” Exorcist II, by Ennio Morricone). I also spent a lot of time online teaching myself how to analyze data in new ways I had not learned in my statistics class. Despite the challenges I faced, completing this research made me feel like I was being seen for the first time. I had so much independence, and I could make the choices I wanted to within reason. Being on my own was sometimes lonely, but talking to my peers who were doing their own research was a big help.
I continued being remote into the fall semester. I started to write a research brief for Inquiry, UNH’s online undergraduate research journal. This involved a lot of back and forth between my mentor and the editor, replying to suggestions and revising in an acceptable amount of time. Balancing everything came at a cost.
I had to find time throughout my day to balance finding a job, visiting my mom who was at the time critically ill in the hospital, and completing the academic work I was passionate about. Although this was challenging, there were parts that I loved. I loved working on my own schedule and meeting deadlines, learning how to do a more advanced analysis even if I struggled a bit, and being able to do this research from the comfort of my room or the ICU waiting room. Having the opportunity to do research remotely felt like something that was a silver lining at this time of adversity.
In the end, I completed my SURF project, presented it at UNH’s Undergraduate Research Conference (URC), and published my research in Inquiry’s spring issue. Having my research poster featured at the URC felt so rewarding after all the long nights I spent doing this research and writing about it. My experience showed me how important it is that research is accessible to anyone regardless of their situation. Giving students this opportunity provides them with academic freedom that leads to personal growth.
