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In celebrations of success that foreground confident students creating compelling works of art and making groundbreaking discoveries, the typically circuitous and failure-marked path to success is routinely obscured and can inadvertently communicate inaccurate expectations for students considering participation.

For many students, but especially first-generation students and those from minoritized backgrounds, these stories of success can confirm perceptions of “imposter syndrome” and the external realities undermining belonging in the academic and creative life of the institution by leaving little space for failure and uncertainty.

In College Belonging, Lisa Nunn observes that “many students enter college unsure about their interests [and have] uncertainty over the big picture.” ��Compounding this anxiety, is a widespread belief that “the spark of passion that they are looking for is striking students all around them.”

Nunn emphasizes, these moments of insight are “rarer than they imagine.” For students still unsure about their major, the distance between someone presenting a research project can appear impossible to navigate.

Well-intentioned campus cultures often calibrate these expectations by framing activities like undergraduate research in elite or prestige programs, such as an honors college or scholars office, and students are often selected for programs based on academic metrics—reinforcing narratives of exclusion and positioning these opportunities as enrichment for the highly-talented more than pathways for all students.

We know these transformative experiences are empowered by mentorship and can provide a pathway to belonging in all aspects of campus life, but our outreach and program structures must align with this emphasis on learning to translate the significant opportunity of undergraduate research into engagement and belonging for students from minoritized backgrounds.