Q: What is the program and how are you involved?
A: It’s a graduate program for minorities and people who aren’t well represented in the academic sphere. I have to create my own research proposal and then we’re supposed to go to Hawaii and do the research ourselves. It’s going to be a big project and the first one I’ve done field work for, so that’s very exciting. Right now, the required course that we’re taking for McNair is decolonization of Hawaii, so our research is specified around what decolonization could look like. Hopefully we’ll get to talk with a lot of the Native people there. We have a small itinerary of things we’re supposed to do during our week there, as well as our own research.
Q: Do you know what you’ll being doing in Hawaii specifically?
A: We’re going to a lot of native cultivated centers. There’s a place that manufactures the original types of boats they would use and tries to teach people how to do wayfinding. We’re also going to go to a taro farm cultivated by Natives. That will be very cool, but because of COVID-19 we don’t know if it’s going to be worse or not by May.
Q: Is the program through UI or is it separate?
A: It’s a nationwide thing. UI had it for a while, but it recently started back up in 2017. So it’s still fairly new and I don’t think a lot of people know about it yet. They can’t afford to have many students there, so right now my class is five people, including me.
Q: Are you involved in anything else on campus?
A: I’m part of the Phi Alpha Delta club, which is basically a history club for honors history students. They’re trying to recruit people right now, so I’m both the vice president and secretary.
Q: What got you interested in history?
A: When I was little, I had that Egyptology phase where I just had to learn everything about it. After that, I was a big nerd and I wanted to read more about history. I’m leaning more towards a specialization as a medical historian, where I’d be researching medicine throughout history.
Q: Where do you see yourself in the future?
A: I have two areas that I’m interested in, museums and being a professor. I think if I go the museum route, I’d love to be a curator and make it as accessible as it was for me. When I was a kid, I went to the museums in every city we went to, no matter how small it was. I want it to be just as exciting for other people too. As for a professor, I’m hoping I could find some other research projects I could do. Chinese history in Lewiston specifically is interesting to me and being a professor I’d be able to show people the smaller parts of history that aren’t taught. I’d love to be an exciting professor and be accessible to students, I think that’s an important role.
Q: Do you play a part in helping others within the program as well?
A: We haven’t had a chance to do a lot of the team building that is typical of the program, so I believe usually the seniors and juniors will help the sophomores find their path and talk them through what the program needs. I’m new to it, so I don’t know much about it, but once we can have some of those team building things it’ll be nice to ask the seniors for tips about the future and things like that. It’s kind of like a community in that we all try and help each other out.
Q: Are there aspects of it that are empowering to you?
A: It’s empowering just to be accepted in the program. It’s an amazing accomplishment for me. I’m so glad Yolanda Bisbee recommended me for the program originally from the Native American Center. That was amazing. I was in my first year here and I already got requested to be in a program. I was floored, honestly. I’m glad I have this opportunity and I’m trying to make the most of it.
Janice L Kolb
Great job Margaret!