BYU students won scholarships and rights to publication at the annual Undergraduate Research Conference in Claremont, Calif. which took place in mid April.

Research on immigration problems with a focus on the post-national identity of Denmark brought Andrew Christensen a full scholarship to the European Summer School at the University of Rome.

Other BYU students' research papers about European affairs will be published in an edited volume that will be available in fall.

Participation in the European Union Center of California's Sixth Annual Undergraduate Research Conference brought together students from UCLA, UC-Berkeley, Claremont Colleges, Harvard, Penn State, Drexel, San Francisco State University, and the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

Out of 41 total research papers, three of BYU's papers were selected to be presented at the conference, a number that exceeded every other university.

The BYU participants' papers that were submitted at the conference were selected through a competition organized by Wade Jacoby, professor of political science and director of the Center of the Study of Europe at BYU.

The criterion Jacoby used in selecting papers included clarity, quality of the evidence and topic and focus on contemporary European issues.

The purpose of the conference is to "invite strictly undergraduates to a conference where they would present their papers and respond to criticism just like faculty would," Jacoby said.

The topics covered in these research papers involved issues or concerns regarding the European Union. Immigration problems, NATO and the European Union's engagements with the non-western world were few of the research topics BYU students presented on.

The research focuses on European Union affairs because it is "the world's largest market." Jacoby said. "It matters to us [Americans] because we do a lot of trading with Europeans."

Jacoby said Europeans often don't agree with the Americans.

"We try to understand why Europeans often see things so differently from the people of the United States," he said.

Curiosity and hope of finding answers led International Relations majors to their research topics.

"You start of with a question that you don't know the answer to and you steadily work on that until you have an answer that you are confident in," said Zachary Davis, an undergraduate student. "Then you share it with others."

Both Davis and fellow student Sarah Boman mentioned that to be better informed, one has to have a desire to research.

"Be up on the issues and sign up for some daily briefs from different newspapers and reporting agencies," Boman said. "Being well read is the best move you can make. Be curios about random facts in random places and do research that's not related to schoolwork."