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Katherynn Sandoval (BC'21) strives to examine the changing needs of student populations across American universities and colleges. This summer, Katherynn’s research will examine how transnational backgrounds and/or roots from another country affect students in the following ways: 1) academic achievement 2) personal agency 3) mental health and 4) sense of belonging. Given the current anti-immigration climate in the United States, Katherynn is motivated by this pertinent question: How can we create a more inclusive and accessible setting at colleges and universities for all to be able to achieve and attain their higher education degree?

Hello, welcome to my first blog post. My name is Katherynn Sandoval, I am a current undergraduate student at Barnard College. This summer I am working as a Summer Research Fellow at the Digital Humanities Center. I will be conducting research on immigration and education. My research is focused mainly on the integration of transnational immigrant students into U.S. colleges and universities. Through an extensive literature review on higher education and immigration policies, as well as student interviews, I hope to uncover and address the challenges immigrant students face in getting a higher education degree.

My goals for this summer are to conduct 10 student interviews, establish a robust literature review as well as a stable set of quantitative data. My second goal for this project is to present my findings in a digitized manner, I am currently brainstorming ideas as to what digital platform or medium would be best to use. I am debating between a website, a short film and an online story book. On my next blog post I will have decided on that piece of the project.

My thoughts on the research process so far: At first it was a little daunting to embark on a research project full time, however, getting to know my fellow colleagues gave me reassurance that I wasn’t alone on this journey. Also the staff at the DCH and the rest of the centers within Milstein are all very open to help students with their research or to help with smaller inquiries like how to use a tool or instrument.

Helpful tips I can give so far: Establishing a structure and daily routine for your research work is really helpful. Sharing your ideas out loud can lead to new insights. Lastly, the motion lab at Barnard is a great place to find inspiration. If you are at Barnard I definitely recommend you check it out.

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