Depression is a mental health concern for many students and is prevalent among undergraduates at a concerning rate. It has also been shown that underserved and underrepresented individuals in science are disproportionately impacted by depression  ( Turner and Noh, 1988 ,  Eisenberg et al., 2007 ; Jenkins et al., 2013 ; American College Health Association, 2018 ).  If we want to create a more inclusive community in science, we should consider how students’ depressive symptoms interact with their research experiences. However, there is a lack of understanding of the relationship between undergraduate research and students’ depression. A recent study published by the Biology Education Research Lab at ASU begins to explore how depression impacts undergraduate research experiences, as well as how these research experiences affect students’ depression.                      Depressive symptoms affect undergradua...

Why undergrads consider leaving research and what research labs can do to help students thrive Participating in research as an undergraduate is well known to benefit students as they develop into confident and skilled researchers. Students can hone their technical skills, critical thinking, and ability to collaborate and communicate their findings. Despite these benefits, some students still decide to leave their undergraduate research labs prior to completing their undergraduate degree. If these experiences are so beneficial, why are students leaving them prematurely? A group of researchers, including 14 undergraduate students participating in ASU’s LEAP Scholars program , set out to answer this question. They surveyed life sciences students from 25 research-intensive public universities nationwide who were currently participating in or had previously participated in undergraduate research. Surprisingly, half of the students surveyed considered leaving their undergraduate resear...