Pioneer Academics

Pioneer alumna, Yoyo, from China, shared her favorite Pioneer memory and offered advice for Pioneer scholars on the research process. Yoyo loved grinding paper at Pioneer and encouraged Pioneer scholars to reach out for help as much as possible, including herself serving on the Pioneer Alumni Advisory Board. She also found Pioneer alumni panels very helpful because scholars got the opportunity to listen to alumni's perspectives and experiences at different stages in life, which inspired her to explore more of her interests. Yoyo is currently majoring in computer science and bioinformatics at the University of Toronto. #PioneerAcademics #Research #Alumni

Pioneer Alumni Ambassador Katelyn, from Beijing, China, participated in a Pioneer research concentration addressing global cyber power, in the research area of political science/STS. In the video, she explains why what she is most proud of about her Pioneer experience is simply finishing a 20-page paper, which was her first research paper, despite meeting many challenges. She chose an ambitious research topic, and accomplished something that she had never imagined being able to do in high school. “That was pretty cool,” she says.

“Aggressive driving is carried out with the deliberate intent to cause harm.” Pioneer scholar Chenxu offers this definition as a way of framing his study and differentiating its subject from risky driving and road rage. Aggressive driving behaviors include tailgating, obscene gesturing, and running red lights. Chenxu’s study is a limited, preliminary experiment to discover if targeted advertising can change drivers’ attitudes or intentions about their own aggressive driving. He designed a scenario that was “deemed believable and effective in inducing frustration,” and then created five ads to try to persuade drivers to drive more responsibly: one unframed, two gain-framed, and two loss-framed. None of the ads was persuasive in changing two of the attitudes that he tested: drivers’ attitudes toward aggressive driving and their evaluation of the ads. However, one gain-framed ad designed to show the removal of an undesirable outcome (a video ad showing a fatal crash involving the driver, a passenger, and other road users) was most persuasive in changing viewers’ intentions to drive aggressively. Chenxu concludes by noting that governments might move beyond regarding advertising solely as the province of marketers selling products, and instead consider it a low-cost option for increasing road safety. To learn more and to read Chenxu’s research paper, click on the link in our profile and select “The Pioneer Research Journal,” 2023 edition. #Research #Business #Marketing #Psychology #Driver

Pioneer Alumni Ambassador Sophia, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the US, conducted her Pioneer research as a member of a cohort focused on music theory. She found the experience to be transformational. In the video, Sophia defines a transformational experience as one that enables a person to access new skills or new information that had not quite been within reach before. “That may mean developing a skill or talent, or pursuing an interest,” she says. Transformation, in her opinion, means reaching outside yourself, exploring new places, gaining new intellectual territory. Based on her criteria, Sophia says that her Pioneer experience was one of the most transformational educational experiences she has ever been a part of. After completing it, she says, “I was a changed person.” #PioneerAcademics #Transformation #Research

“One of the values I hold dear is being an Africanist,” says Pioneer scholar David, from Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi in southern east Africa. This focus led him to undertake his Pioneer research in the area of sociology. David had been attending an international high school in Johannesburg, South Africa, a multicultural school with students from about 44 countries, including “people from all over the African continent.” David, who values diversity and always looks for similarities in people, was surprised to find an assumption among the African students of an inherent cultural difference between northern Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. David was eager to do independent research, to choose a topic “intrinsically aligned with my values” and explore it in depth. Pioneer gave him that opportunity, and David explored the political participation and political and social values of people from the two regions. He found that scholarly research suggests there is actually little difference. His international background prepared David for participation in his small but fully international cohort of four. They quickly became friends and colleagues. After feeling each other out at the beginning of the first session, David says, “in 15 minutes we were having a cultural debate about environmentalism.” David also credits his cohort with helping him learn the most valuable lesson Pioneer taught him: how to ask for help when it’s needed. His research required him to do some coding, which was new to him, and he was floundering. Then, when he mentioned his problem, both his cohort and his professor came to his aid. It’s all about having conversations, he says. “Any support you need you can get through a conversation.” David is looking forward to beginning his studies at Macalester College, where a contact at the International Students Office is eager to discuss his paper. In the video, David explains how his multicultural childhood led him to his interest in sociology.

“One of the values I hold dear is being an Africanist,” says Pioneer scholar David, from Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi in southern east Africa. This focus led him to undertake his Pioneer research in the area of sociology. David had been attending an international high school in Johannesburg, South Africa, a multicultural school with students from about 44 countries, including “people from all over the African continent.” David, who values diversity and always looks for similarities in people, was surprised to find an assumption among the African students of an inherent cultural difference between northern Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. David was eager to do independent research, to choose a topic “intrinsically aligned with my values” and explore it in depth. Pioneer gave him that opportunity, and David explored the political participation and political and social values of people from the two regions. He found that scholarly research suggests there is actually little difference. His international background prepared David for participation in his small but fully international cohort of four. They quickly became friends and colleagues. After feeling each other out at the beginning of the first session, David says, “in 15 minutes we were having a cultural debate about environmentalism.” David also credits his cohort with helping him learn the most valuable lesson Pioneer taught him: how to ask for help when it’s needed. His research required him to do some coding, which was new to him, and he was floundering. Then, when he mentioned his problem, both his cohort and his professor came to his aid. It’s all about having conversations, he says. “Any support you need you can get through a conversation.” David is looking forward to beginning his studies at Macalester College, where a contact at the International Students Office is eager to discuss his paper. In the video, David explains how his multicultural childhood led him to his interest in sociology.

Pioneer Alumni Ambassador Sandeep, from Chandler, Arizona, in the US, chose business as a research area, and participated in a cohort focused on the internationalization of ventures. Although he had participated in some small research group projects before, this was his first time being the driving force and making all the decisions himself. In the video, he explains why he is proud of an accomplishment that involved not only doing the research, but also designing the methodology and writing the paper. One particular challenge was changing his methodology close to the end of the paper—which he did successfully.

Doing research is a long and complex process. Pioneer supports you as a high school student to exceed your expectations in conducting original, undergraduate-level original research. Hear from alumni how different Pioneer resources helped them develop their college-level research papers, and their tips on how to make the most use of different resources. Thank you, Evan, Annie, and Amaan for sharing!! Stay tuned for more content from Pioneer alumni and scholars. #Research #Resources #AlumniSharing

Pioneer Alumni Ambassador David, from China, participated in a Pioneer research concentration focused on designing new drugs. Knowing that having to take medication for hypertension twice a day every day could be a burden, David researched ways to lengthen the effect of drugs in the body so patients with chronic conditions would not have to take them so often. In the video, David explains how conducting his research was a transformational experience for him in two ways. First, he learned that research itself was not as overwhelming as he had thought. David began his Pioneer experience knowing very little about how to conduct research, and he found that he was able both to learn how to do it, and to do it successfully. He now looks forward to participating in other research endeavors. The second learning, which David says really transformed his life, is that failure is not something to be frightened of, but an integral part of research. David’s research paper was based on the painstaking work of designing 25 different analogs of the drug he was working on, trying to find one that best accomplished his purpose. As a result, David says that he is no longer afraid of failure, but understands that is a part of life and a learning experience. #PioneerAcademics #Transformation #Research

“I think because I grew up within so many cultures, I feel a bit like an outsider in all of them,” says Pioneer scholar Yonsu, who was born in South Korea, moved to Hong Kong before her first birthday, spent several months of each year in South Korea speaking Korean, and was educated in American international schools speaking English. Yonsu considers herself international, and thinks that this “mishmash” of different cultures and environments, values and beliefs, makes her more open-minded and better able to integrate into different environments. Yonsu’s broad range of interests are mainly focused on the humanities, and include English, sociology, philosophy, and psychology, her Pioneer research area choices. Although her placement in a research concentration focused on women in 19th century literature did not thrill Yonsu at first, it became an opportunity for her to explore the way psychological issues are portrayed in literature. “I'm not a huge fan of reading classics from centuries ago, where the writing is really hard to decipher,” she says, but “I very quickly realized that that was not the case. We read a lot of really interesting texts.” As they read about the struggles of women of the period trapped in impossible situations, Yonsu noticed how “madness” was a common theme as the women’s response to their frustration. Yonsu focused her research on a close reading of one text, but was able to generalize her insightful conclusion that in the terms of these stories, “madness” is the women’s ultimate escape from their situations, and symbolizes freedom, not defeat. Yonsu’s Pioneer cohort was all women, and she found the camaraderie so enjoyable that she chose Scripps College, a liberal arts women’s college in California, for her undergraduate studies. She is also contemplating a Ph.D. and a career as a clinical psychologist. In the video, Yonsu describes how her frustration with a different kind of research writing gave way to understanding its value.