SIS Students Shine at NCUR
In a testament to the outstanding abilities of our undergraduates, the School of International Service sent 10 students to this year’s National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), which was held April 7-9. This marks the 11th year in a row that every applicant who worked with the SIS Undergraduate Research program before applying was accepted.
The annual conference highlights the achievements of undergraduate researchers, bringing together thousands of students from across the US every year. This year’s conference was held in Pittsburgh, PA, and was attended by more than 4,000 students.
Getting accepted to the conference is a massive accomplishment and serves as an “immediate attention-getter” on a résumé, said SIS professor and undergraduate research coordinator Aaron Boesenecker.
“I always hear from students that doing this [conference] is very much an empowering experience,” Boesenecker said. “We know our students do a whole range of things, and not everyone is a researcher, but from those that find their home in this world of research, something like NCUR is empowering.”
The delegation of SIS students accepted to this year’s conference gave presentations on a wide variety of research topics. In some cases, students selected from SIS for NCUR began their projects in SIS-206 and SIS-306—the required research courses for undergraduates at SIS—and in other cases, students developed their research as part of a senior capstone or honors thesis.
Megha Rastogi, SIS/BA ’25, a member of this year’s delegation to NCUR, presented research entitled, “Khaana Khazana: Food Labor in Cosmopolitan India,” which focused on food labor in Mumbai. Through the ĢƵ Summer Scholars and Artists Fellowship, Rastogi was able to travel to Mumbai for a week last year and conducted interviews with chefs across the socioeconomic spectrum for her research.
Presenting at NCUR was Rastogi’s first experience at a student research conference. Participating in the conference allowed Rastogi to reflect on her time as an undergraduate at SIS and celebrate her work. Looking ahead, Rastogi plans to refine her research article before submitting to publications this summer.
“In my last three years at ĢƵ, research has been such a big part of everything I’ve done,” Rastogi said. “I was an Olson Scholar; I did field work through an award with Olson Scholars; I went internationally for the Summer Scholars and Artists award. It was really nice to see the culmination of all that work that I’ve done at NCUR and really get to see the fruits of my labor.”
In addition to presenting, students who attend NCUR have opportunities to connect with fellow researchers and academics at the conference who share similar interests. That was a highlight for Paula Akakpo, SIS/BA ’26, whose research focused on the different ways leaders use traditional nationalism. Akakpo studied the ways three of Togo’s presidents used traditional nationalism throughout their terms.
“I was interested in this topic because I am West African, and I'm also Togolese, so I always had exposure to the idea that there are authoritarian leaders in Togo, or at the very least, leaders that are not democratically elected,” Akakpo said. “I've always had a curiosity about it because of just how present it was throughout my life, so it felt very natural for me to study them.”
When it came time to present at the conference, Akakpo was nervous but prepared, thanks to the practice sessions she and other SIS students in the delegation went through together ahead of NCUR.
“I was really comfortable presenting because I had done it so many times before [the conference],” Akakpo said. “The highlight for me was getting questions afterwards about my research. It was a really positive experience.”
Another student in this year’s NCUR delegation, Flynn Gray, SIS/BA ’26, presented research that explored discrepancies in US refugee resettlement funding across the US. Growing up in Minnesota, Gray was surrounded by a large population of refugees and immigrants, and this inspired him to investigate inequities in the funding mechanisms for refugee resettlement across states.
“My research explores why there isn’t a uniform payment amount given to each state or given to each refugee, and through my research, I found that the funding amounts given to states are influenced by the actions of 10 voluntary nonprofit agencies,” Gray said. “I performed linear regression analysis and means testing, and all of my results were statistically significant, leading me to believe that the nonprofits have economic motives to resettle refugees.”
Gray described presenting at NCUR as a fun experience. As he looks for opportunities to publish his research in academic journals in the coming months, he said that NCUR gave him greater “confidence in his research abilities” and appreciation for the research skills he has developed during his time at SIS.