Under my guidance, undergraduate (UG) students have the opportunity to seek training in a variety of ways, including teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and Honors projects.
PSYC 3808 credit: Teaching Assistantship (3 credit hours)
When teaching UG courses, Dr. Bennett often relies heavily on junior and senior UGs to provide guidance for students in her classes. Depending on the semester, she may require assistance from up to 4 UGs. UGs interested in assisting as a teach assistant should have completed the course, earned an A, be comfortable with the material to hold office hours/review sessions, and be interested in helping peers excel in the course. It requires a 9 hour/week commitment and students who have taken the course with me are preferred.
Interested?
If you are, please complete this application and send it as an attachment along with your unofficial transcript verifying your letter grade for the course you’d like to assist with to jbenne70@uncc.edu.
PSYC 3806 credit: Research Assistantship (1-3 credit hours)
StressWAVES BRL provides an opportunity for UGs to get hands on experience in biobehavioral research. Research assistants will be trained in appropriate ethical research standards as well as the collection, processing, and storage of biological samples like saliva or plasma/serum. UGs are often responsible for guiding participants through the research protocols – giving UGs first hand experience with consenting and interviewing participants, and creating a inviting environment while balancing scientific rigor. UGs having more biological based skills may afford them the opportunity to assist with cell culture, functional immune assays, gene expression, and enzyme-linked immunosorbant-assays (ELISAs).
**Important Note: UGs interested in volunteering (meaning not seeking credit) are welcome to apply to my lab. Some of my best research assistants were those who were not interested in receiving credit, but gaining experience.**
Interested?
Following this link to SWBRL’s website that provides more information about our research and the research assistant application.
PSYC 4701/4702 credit: Honors Thesis (6 credit hours)
Dr. Bennett is part of the Honors faculty and encourages students to seek her out early in their planning. She has overseen both University Honors Senior portfolios and Psychology Honors students’ research projects. Click here to see projects that Dr. Bennett supervised.
The credits outlined above are required for a student to earn Honors in Psychology at graduation. It is a two semester commitment to the development of a research idea and then designing, implementing, analyzing, and disseminating a research project. The course is overseen by Dr. Sara Levens, Director of Psychology’s Honors Program.
Dr. Bennett requires student involvement in the StressWAVES BRL lab for 1 semester at 9 hours/week prior to advising a Honors student through the PSYC 4701/4702 course trajectory. Thus, if you are interested in Dr. Bennett guiding/supervising our Honors Thesis, then you need to become a research assistant in her lab (see above). It is also important to note that being a research assistant in the StressWAVES BRL lab for 1 semester does not mean that Dr. Bennett will automatically agree to advise your thesis.