Student Involvement
Explore the research and leadership opportunities that enhance your student experience within the College of Health and Human Performance.
Student Organizations
Student involvement is an important part of your college experience. There are hundreds of organizations and ways to get involved at the University of Florida.
HHP Student Ambassadors
Ambassadors serve as student representatives of the College of Health and Human Performance (HHP) to represent the college at recruiting, alumni and UF community events. They are an outstanding group of students who are chosen to foster meaningful interactions between alumni, faculty/staff, current/prospective students and friends of the College. We are looking for passionate and dedicated HHP students to represent the college and leave a lasting impact on future HHP generations.
University Scholars Program
The University Scholars Program (USP) presents UF undergraduates with the opportunity to work closely with faculty mentors while pursuing fundamental research, exploring scholarly inquiry and developing new knowledge. University Scholars receive a $1,750 research stipend (two payments with $750 in Fall and $1,000 in Spring). Faculty mentors receive $500. Scholars have the opportunity to publish their work in UF’s online Journal of Undergraduate Research and present their research in the University Scholars Symposium.
Applicants must have at least one more year of undergraduate studies remaining and an overall GPA of 3.00 or better. To be eligible, you must not earn your bachelor’s degree before spring 2026. For 2026–2027 applicants, the student can conduct research during summer/fall 2026 and spring 2027. Selected students must register for 0–5 credit hours of Undergraduate Research during summer A/C, fall 2026 and spring 2027.
Please confer with your academic advisor and faculty mentor to determine which research course you should register. The instructor of record for these courses will be the faculty mentor identified in the USP application. Students will be evaluated on their progress toward research goals and the agreement of expectations by the faculty mentor.
HHP Nominations should include:
- USP HHP application (link to https://forms.gle/KiVSddqZEjG2LNe26) (Note: you must sign in using your gatorlink credentials to access the application.)
- A letter of support from the faculty mentor, stating that the mentor will agree to supervise this project and any other supporting information (maximum 1 page).
- Research problem statement, rationale and significance of the study (maximum 1 page)
- Agreement of expectations: The mentor and student must determine the expectations of the University Scholar. This agreement should indicate expectations for summer/fall 2026 and spring 2027. Expectations may include number of hours, products/outcomes of this research opportunity, working with other team members, submission of conference abstract, etc. (maximum 1 page)
Submission packets are due by Thursday, January 29, 2026 by 11:59 p.m.
A maximum of five HHP University Scholars will be selected, distributed across the following departments: Applied Physiology & Kinesiology; Health Education & Behavior; Sport Management; Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management. Awardees must attend and participate in all University Scholar Program activities sponsored by the Center for Undergraduate Research.
Students selected for USP must register for the appropriate number of credits hours for the Undergraduate Research course in their department. Please consult your faculty mentor for the appropriate number of credit hours. You can register for 0–5 credits per term. Students must speak to an HHP academic adviser to register for the appropriate undergraduate research course. Review more information about this:
Working with your mentor you will decide if you should complete the animal and/or human subjects protection training/certification program.
- Protecting Human Research Participants
- Animal training for IRB: IACUC training page [under first time users].
Undergraduate Research
The primary purpose of this course is to provide the student an opportunity for involvement in supervised research experiences. “Research” is operationally defined here as mentored, but self-directed work that enables individual students or a small group of students to explore an issue of interest to them and to communicate the results to others.
Projects may involve inquiry, design, investigation, discovery or application, depending on the topic and mentor. The student will be aware of how her or his project fits into and contributes to solving the larger problem to which it belongs.
The student will usually assist a faculty member with a research project by helping to prepare the study and contributing in a meaningful way in meeting the objectives of the study. The student may also work with graduate students who are performing research supervised by a research faculty member.
Opportunities and requirements differ by department: