News & Events

Jennifer Ward is taking every opportunity she can to prepare for graduate school.

The fourth-year School of Social Work student is one of 56 participants in Ryerson's unique Undergraduate Research Opportunities (URO) Scholars program. For 12 weeks during the summer undergraduate students from across the university are mentored by faculty researchers, getting hands-on experience conducting research and gaining practical skills and knowledge for graduate and post-graduate careers.
 
Providing undergraduate students with direct involvement in scholarly, research and creative activities is an important priority of Ryerson's strategy to enhance student engagement, and it's detailed in the university's academic plan, Shaping Our Future: Academic Plan for 2008-2013. The program is one of several initiatives funded as a 2011-12 strategic investment which reallocates one per cent of base budget reductions to meet priority needs.

Ward is working with professor Jennifer Poole, exploring grief and loss experienced by people with mental health issues and families of heart donors. Ward reviews literature, summarizes readings and meets with Poole once a week to discuss her findings. To Ward's added benefit, the heart transplant aspect of the research has enabled her to work with a team from Toronto General Hospital on secondary analysis.

The task of researching all summer and thinking critically seems almost too good to be true to Ward.

"This is a great opportunity. This is my scholarship so I can make the most of it. I have the flexibility to research what I want," Ward said.

Ward saw the merit in the URO program. She acknowledges that it provides good preparation for graduate studies, opens the opportunity to get published in a peer-reviewed journal and is a valuable qualification to add on a resume.

Halfway through the program, Ward has already seen results. She has been invited to continue working with the Toronto General Hospital team, will be speaking at a conference on health, wellness and society in Chicago in March 2012 and has a paper in review for the journal Canadian Social Work Review.

"I appreciate the time and energy required to do research. I sometimes get discouraged by how much effort it takes to get results but I think of the end goal which reminds me to keep going to get the things I want," Ward said.