UND’s Grand Journey Guides Students Into Undergraduate Research

(Photo By Walter Criswell/UND Today)

(By Walter Criswell. UND Today) – For undergraduates of decades past, research could feel distant. It was something reserved for graduate students or faculty, and separate from the goal of earning a degree.

But UND is determined to change that perception. And one of the ways it’s doing so is through the Undergraduate Research & Scholarly Activity Grand Journey, an event that organizers turned into something students could literally walk through.

Designed as an immersive experience — part guided hike, part road trip — the Grand Journey invited students to follow a mapped path of four “interest points”: Destination Drive, Preparation Point, Exploration Road and Discovery Junction. Each stop represented a different stage in the undergraduate research process.

But instead of starting at the beginning, the path worked backward.