Students were selected during the summer of 2006 and 2007 to participate in the Kean University Students Partnering with Faculty Program. The intent was to examine summer season thunderstorm activity in order to provide real-time analysis of atmospheric field variables while gathering an archive of convective activity for further analysis. At the same time, the program establishes an opportunity for students to learn the nature of research, its use in operations, how it compares with the existing literature, and how to apply various analytic techniques that apply coursework they have completed. Once selected, the students were tasked with the nature of the project and allowed to act independently in terms of data collection, preparation, archival, and analysis. This afforded them an opportunity to learn, and at times fail, while deepening their understanding of both the research process as well as the science of meteorology. During the course of the first summer, convection was found to exhibit specific pattern behaviors as a function of the upper atmospheric wind flow. This was particularly true for new storm initiation and total activity for days in which the environment was already ‘contaminated' by pre-existing convection as compared with ‘event' days in which thunderstorms did not initiate until later in the day. The second summer of data collection and analysis provided an opportunity to test newly developed hypotheses based on the first summer experience and promoted an appreciation for the complexity of the research topic and process. Results of the work included an examination of the initiation of thunderstorm events (location, evolution), their characteristics (mode, movement, coverage) and severity (intensity, duration), and the relationship of these to the local physiography as a function of the prevailing weather regime.