In the first of three chapters outlining our major findings, we address the research experience itself and the intellectual elements of undergraduate research. After reviewing definitions of undergraduate research, we address research skills, research processes, emotions in research, and research circulation. We invite our readers into cubicles and fieldwork trips, data analysis and literature reviews, as undergraduate research alumni recount honing research questions, chasing down the best sources, managing algorithms and large data sets, and circulating findings to scholarly and community audiences. We argue that the identity shift from student to scholar that many undergraduate researchers experience persists after graduation and into the workplace and the public.