[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/varga_emily.jpg” caption=”Emily Varga, a fourth-year Honours English and Women’s Studies student, is working as a student research assistant at the Bertrand Russell Centre this summer. Photo by Christine MacLean”]Not all students wave good-bye to campus once the academic year is over. More than 500 of them are hired through the McMaster Summer Work Program to work from May to September in jobs ranging from groundskeepers to lab assistants.

Emily Varga, a fourth-year Honours English and Women's Studies student, is spending her summer working as a student research assistant at the Bertrand Russell Centre.

The Centre researches and compiles the works of Bertrand Russell, one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century, a peace activist and Nobel prizewinner.

Russell's collection of papers is housed at McMaster's Bertrand Russell Archives found in the basement of Mills Memorial Library. The Bertrand Russell Centre and the archive are internationally known for the collection and the work they produce surrounding Russell's papers.

“Being a research assistant originally interested me because of my Humanities background and my desire to pursue further education in graduate studies, where experience in research would be an asset,” explains Varga.

She hopes that the experience will help prepare her for graduate or law school, which she plans to pursue upon completion of her undergraduate degree next year.

“This position allows me to use the skills I have cultivated throughout my undergraduate [education], but also help me explore different ways I can improve on what I have learned, in a work environment.

Varga's duties have allowed her to develop these skills. Her duties range from locating and copying research materials, proofreading, reference and quotation checking, scanning images of letters for the Bertrand Russell Archives and making transcripts of Russell's letters.

“My job duties are all over the place and often take me to completely random and unexpected places,” says Varga. “I definitely did not anticipate this from a research job!”

Varga is currently helping to complete volume 21 of The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, an anthology of Russell's papers, where she is “wading through tons of interesting books and resources” to verify information within the volume.

As for Varga's opinion of the job, “I love it! Not just the job, but the experience of working in the Russell Centre has been very rewarding so far. I love being able to aid in such important research and it gives me a sense of accomplishment that I haven't had with any previous employment.”

The student job profile is a three-part series about students working on campus. The next installment will appear on the Daily News next week.