Our laboratory typically has 3-5 undergraduate volunteers or independent study students every semester.  Because we work on long term, chronic diseases in live animal models, we encourage applications from freshmen and sophomores, though also welcome upper class students and there is no pre-requisite knowledge, skill, or experience required to work in our group.

Students begin by volunteering to assist one of our graduate students or post-docs. As our research is unlike anything most undergraduate students have experienced, so this trial period gives both the student and the lab time to ensure the fit is good and develop low-stress time management flexibility. Once the student has demonstrated sufficient responsibility and trustworthiness, we encourage our undergraduates to progress to independent study projects, which continue to be supervised by one of our graduate students or post-docs but allow more ownership by the undergraduate student. Our undergraduate volunteers perform real lab work and develop marketable professional skills while building their resume/CV with summer fellowship applications, regional and national conference participation, and authorships on papers.

If you are interested in working on an undergraduate project, please contact Dr. Kloefkorn to see if the lab has positions available or find us on OSU's URSA Engage. If so, prospective students will have a short introductory meeting with Dr. Kloefkorn, followed by attendance to a Kloefkorn Lab Meeting, and individual meeting(s) with the current undergraduate researchers.