Large Collaborative Nuclear Physics at a Small College

"Big physics," like experimental high energy nuclear physics, needs hundreds of scientistis and engineers collaborating over many years to design, build, take and analyze data, and publish results. This time scale does not obviously lend itself well to an undergraduate summer research project or a one-year senior thesis project. Still, small private college students can be inspired by the work they do in nuclear physics within these large collaborations. For over ten years I have had students participating in nuclear physics research at RHIC, for the PHENIX and sPHENIX experiments and in preparation for the EIC. Students are able to work on software and hardware projects. This work has inspired them to change majors and vocations. While very few of my students have continued to graduate work in nuclear physics, they have gained valuable transferable skills and are using them in various fields. In this contribution, I will outline the strategies I have used and outcomes I have had when involving undergraduates at a small private college in nuclear physics research.