Undergraduates enjoy rare research experience

Just ask Manuel Perez ’11, who said he never thought working as a research assistant for Spanish professor Arcadio Diaz-Quinones would be such an inspiring opportunity.

“Working with Professor Diaz has been fascinating and has opened me to a world of intellectuals I never knew about,” Perez said. “He knows so much about poets, writers — it’s really impressive.”

Perez works 10 hours each week for Diaz in the Latin American studies program, helping with organizational tasks. Perez said that, over the course of their work together, he has come to view Diaz as a mentor rather than just his boss. Each work session starts with a one-on-one talk about life, work and education, Perez added, explaining that these talks have become a highlight of his week.

Perez found Diaz through the University’s student employment website. After filling out an application and interviewing with Diaz, Perez found himself helping a leading scholar on his research about post-World War II Latin American intellectuals.

“This job is such a great experience because I wanted to learn and make my job meaningful,” Perez said. “Working with Professor Diaz is like getting paid to take a fifth class.”

Perez said that he enjoys his work so much that he plans to take on another research assistant position this semester in the sociology department with Stephen Benz GS, who said the contributions of his undergraduate assistants constitute a vital part of his research.

“The work I’m having my undergraduate workers do doesn’t require a huge subset of skills, but it’s hugely important to my work,” Benz said. “It makes me a little nervous sometimes, how much [my undergraduates’ contributions] matter.”

Benz’ work focuses on gathering empirical, scientific evidence about the portrayal of immigrants in newspapers, he said. His nine undergraduate workers are vital to his work because they are the ones who will read, identify and verify his data.

The key to securing research assistant positions, Benz explained, is keeping an open ear.

Benz said that when he taught an undergraduate class titled “Mexicans and Society,” he announced in his precept that he was looking for research assistants. He stressed to his students that they were paid positions with flexible hours and that it would be easy to learn the skills needed. In other words, this job was perfect for freshmen and sophomores new to research, he explained.

“Undergraduates are really important to research,” Benz said. “Grad students are really busy, and this opportunity is a great way to be exposed to research, and it looks great on a resume.”