The UROP Experience: an interview with Michelle Evangelista and Dr. Sam Holley-Kline

Earlier this year, Dr. Sam Holley-Kline received the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program’s postdoctoral mentor award. Dr. Holley-Kline, whose area of expertise is the history of modern Mexico, is a Dean's Postdoctoral Scholar in FSU’s History Department. Michelle Evangelista (FSU 2023 International Affairs), one of his UROP student researchers, nominated Dr. Holley-Kline for the mentoring award.

UROP introduces undergraduate students to doing research. Open to all first- and second-year undergraduate and transfer students, the year-long program culminates in student-led presentations at the annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. Throughout the UROP experience, students meet with their mentors and UROP leaders regularly for support, feedback, and guidance.

UROP is comprised of three components: the Colloquium, the assistantship, and the presentation. The Colloquium is there to teach UROP students the tools of successful research. The assistantship is where UROP students select and research their project. Here students work with their mentors by conducting archival and library research, compiling data, writing abstracts, and fact-checking sources. The presentation allows UROP students to showcase their findings from their research.

Dr. Holley-Kline created a UROP research project entitled "Histories of Extractivism in Indigenous Mexico." In this project, Dr. Holley-Kline is investigating the “long-term effects of oil exploration on the Indigenous communities of northern Veracruz.” When Evangelista saw the project, she knew she wanted to be a part of it. Her interests in African-American, Indigenous, and Latinx studies, especially how environmental issues impacted different groups in society, tallied very well with Dr. Holley-Kline’s research question.

This was both Evangelista’s and Dr. Holley-Kline’s first experience with UROP. Dr. Holley-Kline had been profoundly shaped by a similar research opportunity as an undergraduate and wanted to share this experience with FSU students. “I was fortunate to have done research as an undergraduate and it was a really formative part of my college experience. I wanted to share that research experience and try to be a mentor for students.”

Evangelista had always been interested in conducting undergraduate research. She found the project when she searched the UROP database for topics relating to Indigenous studies. For Evangelista, UROP is a steppingstone towards pursuing an Honors in the Major thesis -- one of her undergraduate goals. In Dr. Holley-Kline's project, Evangelista focused her research on the societal impact of Petroleos Mexicanos, the Mexican state-owned petroleum company, on the indigenous and lower-income communities of the north Veracruz region. She found that these communities were and are directly affected by air pollution, impacting their health.

Evangelista enjoyed the research work she was doing, it felt more like a hobby to her. She spent about 5 to 10 hours a week researching and then evaluating her evidence. Twice a month, Evangelista attended meetings with her UROP student leader and the other two students who were working with Dr. Holley-Kline. This was a chance to touch-base and receive feedback. Like all UROP students, Evangelista attended the Colloquium, which meets every two weeks with the aim of preparing students to be successful in their research.

Dr. Holley-Kline’s responsibilities included collaborating on different individual projects with the three UROP students that worked with him on the broad research topic, planning monthly meetings to discuss the progress of the individual and overall projects, and check-ins with his research students.

Crucial to the success of Dr. Holley-Kline’s UROP team was his ability to be flexible with and responsive to the students to better meet their needs. These were qualities that impressed Evangelista deeply and prompted her to nominate him for a UROP mentoring awards. As an Afro-Latina student attending a primarily white institution, Evangelista did not expect complete inclusion in all areas of academia. However, Dr. Holley-Kline exceeded her expectations as an educator and guide for students from different backgrounds. 

At the beginning of her UROP year, Evangelista felt pressured to always have the right answers to every question. But she learned that it was okay to not know everything. She recognized that the job of the mentor was to support the student researchers through this process and not to ridicule or blame them for failing to provide the correct answer.

Dr. Holley-Kline echoed Evangelista’s findings: "The challenge was creating a space where students could feel free to not know things, to experiment, and mess things up. In school, it is considered bad to not know something and you can be for it penalized which is not the most conducive form of learning."

This is the core of UROP: creating an environment that fosters student learning through research that interests and engages them. In Evangelista’s view, Dr. Holley-Kline strove to create this environment for all his researchers. He made sure that the students knew and accepted that sometimes, in research, things do not always go according to plans but that it is okay when that happens. The idea of accepting “failure” as a necessary step in research was also a challenge for Evangelista: "Sometimes you plan everything and then nothing goes according to plan. It’s okay if you don’t know the future and don’t plan or things don’t go according to plan. Communicate as it’s okay to need help and reach out."

Both Evangelista and Dr. Holley-Kline found UROP to be a positive and informative experience. Evangelista will be a UROP leader for research students this fall to help them have the same experience she had because of mentors like Dr. Holley-Kline. The year-long experience with UROP offered both student researchers and mentors not only the opportunity of pursuing undergraduate research, but it also allowed them to learn from each other. When asked what they took away from this experience, they responded:

“FSU students – undergraduate students in general - are really sharp and good at research with the right kind of space and support. This is what the UROP experience provides.” -Dr. Holley-Kline

“I enjoy learning new topics, gaining different perspectives, going beyond my interests. We have great professors here in the UROP program. Try and build a relationship with your mentor and try your hardest to expand your knowledge.” -Michelle Evangelista