Student Stories

Chicana poet and cultural theorist Gloria Anzaldúa says: “Making anthologies is also activism. In the process of creating the composition, the work of art, you’re creating the culture. You’re rewriting the culture, which is very much an activist kind of thing.”

Similarly, I have curated this presentation as an anthology - from the composers and artists that I have commissioned and programmed, to the interviews, images, the words of Latina scholars, and parts of my own story. As a person of color, as a Latina, a chicana. I have learned that telling our stories is a form of activism. This is why in many ways, silencing us is also an act of violence.

I am curating this collaboration of new music by Latina composers to facilitate a public platform and to open a dialogue about Latina culture, identity, and experiences in higher education, specifically in the field of western classical music. This project enriches the art form by contributing a diverse collection of new works to the repertoire, addressing societal issues and promoting Latina artists in classical music.

I am a 2022-2023 recipient of a University of Michigan Library Student Mini Grant. I am using the grant to support my mixed-methods dissertation, which aims to learn how we can improve rural student college access and connect rural high schoolers with postsecondary opportunities that align with their goals. Through a randomized controlled trial (RCT), I am testing how an informational intervention—providing rural seniors with information about a statewide free tuition program—affects their college-going behavior. I will contextualize these results with findings from focus groups with rural high school seniors about their knowledge of the program and their perspectives on the programs’ affordances and limitations.

Pressure ulcers are injuries to the skin and underlying tissue that form due to prolonged pressure. Bedridden patients are the most susceptible to these wounds, so hospital nurses need to turn them every few hours to alleviate the built-up pressure. In public hospitals like San Juan de Dios in Guatemala City, there is a high incidence of these wounds due to understaffing.

Currently, hospitals in Guatemala have egg carton foam mattresses intended to reduce the incidences of bedsores. However, even with these mattresses, patients who are not turned would still develop preliminary pressure ulcers in as little as six hours. Additionally, it is difficult for nurses in this hospital to prioritize and communicate which patients need to be turned because they use paper and pencil to track the patients. Thus, current prevention methods would benefit from engineering solutions that reduce the physical and mental demand on nurses to turn patients.

The U-M Library Student Ambassadors are a team of students who work for the library to promote library services and resources to students through targeted social media campaigns and digital exhibits, publicize and host library events that foster engagement, diversity, and inclusion, suggest ways to improve student experience by participating in meetings and focus groups with library staff, and represent the U-M Library at campus fairs and events. Their work is highly collaborative and a goal of the program is to give them the agency to make their own decisions and plans for the year. These governing principles allow for a highly creative and fun environment that results in some really great library programs each year. Here’s a reflection from four of our recent Ambassadors.

Do you ever wonder how much more we can know about the water that we depend on? This semester, I was involved in a Student Engagement Fellowship with the U-M Library on the Huron River named A River Runs Through Us. The Huron River Watershed, which serves as a vital resource for our community and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, is currently facing a multitude of challenges, including but not limited to a creeping dioxane plume and regular wastewater releases, making it ever more essential for us to become more informed about these issues and take action to protect this important river. Undoubtedly, the health and sustainability of the watersheds surrounding us directly affect not only our own lives, but also the lives of the various beings and organisms that inhabit our environment. For this reason, our goal for the project is to highlight these issues as well as resources and local activists that have been doing great work to protect the river and the watershed.

The Fake News Educational Materials Fellowship was initially conceived with the intention of researching fake news, misinformation, and disinformation within journalism in a range of areas: the psychological and socio-economic causes of the creation and circulation of fake news; data literacy and determining credibility; and bias in news reporting, analysis, and selection.

Megan Rim reflects on one of the highlights of her graduate career — working as a Digital Scholarship Public Engagement Intern.

A student perspective on powerful learning experiences during the Michigan Library Scholars Internship Program. This capstone project is about the Dance for Mother Earth Powwow. It is a physical exhibition displayed in the Hatcher Library North Lobby from August 1st through October 27th, 2022.

Did you know the largest student-led powwow is hosted in Ann Arbor each year? And it will soon be celebrating it's 50th event. Learn more about how this intertribal, cultural celebration of indigenous culture grew from a small local powwow into one of the larges powwow's in North America. The Dance for Mother Earth exhibition in Hatcher's north entrance display cases not only explores the history of the powwow, but also connects students and library patrons with current resources and information on modern indigenous culture and issues.

Classes often place a limit on what research is necessary for essays and tests, but the Michigan Library Scholars program gives its interns freedom to pursue any and all available information. This concept can be intimidating, but a necessary part of pursuing a career in academic scholarship. As a history and political-science major, this internship program has offered me the opportunity to pursue my own ideas and develop crucial skills.