With generous funding support from the CI Foundation, we are pleased to announce the 9th Annual Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow (SURF) program (2025).
The 2025 Summer SURF Program includes Spring Faculty Development Learning Community and an eight-week faculty-mentored student research collaborative during the Summer.
Please read the entire Request for Proposals before beginning your application.
Purpose
To create meaningful research (by “research” we mean research, scholarship, and creative activities) and professional development opportunities for students who are working on faculty-centered, faculty-mentored research projects.
Faculty benefits
- Faculty development activities throughout the program
- Student research assistance during the summer
- Sustained focus on their research agenda during the Summer
- SURF Faculty receive a $5,200 stipend for participation in both the Spring and Summer SURF program
Students benefits
- Engaging in an intensive, paid, and meaningful research experience
- Professional development opportunities throughout the Summer
- Presenting their research on campus and at an appropriate conferences
- Students may be able to forgo less meaningful summer employment and focus on research
Campus benefits
- Faculty-mentored Summer research presented during the Fall energizes students and faculty, and promotes future interest in faculty-mentored student research
- SURF Faculty Fellows become ambassadors and mentors for other faculty interested in student research
- CI joins the ranks of campuses that offer a Summer Research Programs [1]
Faculty Eligibility
- All faculty (tenure-track and lecturers).
- Previous SURF Faculty Fellows are eligible to apply.
- The call is open with regard to discipline. The Summer SURF Program aims to reflect our campus commitment to interdisciplinarity and our Mission Centers.
Student Eligibility
Any undergraduate student who plans to return to CI in Fall 2025 is eligible to be a Summer SURFer. Seniors graduating in May 2025 are not eligible. Students must be in good academic standing and eligible to be a student employee.
The Student Research Office will publicize Faculty Fellow projects, allow for applications from any eligible student, and collect all applications from participants. Summer SURFers will be selected by SURF Faculty Fellows directing the research project.
The number of SURFers is subject to budgetary constraints - this year we anticipate funding three students per project.
Faculty Roles & Expectations
Faculty Fellows meet multiple times during the Spring Semester (see tentative timeline, below). The focus of the SURF Faculty Fellows Learning Community is to think about creating Summer research experiences for students, discuss strategies for mentoring, and share advice and experiences. If time allows, the SURF Faculty Fellows Learning Community will also discuss strategies for embedding meaningful research opportunities in program curriculum, how to build capacity for faculty-mentored student research on campus, and how to use assessment of student research experience to increase our campus investment in this high impact practice.
Faculty must participate in the Spring Learning Community.
As part of the SURF program, Faculty must:
- Actively participate in the selection of SURF students, meeting review deadlines.
- Attend the SURF Orientation Program in-person (tentative date, Monday, June 2).
- Require students to attend and actively participate in the Summer SURF Interdisciplinary Research Learning Community and Professional Development Workshops (held on Wednesdays during the summer program).
- Be available in-person during the summer to work closely with students. Minimum contact is an average of 10 hours per week.
- Meet twice during the Summer for continuous faculty development and community building.
- Attend the SURF Summer Celebration (Tentative on Friday, July 25)
- Participate in the CSUCI Fall Student Research Showcase (tentatively in September 18, 2025)
Note: Faculty stipends may be adjusted if a faculty member does not fulfill elements of the Faculty Fellowship (e.g. missing faculty-development workshops, Program Orientation, SURF Celebration, etc.)
Student Roles & Expectations
Students are expected to devote the majority of their effort during the Summer to their faculty-mentored research. Students should avoid additional work responsibilities that conflict with the purposes of the program.
Students must:
- Attend the orientation meeting with the Spring Faculty Learning Community (date TBD).
- Attend the SURF Program Orientation in-person (tentative date - Monday, June 2, 2025).
- Be available Monday through Friday, June 2-July 25, to engage in their research project.
- Participate fully in the in-person, Summer Interdisciplinary Research and Professional Development Learning Community (Thursdays).
- Attend and present at the SURF Summer Celebration (Tentative on Friday, July 25).
- Present their research in the CSUCI Fall Student Research Showcase (tentatively in September 18, 2025).
Faculty Application Process
The deadline for faculty applications is February 17, 2025 at 11:59 PM.
To apply you will need:
- A response about the role of mentoring: "How does research mentorship fit into your support for student success, equity, and inclusive excellence at CI?" (about 300 words)
- A response on how you might continue your project after the 2025 SURF program.
- An abstract of the project that you are proposing. Keep in mind:
- your abstract is the primary means of identifying the projects that will be supported
- the selection committee is composed of an interdisciplinary group of administrators and faculty—your project description should be comprehensible to people with diverse intellectual backgrounds
- the abstract should contain a statement about the role that student researchers will play in the project
- the abstract cannot exceed 4,000 characters (about 600 words)
Application Evaluation
Applications are evaluated based on:
- The intellectual and/or creative merit of the proposal based as expressed in the project abstract
- The potential for student involvement in the project as expressed in the project abstract
- Due consideration for disciplinary representation
SURF Faculty Application Link
Timeline
February 17—Faculty Applications Due
February 21 — Faculty Fellows Announced
February 24 —Student Applications Go Live
March 14, 2025 — Student Applications Due
Early April 2025 — Student SURFers announced and notified
SURF Faculty Learning Community (Spring 2025)
- Dates/times to be determined
Mid April – Student Agreement Deadline
SURF Program Begins - Monday, June 2
IRLC Dates: in-person, Thursdays, 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Evaluation Plan
Evaluation of the Summer SURFer program will proceed at two levels, both with pre, middle, and post program design.
- SURF Program evaluation: The program evaluation will reflect NSF best practices for student research developed at, and documented by, Buffalo State College. The core outcome categories are: Communication, Creativity, Autonomy, Resilience, Practice and Process of Inquiry/Creative practice, Disciplinary Knowledge, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Ethical Conduct, Intellectual Development, Culture of Scholarship, Content Knowledge/Appropriate Methodologies.
FAQs
What qualifies as “student research?”
We use the term research to encompass “research and creative activities.” The key components of student research involve faculty mentoring students through a meaningful, discipline-appropriate, activity intended to produce an “outcome” consistent with disciplinary standards.
I already engage in student research. Why do I have to be part of the Faculty Learning Community?
The Faculty Learning Community is not intended to “teach you how” to do student research. It is intended to share experience and knowledge among faculty participants and help us to improve our practice of student research. Already do student research? Great! We have a lot to learn from you.
I was a SURF Fellow last year. Can I apply again?
Yes.
I was a SURF Fellow last year. Do I have to participate in the Learning Community?
Yes. We will look to you for leadership in the Wednesday community meetings. You can help the students new to SURF get the most from these meetings.
Who chooses the student SURFers?
The Student Research Office will host the applications for the SURF 2023 program and allow all students to apply for your project. We will advertise the program, but we hope that all the SURF Faculty Fellows will also advertise the program to students in their networks. In the end, the final decision for which eligible students work on which project is up to the project mentor.
I have a student who is graduating this Spring (2025). Can they participate in the Summer SURFer program?
No. Our various funding sources do not allow us to fund students who will not enroll at CI in the Fall.
Do participating students need to be rising Seniors?
No. In fact, choosing students who are rising Sophomores and Juniors allows their long-term involvement in student research. Students do need to be in good academic standing.
It seems like this is costing a lot of money. Why are we spending all this money on this?
On a per-student basis, the cost of the program is similar to what the IRA Committee contributes for students engaged in UNIV 392 courses. Like UNIV 392, student research is considered a High-Impact Teaching Practice. The stipulation of President Rush’s earmark was to fund “such programs as undergraduate research, faculty development, and faculty research.” Funding levels are on par, and were informed by, similar programs on other campuses.
Who put this program together?
Faculty and administrators on the Student Research Advisory Committee designed the program. The previous members of the Subcommittee on Budget and Funding Opportunities are Ruben Alarcon, Ahmed Awad, Matt Cook, Scott Frisch, Colleen Harris, Jason Isaacs, Kimmy Kee-Rose, Sean Kelly, Mary Laurence, Sohui Lee, Kathryn Leonard, Jason Miller, and Amanda Quintero. Though these individuals contributed to the large program components and how they fit together, each year the SURF Faculty Fellow help adjust program content to meet the needs of the students in the program and to take advantage of the skills, talents, and experience of the faculty mentors.
Why did these people get to design the program?
They were all long-term supporters of undergraduate research at CI and in North America who had volunteered for the Student Research Advisory Committee and the Subcommittee on Budget and Funding Opportunities.
I want to be involved in these kinds of decisions and/or the SRAC. Who do I contact?
Contact Ahmed Awad (Ahmed.Awad@csuci.edu)
Will students live on campus?
Students who need to stay on campus will be able to arrange accommodations through Housing. Students will need to make arragnements on their own. Students are not required to live on campus.
Footnotes
[1] The Council on Undergraduate Research includes summer research programs among its Characteristics of Excellence in Undergraduate Research They observe that:
A robust summer research program is essential to a vibrant undergraduate research environment. For students, the summer months offer a time when they can concentrate exclusively on a research project, without competing interests and responsibilities. For faculty at more teaching-intensive institutions, the summer months provide the only time during the calendar year when faculty can focus their efforts exclusively on research. For faculty at all institutions, this is a time with fewer external and institutional commitments, and it can afford the opportunity for more intensive mentoring of undergraduates (16).
Universities in our region that offer similar programs range from Mount St. Mary’s and Whittier College to UCLA and USC.