DEPARTMENT of BIOLOGY

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

The department offers excellent experiential learning opportunities through academic internships and undergraduate research, which are especially valuable for students planning to pursue graduate studies, health profession programs, or careers in biology-related fields.

Academic Internships

  • Internships are available and often serve as stepping-stones to employment and entry into professional careers. Although internships are not required for graduation, they are encouraged. Students can earn academic credit for interning through BIOL 461 and 463.

Undergraduate Research 

  • Students engage in undergraduate research alongside faculty mentors in well-equipped laboratories and/or field study sites. They present their findings at local, regional, and national scientific conferences, as well as at the department’s seminar series, where they are honored with a lab coat presented by their faculty mentor. Academic credit for research is available through BIOL 471, BIOL 472, and BIOL 450H.

Awarding of Lab Coats 

  • The Biology Department awards lab coats to students who conduct independent research with faculty members and present their findings at the department's seminar series.

SEA-PHAGES/SEA-GENES  

  • A unique opportunity for freshmen to begin their Winthrop undergraduate career by participating in three semesters of a research project called the SEA Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science and the SEA-Gene function Elucidation by a Network of Emerging Scientists. The research courses are built around a national experiment in bacteriophage genomics and gene function.

Undergraduate Research Support & Fellowships

  • Information about the Luckett Davis Endowment, Undergraduate Summer Science Research Experience Fellowships.

Houk Prize

  • Best Undergraduate Research Project.

The Finding Your Future Program at USC provides meaningful medical experience that will help strengthen your AMCAS (American Medical College Application Service) and/or AACOMAS (American Association of Colleges of Osteopathis Medicaine Application Service) application.

Click on this Finding Your Future Program at USC link for more information.