{"id":4368,"date":"2021-07-30T19:24:25","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T19:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentsuccess-dev.utk.edu\/urf\/?page_id=4368"},"modified":"2026-02-25T21:14:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T02:14:57","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/studentsuccess.utk.edu\/urf\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"About Us"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><hr class=\"orange-hash\"><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mission:<\/strong> Undergraduate Research &amp; Fellowships (URF) provides centralized support for the pursuit of undergraduate research and nationally competitive fellowships.<\/p>\r\n<p>We carry out this mission by developing, funding, promoting, coordinating, and assessing diverse undergraduate research programs; providing fellowships and research student advising services; and supporting and recognizing strong mentoring relationships between students and faculty.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Vision:\u00a0<\/strong>A nationally recognized culture focused on undergraduate excellence at UT wherein all students are challenged to expect the best of themselves and have both the opportunity and support to pursue undergraduate research and national fellowships.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Values:<\/strong>\u00a0Our work is grounded in the belief that undergraduate research and the pursuit of nationally competitive fellowships are not solo endeavors for the few, but rather collaborative and transformative educational experiences between students and mentors.<\/p>\r\n<p>Such experiences have the potential to activate in all students a purposeful exploration through which they can develop key skills, hone their strengths, and expand and clarify their unique vision for the future.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Core Functions<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\r\n<li>Develop, fund, promote, coordinate, and assess diverse undergraduate research programs and pathways for students across all disciplines to learn about, engage in, and disseminate their research\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<li>Support undergraduate research mentors through faculty research assistantships, summer project funding, grant application support, co-curricular research programming, advising on best practice in undergraduate research, and advocating for the critical importance of undergraduate research mentoring at UT\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\r\n<li>Collect, interpret, and report on campus-wide undergraduate research engagement data\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<li>Provide UT\u2019s centralized nationally competitive fellowships services\u2014from liaising with foundations and educating the campus community (students, faculty, and staff) about national fellowships, to onboarding and supporting student candidates through intensive individualized application support and facilitating campus endorsements to national competitions\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<li>Recognize outstanding engagement and performance\u2014among students, faculty, and staff\u2014in undergraduate research and national fellowships\u00a0<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mission: Undergraduate Research &amp; Fellowships (URF) provides centralized support for the pursuit of undergraduate research and nationally competitive fellowships. We [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":4365,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-wide.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4368","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>About Us - Office of Undergraduate Research &amp; Fellowships<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/studentsuccess.utk.edu\/urf\/about-us\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"About Us - Office of Undergraduate Research &amp; Fellowships\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mission: Undergraduate Research &amp; Fellowships (URF) provides centralized support for the pursuit of undergraduate research and nationally competitive fellowships. 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