Undergraduate Research Awards let students experience research in action

Rebecca Franklin says earning an Undergraduate Research Award (URA) in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management was a great way to learn more about what research looks like in practice.

UM is the first Canadian university to offer an Undergraduate Research Award open to undergraduate students across all fields and research, scholarly, or creative activities. The opportunity pairs students with a researcher of their choice for a full-time summer position.

For Franklin, winning an award during her Bachelor in Kinesiology gave her the opportunity to explore questions she’d started asking in her work as a personal trainer.

"I wanted to get a deeper understanding of everything that I was doing in my job,” says Franklin, who is now a graduate student in the faculty. “I understood the things that I should be doing for clients, but I wanted a better grasp of why I was doing them.”

Turning interests into actions

Franklin says she has been interested in research since the beginning of her time in the faculty. She started exploring that interest by volunteering in the Musculoskeletal Exercise Immunology Lab, run by Trisha Scribbans, an Associate Professor in the faculty. She deepened that interest and gained more research experience when she won an Undergraduate Research Award and worked in Scribbans’ lab full-time for a summer.

“I knew I was interested in research, but [the award] really helped me get a feel for [research],” says Franklin. “It got me a lot more involved with everything.”

Over the summer, Franklin learned to operate lab equipment, including ultrasound machines. Beyond gaining technical skills, working full-time in the lab over the summer gave her the opportunity to assist graduate students with their ongoing projects and work on data analysis. The opportunity also gave her the chance to explore her own research interest.

A new opporunity for discovery

The faculty makes 20 undergraduate research award positions with each summer. In 2025, 15 of those were awarded to students studying in the faculty. Leisha Strachan, Professor and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, says the research awards give students opportunities extending beyond just fields of research. She says understanding and valuing research is a key piece of any professional development.

“I didn’t have a chance to learn about research in my own undergrad training, so it’s exciting that our students can engage with it at this level,” says Strachan. “It’s learning about communication, organization, presentation skills, and so much more.”

Franklin says the awards helped bridge the gap between her undergraduate studies and the work she’s doing in her master’s. Many of the questions she asked early in her career are now shaping her thesis work, in which she plans to examine muscle activity and growth in response to different exercises. She says her interest is driven by her experience as a personal trainer.

“[Clients] would come to me with questions because they saw something online, telling them to do something, and while we’re saying not to in real-life,” says Frankling. “There is just so much misinformation out there in the fitness world.”

“I'm hoping eventually the research I'm doing will help to clarify some of these areas a little more.”

The application period for Undergraduate Research Awards closes Feb. 16, 2025. The awards are made possible through funding from the Office of the Vice-President (Research and International) and the University of Manitoba Students' Union (UMSU), along with support from faculties.

Find out more about research happening in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management and how you can get invovled.