Q: What do you think was the most important thing you learned while doing undergraduate research? 

A: The most important thing I learned while doing this research was to redefine my central question as I learned more about the subject. For instance, I began by reading In Praise of Creoleness (Éloge de la créolité) by three authors from the island of Martinique, also a French overseas territory, and thought about conducting my fieldwork there. But my research mentor, Dr. Sayeh, encouraged me to search for gaps in the critical literature. Compiling a more detailed annotated bibliography allowed me to spot this gap with respect to French Guiana.

Q: What advice do you have for undergraduates who might be interested in doing research or creative scholarship?

A: Think about the strategies and tools your instructors are already encouraging you to use. By the end of my junior year, I had already completed several small research projects based on texts, works of visual art, and films for my majors. During my junior year, I kept a running list of big questions in a research journal. I was able to consult with several professors from various departments during office hours to explore which of these questions I could most feasibly respond to in a departmental honors thesis.

Q: Do you use any of the skills or perspectives gained doing research in your current occupation?  How so?

A: I use the research skills I learned at KU every day as a language and literacy educator. Working across 5 different grades in an international elementary school with students from many different home and academic cultures demands an enormous amount of flexibility. I cannot become an expert in each content area at every grade level, but I can use research skills to learn more about the critical questions in each discipline and the materials other educators have developed to support students in conducting their own inquiry-based projects.

Q: Many undergraduate researchers are making decisions about what to do after they graduate from KU. Having been in those shoes, what do you know now that you wish you’d known then? Do you have any advice?

A: Life takes many turns! Be kind, work hard, stay open. By graduation day, I had plotted a course for the next five years. When a bicycle accident in West Africa derailed these plans, my family and professors at KU helped me see new pathways. Six months later, I was on a plane to New York to study education.