From New Mexico high school classrooms, to UNM’s general education program, Kalila Bohsali used research opportunities to catch up to out of state students and UNM scholarly expectations.
When Kalila Bohsali was just entering college, just getting to class was overwhelming, let alone asking for help or finding resources. Now a doctoral student at the University of New Mexico in the Department of English , Kalila has spent nearly nine years on this campus, but she recalls a class her first year where she arrived without having done the homework because she was never taught to read a syllabus. As a graduate of a New Mexico high school, Kalila acutely felt the gap between what she was prepared for, and what she faced on arrival. She had limited information about where to turn to for broad help with the issues she was facing in her writing, in understanding prompts, in learning how to study effectively. She encountered a higher pace curriculum in general education courses that left her feeling ill prepared and anxious.
Kalila describes herself as lucky. In her first semester of her freshman year, Dr. Matthew Hofer, a full professor modernist poetry in the English Department, began mentoring her, advising her in picking her courses, supporting her, providing her with grammar texts to help her writing, and also connecting her to further opportunities at UNM. What Kalila learned from this experience is the importance of connections. Through Dr. Hofer, Kalila was connect to the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship, a two-year program that supports students seeking to earn Ph.Ds. and become professors.
The Mellon Mays was started by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 1988 to increase diversity in higher learning and increase diversity of academic faculty. Initially, the program was only eight students, but has since grown to include 48 schools in the US, three in South Africa. Overall, it has supported over 5000 students in pursuing degrees. The program at UNM was started in 2015, the year that Kalila was chosen, and began to spearhead a network of underrepresented scholars across the United States while also individually supporting students financially and through mentorship. “Think about academia as a closed organization. The more you climb they hierarchy, the more information you’re given about the expectations and standards of the organization. But! If you aren’t connected to an insider, you never learn the secrets of the organization and therefore can never join,” says Kalila.
Think about academia as a closed organization. The more you climb they hierarchy, the more information you’re given about the expectations and standards of the organization. But! If you aren’t connected to an insider, you never learn the secrets of the organization and therefore can never join.”
mellon-mays-2
Stanford’s grounds, MMUF 2015 cohort at Stanford Regional Conference
mellon-mays-3
MMUF UNM Regional Conference 2018
“What was important about the opportunities provided by the Mellon Mays Foundation was how seriously they treated us as scholars, which in turn made us feel as though we were not just emerging scholars, but real ones that could become better, brighter, and more successful.”
The program provides students with research opportunities, job preparation, graduate school application preparation, and also requires students to complete a Senior capstone project. In addition to workshops on Zotero, Personal Statements, Teaching, and getting tenure, Kalila fondly remembers regional conferences organized and paid for by the fellowship that allowed her to visit Stanford, the University of Southern California, and the University of California, Los Angeles, where she met other like-minded scholars, connected with faculty in her field, and presented her research. She, earned conference presentation credit and received much needed feedback on her work.
In the words of Dr. Kiyoko Simmons, administrative coordinator of the Mellon Mays Fellowship and director of Center for Academic Excellence & Leadership Development (CAELD), this program importantly provides students in the Humanities and Social Sciences with opportunities for research. “UNM is a research one institution but it’s harder to find research opportunities for Humanities and Social Science fields unless you know somebody. And the Mellon Mays will help find that opportunity and that mentorship with faculty members that are really critical for undergraduate students who are interested in staying in academia.” Certainly, there are other fellowships that encourage research, but none with as much focus on professional development, mentorship, and fellowship of a carefully selected cohort. Dr. Simmons explains that “that this program only takes five students every year. So, we are very close. And not just coordinators, mentors, and fellows, but fellows have this, what do you call it, connections. The peers have their own kind of pride. Each cohort has a strong connection. Like close colleagues. There is respect and academic connection but also friendship.” Kalila confirms this collaborative and communal spirit. She fondly remembers fellows from her own cohort, and feels that it is a huge advantage to have a wide network of fellows in academia that she can rely on to understand her experiences as an academic.
A highlight for Kalila was Stanford. “I remember staring up at the old buildings, wandering campus with my fellows from UNM, and truly for the first time imagining myself as a scholar, a professor, a teacher, and a researcher. Until that moment, I still felt like I was playing catchup, partially just imposter syndrome, but also because of the brilliant people I was surrounded by.” Through pursuit of real, scholarly research, Kalila was more motivated to learn what needed to be learned. Yet she also find value in her own knowledge construction.
Through the Mellon Mays Foundation, Kalila was never underestimated. She was challenged to learn what she didn’t know, and to practice new skills in professional environments. Leaping from constructing thesis statements, to writing a capstone project, the program was instrumental to her identity as a scholar because it treated her like one, even when she doubted herself. And the connections with other scholars she made during the program? “Instrumental to my career, but also to my sanity.”
The Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship application is due each December. Students must have two years remaining before graduation, have a GPA of at least 3.5, and be a member of an underrepresented group. Please go to mmuf.unm.edu for more information on eligible fields of study and the selection process.
UNM is a research one institution but it’s harder to find research opportunities for Humanities and Social Science fields unless you know somebody.