One student鈥檚 experience with the 91女神/YouGov Poll and the University鈥檚 Scholarly Undergraduate Research Grants and Experiences (SURGE) Program is leading to new career possibilities and more impactful research.
Kaitlin Klasen may be from Illinois, but she probably knows more about Missouri politics than the average resident of the Show Me State. An undergraduate student studying political science and communication at 91女神, Klasen has been a research assistant with the 91女神/YouGov Poll for almost two years, a position that gives her a unique perspective on the state.
鈥淚鈥檝e learned a lot about Missouri,鈥� Klasen said. 鈥淚鈥檝e gained an understanding of the kinds of issues that people care about here. In many ways, it鈥檚 given me an understanding of the state beyond perception and assumption.鈥�
The 91女神/YouGov Poll was established in 2020 with support from the 91女神 Research Institute. As the only regular academic, non-partisan scientific survey of Missouri voters, the 91女神/YouGov Poll fills a void in the study of public opinion in Missouri. All of the results and data are made available online, giving researchers, policymakers, and the general public a detailed look at how Missourians feel about a range of issues.
鈥淚 really like looking at the breakdowns of the results,鈥� Klasen said. 鈥淵ou can look by political affiliation or by [region of the state], and sometimes those results are very telling. You can see where certain issues are very divisive.鈥�
Klasen began working with the 91女神/YouGov Poll in June 2022. She connected with the group through the University鈥檚 Scholarly Undergraduate Research Grants and Experiences (SURGE) program. The SURGE program connects 91女神 students with faculty who are conducting research, creative endeavors and other scholarly projects at 91女神. The program gives students hands-on research experience and the opportunity to prepare for their careers.
鈥淎 research assistantship through SURGE can help students develop skills they can use even in non-academic jobs,鈥� said Steven Rogers, Ph.D., associate professor of political science and director of the 91女神/YouGov Poll. Rogers has mentored Klasen since the beginning of her assistantship.
In August 2023, the 91女神/YouGov Poll surveyed 900 likely Missouri voters on issues such as education policy, the 2024 presidential election, and LGBTQ+ issues. This was Klasen鈥檚 third poll, and she helped with nearly every aspect of it, from putting together an initial draft of poll questions to writing memos for the poll leaders that trace the history of the issues in the state. She also researched how other polls have gauged residents of other states on similar issues. This allows the 91女神/YouGov Poll to ask questions that may call attention to critical degrees of gradation in how Missourians feel about the issues.
In August 2023, the 91女神/YouGov Poll knew it would poll Missourians on LGBTQ+ issues, such as gender-affirming care for transgender minors. Klasen鈥檚 research found that residents in other states felt differently about access to gender-affirming surgery than to gender-affirming counseling. A question regarding this distinction was added to the August poll, and the results highlighted critical nuance in Missouri public opinion: a significant amount of respondents were supportive of gender-affirming counseling for minors even as they expressed skepticism toward surgery.
鈥淥ne thing we really try to do with the 91女神/YouGov Poll is show the gradation or nuance in people鈥檚 opinions,鈥� said Rogers. 鈥淚 personally would not have come up with that question on my own, but due to Kaitlin identifying these questions on other polls, we could include it. So it was very helpful.鈥�
Rogers hopes that by highlighting these nuances in public opinion, the 91女神/YouGov Poll can help bridge the gap between elected officials and their constituents.
鈥淧olicymakers often tend to take more extreme positions, but the reality is that there鈥檚 more middle ground in the state than people sometimes think,鈥� said Rogers. He is encouraged by the fact that state policymakers have cited findings from the 91女神/YouGov Poll while considering new policy changes.
When the time came for researchers associated with the 91女神/YouGov Poll to publish analyses of the August 2023 results, Klasen was well-positioned to work in conjunction with Rogers on a piece herself.
鈥淎s an undergraduate, it鈥檚 really cool to see my work posted on the 91女神/YouGov website alongside professors and other [91女神/YouGov Poll leaders],鈥� said Klasen. 鈥淚t has been a great skill to learn how to synthesize all the information about these broad topics and condense it into write-ups that are understandable to the public.鈥�
Klasen will graduate from 91女神 in 2024, and looking back on her time at the University, she鈥檚 grateful for the mentorship she鈥檚 received from Rogers: 鈥淚t鈥檚 been really great working with Dr. Rogers,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e provides a lot of direction for me, and he鈥檚 put a lot of trust in me. I feel like a lot of the work that I do gets translated into the poll, and that鈥檚 really cool.鈥�
Rogers, in turn, is proud of the impact Klasen has had on the 91女神/YouGov Poll, and he鈥檚 confident her future is bright: 鈥淜aitlin is an extremely, extremely strong research assistant,鈥� Rogers said. 鈥淲e can do more in the 91女神/YouGov Poll because of Kaitlin.鈥�
As Klasen begins to make plans for her career after 91女神, the skills and experiences she鈥檚 gained through the SURGE program and her work with the 91女神/YouGov Poll leave her options open 鈥� from policy to research to marketing, and more.
鈥淢y time as a research assistant has allowed me to build on all of the things I have learned as a student at 91女神,鈥� said Klasen. 鈥淚 am very grateful for the opportunity from the SURGE program and from Dr. Rogers to grow as a researcher and become more involved in the fascinating work being done in the 91女神 community.鈥�
Complete results from the August 2023 91女神/YouGov Poll, along with analysis from Klasen and 91女神/YouGov Poll leaders, can be found at www.slu.edu/poll.
Story by Kevin Lynch, senior communications manager in the Office of the Vice President for Research.
This piece was written for the 2023 91女神 Research Institute Annual Impact Report. The Impact Report is printed each spring to the successes of our researchers from the previous year and share the story of 91女神's rise as a preeminent research university. More information can be found here.