Back in my first year, I went into Oberlin's Center for Engaged Liberal Arts for a career advising appointment, which is when I met a Puerto Rican staff member. Three years later, at the beginning of my senior year and my senior year-long research project, we were once again catching up on plans and aspirations. When I described my research, the staff member mentioned in passing that she had a dear friend from college that was now teaching at the University of Puerto Rico. She suggested I even do part of my research over Oberlin's Winter Term project during the month of January there. So today, two weeks after coming back from that experience, I want to tell you about my research interviews and journey from Oberlin to Puerto Rico.
Back in spring of my junior year, I submitted a research proposal for the department of Hispanic Studies, hoping to get approved for a year-long honors project. I wanted to research if and how linguistic diversity can enhance classroom learning – more so, I wanted to explore students’ needs on the topic with the ultimate goal to create a toolkit on the topic. A month after submitting it, my advisor and role model, Ana María Díaz Burgos, sent me a response back: “Tengo la grata responsabilidad de comunicarte que el Departamento de Estudios Hispánicos ha aprobado tu propuesta y de darte la bienvenida al programa de honores bajo mi mentoría.” (I have the grand responsibility to communicate to you that the Department of Hispanic Studies has approved your proposal and to give you the welcome to the honors program under my mentorship.)
I was in for a ride.
Within the first month of my senior year, I submitted and got approval for my first Institutional Review Board (IRB) application. As I was picking up speed with the independence of the research under my advisor’s mentorship, I stopped by the Puerto Rican staff member’s office: Vilmarie Perez. In my first year at Oberlin, I would go to Vilmarie for resume and CV revisions – from finding internships to finding community at Oberlin, Vilmarie has always been a great source of support and inspiration. When she mentioned her friend who was teaching at the University of Puerto Rico was also a linguist, I knew I was even more inspired to make the connection happen.
By mid-November, I had already finished ten interviews with Oberlin bilingual and polyglot students on campus, but was also in constant communication with the Dean of Auxiliary Programs at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Rio Piedras. I was hoping to be able to do five more interviews there – for a topic like linguistic diversity, analyzing the contrast between Oberlin and Puerto Rico seemed like a great opportunity.
With the help of my mentor and a village of people both at the Universidad de Puerto Rico and at Oberlin, I applied for the Jerome Davis Research Fund through Oberlin’s Sociology department. After about a month and many emails, I was using said research fund to move myself into Plaza Universitaria, the dorm adjacent to Universidad de Puerto Rico.
In Puerto Rico, I was welcomed by the Dean of Auxiliary Programs and my assigned mentor – professor Rosa Guzzardo Tamargo. I spent three weeks conducting six interviews with bilingual and polyglot students at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. I attended a few classes too: my favorite being a Lenguaje y Cultura undergraduate class (Language and Culture) and a Plurilingualismo graduate linguistics course (Plurilingualism). I was even invited back to the Lenguaje y Cultura class as a guest speaker – sharing my own experience with the relationship between the languages I spoke, those I was researching, and those that my culture(s) embodied.
While research looks different in the different departments and fields that Oberlin students study, I would not change mine for the world. Oberlin’s support system, from its faculty and staff, to its research structure, support, and opportunities, allowed me a rich contrast between my data. They gave me a new glimpse into the ways we think of linguistic diversity. They offered me the experience of a visiting researcher-student at a university other than my own. They led me to practice independence as I navigated an unfamiliar university and system for a short-term stay. I am indebted to those that made the research happen – from my Oberlin advisor, to my Universidad de Puerto Rico mentor, from Vilmarie Perez, to the Dean of Auxiliary Programs at UPR, from Oberlin’s Hispanic Studies Department, to the Sociology’s department Jerome Davis Research Award. As I continue working on the analysis for the research, I hope I pay it forward with the toolkit I aim to provide at the end of the semester.
