TRI-PATH has allowed Evelyn Zhang to focus on research full time rather than fitting it around her demanding fall and spring academic schedules. (Photo by Travis Stanley/Trinity Communications)
TRI-PATH Gives Students the Confidence to Succeed in Research
For many first-year students, the hardest part of undergraduate research is often figuring out where to begin. Finding a mentor, understanding how research groups operate and learning the unwritten expectations of academic discovery can feel intimidating at times, especially for students who have never stepped foot into a research environment.
This summer, the Undergraduate Research Support Office (URS) launched a new summer program to make those first steps easier: TRInity PATHways to Research Program (TRI-PATH).
Designed for rising Trinity sophomores who are curious about research and want to build their skills, TRI-PATH welcomes them at all stages of their research journey. Whether students are exploring research opportunities for the first time, have learned about them but not yet gained hands-on experience or are building on work they’ve already done, TRI-PATH provides the foundation and support to help them grow as researchers.
Through three connected experiences — a credit-bearing Foundations of Research course, full-time work with a faculty mentor and a cohort of peers navigating the research process together — TRI-PATH provides an immersive introduction to research, along with a $3,000 fellowship stipend.
The program is a reimagining of the BSURF fellowship, which had supported students pursuing purely biological research. When Jessica Harrell joined Duke as the director of URS in 2023, she saw an opportunity to expand that focus.
"One of my priorities was to rethink how URS could broadly support undergraduate students over the summer who are interested in a variety of fields," Harrell explains. "Because research looks different across disciplines, it’s difficult to create a one-size-fits-all experience, but I wanted a credit-bearing course and an individualized research experience that gave students foundational skills and exposed them to the many ways research happens across our campus — while also opening doors for those who might not feel comfortable or confident when navigating the whole process."
Those opened doors have invited the inaugural cohort of 18 students into a wide range of research experiences.
At the bench, never alone
For Evelyn Zhang, a future pre-med student interested in reconstructive plastic surgery, her research takes place at the lab bench. Through TRI-PATH, she is gaining hands-on experience in biomedical research with Jun Chen in his hematologic malignancies and cellular therapies laboratory, contributing to projects focused on radiation injury and CAR T-cell therapies.
Before joining the Chen Lab, she imagined research as a steady stream of experiments. Instead, Zhang has discovered that much of research happens before anyone picks up a pipette: Reviewing scientific literature, identifying unanswered questions and designing studies are all critical steps in the process.
She has also learned that failed experiments are not setbacks but opportunities to understand a question from a different angle. Her biggest reward, however, has been the mentorship. Working alongside graduate students has shown Zhang that research is not something students navigate alone.
“My bench mentors have been amazing and supportive,” she shares. “I’ve learned so much and built close relationships.”
Although Zhang joined Chen’s lab before TRI-PATH launched, the program has allowed her to focus on research full time rather than fitting it around her demanding fall and spring academic schedules. The immersive experience has strengthened her technical skills and confidence, inspiring her to pursue an independent study and eventually a senior thesis.
That kind of guidance is exactly what Harrell hopes every TRI-PATH student gains this summer because research often comes with implicit expectations: how to communicate with mentors, ask for help, navigate new spaces and understand roles within a research group.
“My hope is that we can give this cohort the tools and confidence needed to successfully navigate research spaces at Duke,” Harrell says. “These lessons apply whether a student's research takes place in a biomedical laboratory, an archive or a community halfway around the world.”
Beyond the bench, finding research everywhere
For TRI-PATH students like Morgan Augustine, research happens far from a traditional lab bench.
Augustine is working with Brandon Knettel, associate professor of Nursing and Global Health and associate director of the Center for Global Mental Health. Knettel’s research team is studying interventions to support mental health treatment in diverse global settings, including people living with HIV in Tanzania.
Augustine's work includes helping develop NIH grant proposals and conducting background research for a new clinical trial that will be implemented in a Tanzanian emergency department. She is also supporting a systemic review project, compiling global research data on taboos and stigmas related to menstruation and access to menstrual products. Unlike many in her cohort, she conducts her research virtually.
Before joining the lab, Augustine understood that research extended beyond laboratory science but had never seen what that looked like in practice. "I always knew social science and humanities research existed," she says. "But it was hard to conceptualize what that looked like until I started working with Dr. Knettel and saw how his team conducts research."
That experience has reshaped how she thinks about both research and her own future. Augustine arrived at Duke interested in global health but uncertain about where to focus. After working with Knettel's team, she has refined her Program II proposal to explore how multiple minority identities influence access to reproductive healthcare.
"It gave me a much more well-rounded perspective on what research is," Augustine says. “The work extends beyond campus, and members of our team are working actively in Tanzania, learning from and collaborating with community stakeholders.”
The summer also expanded her sense of what it means to be part of a research community. Through TRI-PATH, she connected not only with Knettel's team but also with faculty, staff and students across the Center for Global Mental Health, gaining a broader understanding of the questions researchers pursue and the many ways scholarship can create real-world impact.
Despite spending part of her summer on campus, Augustine says the experience was an easy decision. "Our time at Duke is really short," she says. "I don't have any regrets about coming back to campus and getting to work on something I'm passionate about."
Harrell says that helping students discover that research takes many forms is exactly what TRI-PATH was designed to do.
“Students may arrive to the program thinking the only types of research occur at the laboratory bench,” she says, “but by learning alongside peers who are studying everything from cancer biology to economics and global health, they begin to see the breadth of scholarship taking place across Duke.”
