Can a Summer Research Experience Influence a Lifetime Career?

What is it about?

This article explores the long-term impact of the Summer of Scientific Research (Verano de la Investigación Científica, VIC) by looking back at the experiences of researchers who participated in the program as undergraduate students and later chose academic careers. The study focuses on a public university in southeast Mexico, the Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco (UJAT), an institution that has actively supported the program since the 1990s. To understand the effects of the VIC over time, the authors conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with seven professors from different disciplines—such as biology, engineering, psychology, and computer science—who took part in the program during the 1990s and 2000s. All participants were early-career students when they joined the VIC and are now working as academics, several of them as members of Mexico’s National System of Researchers (SNI).

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Photo by Waldo Malan on Unsplash

Photo by Waldo Malan on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Rather than asking whether the program creates scientific vocations, this study shows that the VIC works in a more subtle and powerful way. According to participants, the summer research stay did not “turn them into scientists” overnight, but it helped them understand what doing research actually looks like. By spending several weeks working alongside experienced researchers, interacting with graduate students, and experiencing academic routines, participants gained a clearer and more realistic view of the academic profession. The findings highlight the importance of immersion: traveling outside their home state, working in new institutional environments, and building personal and professional networks were just as influential as the research projects themselves. Even twenty years later, participants vividly remembered the experience as a key moment that strengthened their confidence, clarified their career paths, and made postgraduate studies feel achievable. The study suggests that programs like the VIC matter not because of a single experiment or skill learned, but because they allow young people to experience the culture of research from the inside.