Quarles Undergraduate Scholars Program 2017 @quarlesinstitute2017 - Tumblr Blog

CV categories

These are some of the CV headings that I have used in the past:

Education

Relevant Work Experience

Research Experience

Presentations

Honors, Awards and Fellowships

Conferences Attended

Skills and Competencies

Community Service

Teaching Experience

Leadership

Relevant Coursework

Papers

You will not use all of these. The goal is to find the categories that best highlight your strengths!

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/641/1/

sprinkleofblackness-blog

Senior Thesis

So I finally decided on my topic… mostly.

I’ll be looking at Marlon Riggs’ films “Black is… Black ain’t” and “Tongues Untied”, public perception, and its impact on Black popular culture

Some questions I have:

- How did Riggs’ films disrupt the dominant narrative of Black gay men?

- How were the films received by the general public, the queer population, and the Black population?

- What were some other sources of Black queerness in popular culture?

Now I’m trying to find scholarly sources - which is my usual issue.

masonjar9-blog

Legit badass. This woman played in the Negro Leagues in the early 1950’s. Mamie “Peanut” Johnson

sprinkleofblackness-blog

The Cycle

Didn’t summer just start? Or at least summer part two? I was so excited to have this summer break after the Quarles program and I feel like it ended so quickly. Although I was happy to get back to Morgan, I feel like I’ve been bombarded with questions about after graduation.

“Hello, how are you? How was your summer? What are your plans after graduation? When are you taking the GRE? What are your research interests?”

They didn’t even ask me about what I researched over the summer smh. But here I am again, starting the research cycle all over again.

Possible topics:

Women in the Negro Baseball League

Black queer thought on Black nationalism

1968 teachers’ strike in NYC

I know they all seem very different but I’m trying to decide what I’m exactly interested in because in truth, they all interest me. By next week I think I’ll have a list of questions and that’s how I’ll make a decision.

economist-feminist-paudel-blog

A Thank You Note

The Last Day of Quarles Summer Program 2017

First of all, I would like to thank Dr. Angela Howell and Dr. Takkara Brunson for giving me the golden opportunity to take part in the Benjamin A. Quarles Humanities and Social Science Institute. This summer research program with the Quarles team has become very productive and beneficial to me. During this program, we traveled to new places and met new people which was the most exciting part. Moreover, I got a chance to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture in DC which I wanted to go for a long time. Being an international student, it was a completely new reading and learning experience which my mentors and my colleagues made it easier for me. This was my first time living on campus and it was a great experience except for the food; off course I badly missed my home-made food.

I have become successful to conduct a research and write down 20 pages long research paper this summer which is a great achievement for me. I have learned new things and gain knowledge and skills that are helpful for my graduate school and further. This program has given me the real sense of Ph.D. and why higher education is important for a woman of color. I am always interested in women and gender studies and I got a chance to strengthen my interest through my research. At this point, I clearly know what I want to do with my academic and where to utilize it in my academic career.

Thanks to Benjamin A. Quarles Humanities and Social Science Institute for this summer program.

Thank you, Zaakira Sadrud-Din, and my colleagues; it was a great experience.

economist-feminist-paudel-blog

A Thank You Note

The Last Day of Quarles Summer Program 2017

First of all, I would like to thank Dr. Angela Howell and Dr. Takkara Brunson for giving me the golden opportunity to take part in the Benjamin A. Quarles Humanities and Social Science Institute. This summer research program with the Quarles team has become very productive and beneficial to me. During this program, we traveled to new places and met new people which was the most exciting part. Moreover, I got a chance to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture in DC which I wanted to go for a long time. Being an international student, it was a completely new reading and learning experience which my mentors and my colleagues made it easier for me. This was my first time living on campus and it was a great experience except for the food; off course I badly missed my home-made food.

I have become successful to conduct a research and write down 20 pages long research paper this summer which is a great achievement for me. I have learned new things and gain knowledge and skills that are helpful for my graduate school and further. This program has given me the real sense of Ph.D. and why higher education is important for a woman of color. I am always interested in women and gender studies and I got a chance to strengthen my interest through my research. At this point, I clearly know what I want to do with my academic and where to utilize it in my academic career.

Thanks to Benjamin A. Quarles Humanities and Social Science Institute for this summer program.

Thank you, Zaakira Sadrud-Din, and my colleagues; it was a great experience.

afyanla-blog

Don’t Double Space Until The End

I’m not sure why this was my title, but it encapsulates my feelings toward this paper… towards any papers, I do really. I get immense satisfaction from double spacing the paper after I have reached the minimum of single spaced papers to produce the minimum double spaced that I need. Today while doing my paper I found myself lacking the motivation or maybe just unable to transfer my ideas onto the word document sitting in front of me. I cried for a few hours this morning trying to figure out how I’m going to do this by Friday… I talked to my friends who jokingly reminded me of my unofficial major and minor and told me that I had this because no matter how ludicrous my ideas seem I am able to articulate them in a manner that produces no less than a solid B paper. However, I told one of my friends although my unofficial minor and major dictate that I should be able to make nothing from something and do relatively well on the first go round… I didn’t feel that this time. After one of my friends had continued to tell me that I had this, I stopped crying, and I got myself together, and I wrote my abstract and continued to write until I had about 4 pages. I realized that I needed that mini-breakdown where I was trying to figure out how I was going to actually have a good paper by Friday. Sometimes you need moments where you aren’t sure how you're going to pull it off to actually pull it off… I think I’m done crying, but I doubt it, I’ll probably cry more tomorrow morning from the lack of sleep, but hopefully, that cry will come after I have 8 pages finished and can finally double space my paper and have those 8 pages turn into 15.5 or 16 depending on how the spacing makes things work.

afyanla-blog

Day 42 is that you?

My last post much like the rest of my posts will have absolutely nothing to do with the content of my paper. Instead, I want to dedicate this post to recount my experience in the Quarles. I came in knowing that I would have to work hard thinking that I would just be writing and researching for the entire 6 weeks. I did not believe that the day trips we took and even the research I did would have an impact on me outside the scope of the paper. I say all that to say that while I understand the importance of getting a Ph.D. this program has also strengthened the fact that I know that I need to focus on getting my JD as well. I know that getting my JD is what I want to do, I know that I want to use my JD to impact people, but I also understand that it is important for me to get a Ph.D.so that I can transcend into academia. I am grateful for having been afforded the opportunity to be apart of a program that allowed me to kind of figure out what path I want my academic career to take after undergrad. I am grateful for having the opportunity to experience academic writing outside of the parameters of the semester or a typical class. I am just grateful to be able to say that I was able to be apart of a program like this. It’s like Sabrina said yesterday regarding Mr. Conway… not only will I be name dropping about Mr. Conway but I will also be name dropping for the rest of my days that I was and always will be a Quarles Fellow.

quarlesinstitute2017

Lovely.

economist-feminist-paudel-blog

A Meeting with Marshall Eddie Conway

The most Interesting Tour ever

Today we met with former Black Panther, Marshall Eddie Conway who served in prison for 44 years. He told us about how he was accused of a murder that he didn’t commit but served 44 years in prison. He shared his story of how he started writing in Jail and helped other prisoners to organize and stand. It is strange to hear that one spent 44 years in prison for the crime that was never committed. He told us about his struggle into the prison and how he along with his fellows were dehumanized there. They were living with a fear of death every second inside the prison where anything can happen anytime. For me, Marshall Eddie Conway is a legend whose struggle is remarkable in the history. It was really honorable to meet such a legend who is a living the history of America.

He gave us a tour of Real News Studio and we learned how Real News is exploring the hidden stories and trying to make a difference. The Real News is a team of young energetic American who works there by their self-interest rather than money. We came to learn about the Audio-Visual instrument used for Big Screen production. I have never seen the real production studio before this visit and it was really exciting to visit their broadcasting production. Besides that, Eddie guided us towards the community tour where we learned about how actively Real News is engaged in the community. As the part of the tour, we also spent some time in the community work. I get a chance to paint on the wall and this was my first time doing so which I really enjoyed. I would like to thank the Quarles Summer Institute for giving us this great opportunity today.

qs17sabrina-blog

July 11

Today I struggled with my abstract. I’m going to dedicate the next 2 hours revising my literature review and my discussion sections but below is the progress I made today:

Background

The black-white achievement gap was recognized officially through publication of the 1966 report Equality of Educational Opportunity best known as the Coleman Report, in homage to its lead author, sociologist James S. Coleman. Per the mandate of the newly signed Civil Rights Act, the report was purposed to describe inequalities in elementary and secondary education between black and white students focusing heavily on the recently desegregated South (Evitts Dickinson, 2016). Coleman found that structural support systems, familial and community, largely impact the success of students (Hanushek, 2016) however; Coleman’s findings were only released after the enactment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The legislation pushed through President Johnson’s administration overlooked the issue of the achievement gap among blacks and whites while prioritizing the “race-blind” achievement gap caused by poverty (Jeffery, 1978). Providing additional funding for school districts with high percentages of low-income students and emphasizing high standards and accountability in public school systems was supposed to be the formula for success in assuring equal educational opportunities.

In 2001, 35 years and 5 reauthorizations later, the achievement gap was still persistent (National Black Caucus of State Legislators, 2001). In attempts to “level the playing field”, the Bush administration signed the No Child left behind Act into effect, this time being more stringent in its approach to implementing high standards and accountability through annual standardized testing and tracking Adequate Yearly Progress. Schools that did not meet performance standards, regardless of progress made, suffered major penalties (e.g. school leadership change, school closure, and student displacement). Urban school districts saw the harshest consequences in high stakes testing that resulted in shrinking budgets, which were already inadequate (Noguera, 2003). A major critique of NCLB was that it did, indeed, leave some students behind by causing public school systems to compromise the integrity of their students’ education by manipulating their curriculum and/or test scores for various reasons such as job and educational funding procurement. In regards to NCLB successes, it did aid in closing the achievement gap, mainly for white and Latina students (Hanushek & Raymond, 2005) rather the black students the original equal opportunity act was alleged to target.

Other achievement gaps exaggerated by NCLB were due, in part, to non-uniformity in public education standards and testing. Because state leaders were given discretion in determining their academic expectations under NCLB, not all school systems were equal; some schools had higher proficiency goals than others causing some students to be ill-prepared for college and the workforce having dissatisfactory literacy and math skills (Kaplan & Peterson, 2013). As a result, the Common Core State Standards initiative was developed in 2009 with the primary goal of creating a single set of standards that would improve achievement and college-readiness (Corestandards.org). Initially, the curriculum was largely adopted by all but a handful of states. Anti-common core groups opposed the initiative proposing it extended federal oversight into state and local matters using the effects of NCLB, which was federally enforced, as a warning indicator (Rethinking Schools, 2013). As of today, more than half of these states still employ the CCSS in some fashion, despite provoking mixed opinions among educators. The question on whether or not standardizing curriculum ensures equality of education still remains to be answered.

To give a proper characterization of BCPSS, it is the 4th largest county in Maryland, has the largest black student population of over 80%, and ranks as one of the poorest counties with over 60% of students classified as low-income (Baltimorecityschools.org). To describe the achievement gap, 2016 PARCC scores revealed BCPSS ranked last among all 24 public school systems in Maryland with an overall pass rate of 18% (Smith, 2017). In the past, the state of Maryland has been largely recognized for having some of the best performing and most improved public school systems (Edweek.org), so the question arises why are these achievements not equally reflected in the poor black population? Critical race theorists hypothesize that the failures of school districts like BCPSS, not similar to the majority (white, more affluent) population of the state and country, are tolerated as a result of a racialized society (Gladson-Billings & Tate, 1995). In other terms, neglect of issues help reinforce race and class hierarchy.

Baltimore City as whole, not just the public school system, is understudied. In this era of gentrification, the history of Baltimore City and its peoples stand to be lost. While this paper is a critical analysis of educational policy implementation and race relations, it also poses as a form of salvage ethnography to recount the stories of black struggles and accomplishments within the public school system before its imminent reorganization. Until the reality of racial injustice in educational opportunities is acknowledged by policy makers, the achievement gap will only continue to expand like it has since the 1960’s.

Methodology

This research examines the effect of CCSS on the achievement gap in BCPSS between 2011 and 2015. Two statistical online databases, Maryland Report Card and Maryland Fact Book, are used to analyze quantitative data relative to the research question. Proficient and advanced scores on the Maryland School Assessment in English and math are used to measure academic achievement. SAT scores and college enrollment rates (students who enroll within 12 months post graduation) are analyzed to measure college preparedness. Enrollment, graduation rate, teacher quality, and educational funding and spending were analyzed as variables possibly attributing to the achievement gap.

Quantitative data was used to compare academic achievement between black and white students in BCPSS, academic achievement between black students in BCPSS and black students in other Maryland public school systems, and the overall BCPSS to the entire Maryland public school system. Qualitative data was collected in the form of oral history interviews from current and recently removed BCPSS educators and administrators. Interviewees were asked to share their experiences in BCPSS and to offer critiques of educational policies/initiatives. Common themes of struggle and success were identified to explore the relationships significant to achievement.

Again, comments and critiques are welcomed.