Kristyn Thielbar

When first learning about research, I always thought my answers would be in books or inside articles. I thought of research as external instead of learning from those around me. Once I started my college experience, I found ways to ensure my resources or data collected were reliable and correlated to my topic. I believe the experiences in development and application will help me find a better understanding of research when working by myself and with a team. I believe the honors program has helped me shape my understanding of this competency.

 

When looking at my development experience, I took a class named the Research Paper-WRIT (ENG 1114) at Inver Hills Community College. Throughout the course, my professor taught us ways of researching and the importance of research. The skills she taught us throughout the semester were then applied to create a final paper that was on a research topic of our choice. We had criteria requirements to ensure that we cited reliable, timely, and significant sources that helped give credibility to our paper. Such requirements included where we got our sources from (which was the Inver Hills Database), how old the sources were (within the past 5 years), and the number of sources to reduce/eliminate the possibility of bias within our essay (10 or more).  I found working with others (the professor and writing librarians) to proofread my paper(s) before submission was one of the most helpful things throughout this class because it gave me suggestions to improve my writing. The most important takeaway from this class was finding an objecting view of your topic and writing about the devil’s advocate within your essay. I remember this is one of the most difficult things to do because it is hard to go against your own paper, to try and understand a different point of view that you may or may not agree with.

 

The same thing is true when working with a team. Devil’s advocate is ridiculously important before you present in a loan presentation, decide on what products or services you will sell, and then determine what your market looks like. These are the kinds of questions I addressed during my application experience with The Integrated Business Experience (IBE Program) here in Mankato. The IBE Program allows students to sell products and/or services to real people within our market (people within the Mankato area or at MSU-Mankato). For example, last fall (2021) I was part of the Minnesota Milers. We were an event-based company that decided we wanted to try a service and sell products as well. When determining this decision, we spent the first few weeks understanding how the entire team (roughly 12 people) felt about specific products and how we thought these products would work. As a company, we almost knew instantly that the 5k was a new and interesting idea that we wanted to try. When it came to the products we sold alongside the race, it took a little longer because we were unsure about weather conditions(because it was during the fall) and if we would stay in school the entire semester (due to COVID-19). After a few weeks of in-person classes, we began to feel more confident that we would not be sent home again. We decided on multiple decisions such as products, date, price, and location based on the qualtrics survey we distributed through social media (word of mouth on our Snapchat/Instagram). The results from our survey helped us determine the products of beanies and long-sleeve shirts, as well as the date, time, and location for the race. After these results came in, my company and I sold to our market through our social media account and through printing services on campus. We also did door-to-door selling within the Mankato area which allowed us to form connections with people and grow our network. I found this extremely beneficial, and I look forward to continuing research in the future.

 

 

After graduation, I may be asked questions about marketing tactics, and it will be beneficial to have research experience from Research classes (ENG 1114) and the IBE Program (IBE Practicum). In my future job, I will continue to ask questions (incorporate devil’s advocate) and find multiple, reliable sources to better understand my topic of study. I look forward to listening to new ideas to see how to problem-solve and find solutions within a business.