When Will Basnight ’27 arrived at Chapman University, the political science major didn’t know undergraduate research could become part of his college experience. Then Ann Gordon, Ph.D., director of the Ludie & David C. Henley Social Sciences Laboratory in Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, encouraged him to explore opportunities beyond the classroom.
“Dr. Gordon continues to open doors for me,” Basnight said. “That’s the biggest thing I say to incoming students: Do well in your classes. That’s great. Get to know your professors. Because your professors have the keys to doors you don’t even know are there.”
This summer, Basnight found himself opening one of those doors for someone else.
As a mentor in the Henley Research Lab’s three-week Social Science Summer Pre-College Research Experience, he worked with Gordon and Karen Snedker, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology, to guide high school students through the research process. The students turned questions into projects using data from the Chapman Survey of American Fears, an annual nationwide study of Americans’ fears and how they relate to attitudes and behavior.
