Department of Chemical Sciences

I have mentored too many students to remember.

Mentoring requires time and patience. It takes a lot of your time if you want to do it right. Students get the most out of doing research by having that one-on-one mentoring experience. This process also requires a lot of patience because students come to you with different academic backgrounds.

Aside from seeing my mentees develop research skills, what’s most important for me is seeing them develop soft skills, including self-confidence and better communication skills that will help them be successful in their chosen careers.

Department of Psychology

Over the years, I have worked with maybe 120 student researchers for some extended period of time.

Mentoring students calls for patience, honesty, and clearly articulated and enforced expectations and standards. You need to have respect for the work and respect for the educational nature of the process. Mentors must have a willingness to let go – to let go of control over the work and the process, and
to let go of the student when it is time or appropriate to do so.

Mentoring has all of the elements of teaching that drew most of us to this profession. It keeps me excited about the students and the work. It gives me energy. It gives me hope. This is why I left another career to get a PhD and become a teacher.

Chairperson, Department of English

I’ve mentored several students in undergraduate research, as well as in departmental honors.

To guide student researchers you need the same qualities as those you need to be a good teacher: curiosity, love, patience and persistence.

Mentoring provides a lot of the same pleasure and satisfaction that I derive from classroom teaching, only intensified: There’s so much joy in sharing knowledge and ideas that I love with a younger person new to the field. They keep me excited and interested in my own work. There’s also tremendous pleasure in seeing someone learn and grow and discover their own intellectual gifts and talents – seeing them become more powerful and confident. I love seeing students come into their own – helping them become stronger writers and thinkers. I love my academic field, and it is so gratifying to bring new people into it, to really immerse them in the ideas and modes of thought in the discipline. For those who are going to become teachers, I can’t tell you how much it means to me to know that we’re sending people with real intellectual firepower into the teaching profession. And more personally, I’ve developed friendships and mentoring relationships that are deeper and longer-lasting than what one can develop when only engaging in the classroom. There is limitless satisfaction and joy in mentoring. It’s been one of the greatest sources of enjoyment and pride in my career.

Chairperson, Department of Physics

Regarding summer research and honors theses, over my 17 years at Bridgewater, I have mentored probably 12 to 15 students.

For me to be a good mentor, I need to be seriously engaged in the project myself and want to see it succeed. I work in a science collaboration model, so my students are working with me together on scientific questions that are part of my larger research program. I think the mentoring happens naturally as the student and I are deeply working together toward figuring out something new about the universe.

I love it. It’s just fun to work with students and help them pursue their research at the same time.

Hometown: Worcester
Majors: Special Education, Teacher of Students with Severe Disabilities; Psychology
Project: The BIG Transition: An Analysis of Factors Impacting the Transition Process for Students with Severe Special Needs
Mentor: J. Edward Carter (Special Education)
Career: Special Education Teacher, David Prouty High School, Spencer

My project focused on the transition process from special education to adult life, which I believe is an integral part of building future successes for students with severe disabilities. The project explored factors related to the transition process through program observations and interviews with transition coordinators, administration and staff from five residential schools serving students with severe disabilities. The information obtained from the interviews contributed to the construction of my own transition model, highlighted by five essential factors of the transition process, all stemming from the concept of self-determination. The goal was to provide a realistic model for supporting future teachers of students with severe disabilities to help them navigate the complexities of the transition process.

When this research project was carried out in 2017, I was an undergraduate studying to become a teacher of special education for students with severe disabilities. Previously, I had experience working as an intern at the New England Center for Children in Southborough, where I worked with students, ages 15-22 with autism. My internship forced me to think critically about transition services and how the services and planning would directly affect the quality of life of students who are transitioning out of special education and into adult life. As an emerging educator, I wanted to create a way to streamline the transition process, in the form of a model, and use this model in my future classroom. Today, as a high school special education teacher, this research has helped me create curriculum and experiences that ensure that my students are developing the skills essential to successful adult life.

As for major takeaways from my research, I found there is no specific protocol for performing transition-planning procedures, rather it is a more individualized process tailored to a student’s specific needs. By formulating a model that addresses the major factors related to transition, it is a way for educators like myself to ensure that we are doing everything in our power to support students appropriately in the transition process.

Hometown: East Bridgewater
Majors: English, Secondary Education
Project: Forbidden Voices: Decoding Homoerotic Language in Whitman’s “Song of Myself”
Mentor: Dr. Ben Carson (English)

In my essay, I explore how Walt Whitman encodes a distinctly homosexual voice in his writing. Literary encoding occurs whenever a writer subtly or ambiguously incorporates a controversial theme in his or her writing in order to make it more socially acceptable. I hope to decode Whitman’s language in his poem “Song of Myself” so that modern readers can more fully appreciate his themes regarding homosexual identity. I was invited to present this research at the Sigma Tau Delta International English Convention in Las Vegas, but it was cancelled due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.

As I am pursuing a career in English education, I am always considering ways in which students might see some aspect of themselves reflected in literary texts. Educators and scholars often analyze how Whitman examines self-identity in his poetry, but they seldom bring sexuality or sexual orientation into this discussion. As many young people – especially those who identify as LGBTQ+ – grapple with sexuality as a central component of their own path toward self-identity, I believe it is both dishonest and detrimental to fail to acknowledge queerness in evidently queer texts. I want to elevate this aspect of Whitman’s poetry that is too often ignored. I am less interested in speculation over his sexuality and more in how he textually addresses homosexuality in his poetry.

As literary scholars, it is important that we paint a full picture of the literature we study. Now, more than ever, it is important that we recognize how literature gives voice to those who are too often left unheard.

Hometown: Fall River
Major: Social Work
Project: Vaping: The 21st Century Cigarette? What the Cigarette Smoking Generation Thinks of the Vaping Generation
Mentor: Dr. Jing Tan (Social Work)

The purpose of this study was to investigate parents’ attitudes toward the vaping being done by teens in grades 6-12 and to explore what factors impact their perception. Vaping has become an epidemic, similar to cigarette smoking in previous generations, and, until very recently, not much research has been done on the subject.

I thought that this topic would be interesting, as vaping has become a major issue in our society, with some states banning the practice (last year, Massachusetts passed a law banning flavored tobacco and vaping products, including menthol cigarettes.) Still, many people don’t realize that the dangers of vaping are similar to the dangers of cigarette smoking. I thought raising awareness about these risks would be extremely important – for young people and parents alike – as many people have gotten sick from vaping.

As someone who has worked in the substance-use prevention field for six years, I think it is of critical importance to inform both youth and parents about the risks involved with using alcohol and other substances. The way I see it is that it is better to be informed of these issues in order to make an educated decision than to do something and regret it because you didn’t know the consequences, or didn’t think that anything harmful could happen to you. Now is the time to examine the deleterious effects of vaping.

Hometown: Randolph
Majors: English, Graphic Design
Project: Beyond Validation: The Vernacular Literary Tradition and African-American Vernacular English
Mentor: Dr. Emily Field (English)

African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a dialect spoken by the African-American community. The research surrounding AAVE has validated it as indeed a dialect and not merely a lesser version of standard English. What’s not yet clear is why AAVE developed into what it is today and how it is valuable in its own right. This is the question I try to answer through my research of AAVE in action and as recorded in the past.

I was drawn to this topic in my History of English class, where I learned the many different ways English became the language it is today. As a speaker of both standard English and AAVE, I wondered what interesting ways AAVE came into being. The answer, I found, was lacking. So, I endeavored to begin an exploration in hopes of answering this question.

This research is important because understanding why AAVE developed is key to understanding it as integral to American English, rather than derivative of the language. African-American peoples have spent their whole existence trying to validate themselves against “the standard.” It is time that we begin to explore our intrinsic value, beyond mere validation.

Hometown: Rochester
Major: Art History
Project: Amamonzeki: The Artistic Practices of Aristocratic Buddhist Nuns in Premodern Japan
Mentor: Dr. Sean McPherson (Art and Art History)

My study explores the lives and artistic works of aristocratic Zen nuns in Early Modern (1600-1868) Japan. Their artistic contributions were prayers for amassing karmic merit in the afterlife or were intended to assist temples in furthering the spread of Buddhism. Art was not only a form of piety for Buddhist nuns, but also sometimes involved sacrifice through ascetic practices. Traditions of self-mutilation carried out by religious women in premodern Japan were performed predominantly by those seeking to overcome their physical attachments and render themselves genderless when male priests hindered their pursuit of spiritual studies. The cultural breadth of the convents can be seen in various objects made from wood, clay, cloth, metal, paper and pigments, and some even attest to religious fervor by incorporating the hair, skin and blood of the nuns who created them. The visual brilliance of these objects convinces us that the imperial convents are extraordinary cultural repositories that deserve further scholarship.

During the summer of 2018, I was awarded a summer research grant through BSU during which I studied Zen Buddhist painting from the Kamakura period (1192-1333). It occurred to me that all my textual sources focused solely on arts created by men.

I became increasingly curious about the women who devoted themselves to Buddhism from its introduction to Japan in the sixth century to the present. With my adviser’s guidance and a few directed studies, I decided to focus on the arts created with the Imperial Convents (Amamonzeki) during Japan’s Edo period (1603-1868).
There is very little scholarship on this topic. Buddhism has been practiced in Japan for well over a millennium, but I believe the religious, philosophical, social and aesthetic focus seems incredibly one-sided. There is another side – the contributions of females  to Japan’s religious history and identity that is missing.

Hometown: Kingston
Major: Psychology
Minors: GLBT Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies
Project: Transgender Health: A Social Justice Education Project
Mentor: Dr. Theresa Jackson (Psychology)

My project focuses on educating health care providers (doctors, nurses, receptionists, medical staff, EMTs and other medical personnel) about the needs of the transgender community. For this project, we created an educational pamphlet to help those working in the medical field become more knowledgeable about the differing needs of their transgender patients.

I have found through my own experiences of being openly transgender since October 2016 that it is very difficult to navigate the American health care system when health care providers are uneducated about the transgender community. This often causes discomfort, gender dysphoria and other complications for members of the transgender community, keeping them from accessing health care or addressing identity-specific health care needs. Because of this, I avoided the health care system for two years. This lack of knowledge along with the gaps between the needs of the transgender community and the knowledge of health care providers fueled my desire to advocate for my own community.

It often feels like members of the transgender community must constantly fight ignorance and prejudice as they try to protect their rights under the law. My project focuses generally on addressing ongoing issues for the transgender community and specifically on the lack of understanding from some in the medical community. This lack of education and understanding often creates barriers to a transgender person’s health and well-being. The pamphlet I created is a resource that aims to suggest ways health care can be more inclusive and accessible for the transgender community.