Jenny Olin Shanahan, director of undergraduate research at Bridgewater State University and executive board member of the Council on Undergraduate Research, is scheduled to give the keynote presentation at NDSU Explore Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 9 a.m. in the Memorial Union Great Room.

Her presentation is titled, "The Transformative Power of Undergraduate Research.” She will explain how participation in high-impact undergraduate research transforms students both during their collegiate experience and well into their post-baccalaureate careers. Shanahan will describe how research provides deeper engagement and marked academic gains.

Shanahan oversees a multidisciplinary student-research grant program at Bridgewater State University, two annual campus symposia of several hundred students’ scholarly work and publication of The Undergraduate Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Work.

She previously was an associate professor of English and director of the honors program at St. Mary's University of Minnesota, where she mentored undergraduate researchers in English and literature. Shanahan has presented more than 30 faculty workshops on the mentoring of student research and writing across the disciplines and has published several articles on integrating undergraduate research in the curriculum, scaffolding scholarly skills from lower- to upper-division courses and managing an undergraduate research program.

Shanahan is executive board member of the Council on Undergraduate Research and a CUR Councilor in the Undergraduate Research Program Directors Division. She earned a doctorate in literature from Marquette University.

As a student-focused, land-grant, research university, we serve our citizens.