“Ya know Bob, you don’t wanna finish easy, you wanna finish strong, you want to be challenged more,” public relations student Bob Hartnett thought to himself as he decided to apply for Temple’s Creative Arts, Research, and Scholarship (CARAS) grant, which provides funding to students conducting research under the guidance of a faculty member. Thanks to his careful research and thoughtful proposal, Hartnett will have the chance to finish strong as he completes his work. 

Hartnett’s research will focus on integrating veterans back into civilian life after deployment and will be done under the guidance of Assistant Professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations Meghnaa Tallapragada. With the money from the grant, Hartnett will be able to go a step past interviewing veterans and their families by conducting national surveys on veteran adjustment post-deployment.

Hartnett has narrowed his research to focus on veterans who took part in Operation New Dawn, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. A veteran of the Marine Corps himself, Harnett noticed that there are a lot of recurring issues veterans face when they come home from deployment, regardless of their branch of service, and hopes his research will help develop programs or events that can help veterans and their families. 

 “Even if it took one person, and they find this article, it helps,” Hartnett said.

After enrolling at Temple in the spring of 2019, the first professor he met was Assistant Professor for Instruction in Public Relations Lauren Bullock. Bullock said that Hartnett was never afraid to ask questions and was a real leader and helper in the classroom, but lacked confidence in his writing ability. “If you don’t think you’re a great writer, be a great editor,” Bullock would tell him. 

While Hartnett was always interested in research, he wasn’t sure where to start at first. After hearing about the CARAS grant several times, Hartnett decided that the opportunity was meant to be. He reached out to Tallapragada to be his mentor since he had already done independent study with her, and she had always challenged him to look deeper. 

“That’s all a teacher really needs, right? A motivated student who wants to do something and not just take classes and learn about them,” Tallapragada said.

Harnett knew his time at Temple would be special from the moment he set foot on campus. “I got off the train, I walked underneath the tunnel, sat underneath the Bell Tower, and I felt something like I belong,” he said. He said he feels incredibly grateful to the professors he has had in his time here and hopes that other students also take advantage of everything that Temple has to offer. 

Tallapragada and Bullock agree, and feel lucky to have had such a dedicated, disciplined and curious student in the combined seven classes they have taught Harnett in. “I’m excited to see what Bob finds,” Tallapragada said.

“Our motto is perseverance conquers,” Hartnett said. “Whether it’s a pandemic we’re adapting to, whether it’s a snowstorm where we’re missing classes, we’re all doing something to do our best to move forward and to help ourselves and maybe even the students around us that need to help, and that’s something that I experienced at Temple.”