Research Club, founded by junior Angela Zhang, is geared to help members improve in scientific research, writing, and presentation
If teachers start seeing improvement in students’ research papers, the Research Club, founded by junior Angela Zhang, may have something to do with it.
Co-advised by AP Biology teacher Renee Fallon and chemistry teacher Kavita Gupta, Research Club had its introductory meeting on Jan. 27 where officers Zhang, junior Hemanth Kini and senior Ratnalekha Viswanadham spoke to a full house in D206. The main purpose of the club is to guide members through a learning process that will enable them to enter scientific competitions such as the California State Fair. All three officers, who are experienced in research or competing, will help members acquire skills in scientific writing, project planning, and presentation.
According to Zhang, anyone can join Research Club and become successful in competitions, as long as they put their effort into it. The experience of competing has many positives—participants have the chance to earn scholarships, award money, meet Nobel Laureates, and travel abroad. However, everyone has to start somewhere, and for beginners with minimal experience, the Research Club is ideal.
“We encourage students to come with different backgrounds and different interests, because this allows for better collaboration and team projects,” Zhang said.
The Research Club will help members new to research choose which areas of study they want to explore and determine the competitions available to them. However, not all prospective members went to the meeting to learn about competitions. Junior Bhavana Rai is interested in applying for research internships, and has been for several years, but was unable to find any that she could qualify for. Now, she is turning to the Research Club and its community.
“I wanted to get more exposure and talk to people who have already participated in [research internships],” Rai said. “[I’ll be keeping] competition as an option.”
Whether one joins Research Club for competitive purposes or for prospective internships and jobs, the officers reiterated that research is a good skill all around.
“If you plan to become a scientist, you need to be able to present your info and you need to be able to ask the right questions and get the right data,” Kini said. “You have to put this data into a format that everyone can understand.”
