Pacific Lutheran University holds deeply to a purposeful understanding of knowledge and learning connected to a sense of vocation and agency in the world. PLU 2010: The Next Level of Distinction emphasizes faculty-student research as one particularly effective avenue through which students can prepare to lead lives of thoughtful inquiry, service, leadership, and care.

The Natural Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Program engages students in active exploration involving both imagination and the thorough testing of ideas. Under a faculty-mentor's one-on-one guidance during ten weeks of focused investigation, the student-researcher experiences a wider dimension of learning rarely accessible from the academic-year textbook and laboratory assignments. Through both the failures and the triumphs of research, students can gain confidence in their ability to face unknowns and to solve problems, can develop ways of thinking that typify researchers, and can appreciate the exhilaration of discovery. Student-Researchers can then bring a richer understanding of the natural sciences to their future roles as professionals and as world citizens.