New MLA grant provides 'pathway' for underrepresented English students

English students will benefit from a new Modern Language Association (MLA) grant to promote academic success among students historically underrepresented in the humanities. Officially titled "New Pathways for Students of Color, First-Generation College Students, and Pell Grant Recipients to Enter Eastern Connecticut State University's English Program," the initiative is designed to empower marginalized students and help them unlock their full academic potential.

Junior English major Julianna Concepcion sees herself in the students the grant intends to help. When she attended Windham High School, she observed many classmates selling themselves short on their aptitude for higher education.

Julianna Concepcion

"Many of my peers did not have a passion for higher education, which is just fine and works out for people all across America," Concepcion acknowledged.

"My issue, however, lied in their reasons for not wanting to go to college - they believed they were too dumb or not passionate enough about anything to go to university for it, yet were some of the smartest and most driven people I knew.

"I was one of those kids. I didn't really believe that I had the time to focus on college." Now searching for Ph.D. programs to apply to, Concepcion hopes the grant's programming will expose local high school students to opportunities for academic growth like she has experienced.

English Professors Allison Speicher and Miriam Chirico, as well as Dean of Arts and Sciences Emily Todd, applied for the grant last fall with a vision aligning with Concepcion's.

"Dr. Chirico and Dr. Speicher have been excellent co-directors of the project, and I am especially pleased that the grant-funded initiatives they have organized have established new partnerships, both on and off campus, which we look forward to sustaining after the grant ends," said Todd.

Allison Speicher

Speicher and Chirico administer different aspects of the grant. "My side of the grant aims to recruit future students to Eastern and, more broadly, to help students who may not have thought that college could be for them to consider the option," said Speicher.

Chirico oversees internal recruitment; in other words, she looks to get non-English majors at Eastern involved in the English curriculum. She has incorporated new instructional methods into her classes aimed at piquing interest in English.

"The goal is to invite non-English majors not necessarily to become majors, but to see how valuable the humanities are for expressing the individual voice and for collecting together multiple perspectives, especially that of the students at Eastern," said Chirico.

"This fall, I am teaching two sections of a general education class, a course that is in our new liberal arts core curriculum (ELAC)."

Chirico has also enlisted Sammy Vertucci, a peer tutor in creative writing, to assist her students in poetry writing, which will eventually be printed in a "zine" (a do-it-yourself magazine) and distributed to the J. Eugene Smith Library and displayed in locations around campus.

Speicher sees a two-fold benefit in the grant: "I hope we're benefitting future Eastern students by helping them see that this might be the right place for them as well as current Eastern students, who will benefit from a more diverse and robust English department and campus community."

Miriam Chirico

Chirico believes that adding English to a student's course of study can strengthen their overall education. "I find myself making connections with the art department, the theater department, the Institute of Sustainability and the economics department in my research and in teaching my classes," she said.

"Students in the English department can deepen their ability to read literature through incorporating other fields, and in turn other disciplines can be represented and expressed more persuasively through stories."

Networking events

Part of Speicher's approach has been working with Windham High School, as well as Fitch High School in Groton, to host networking events with students interested in joining Eastern's English program. Windham visited on Nov. 4 and Fitch made the trip on Nov. 22.

The networking events featured several stations at which high school students could speak with Eastern English majors about a variety of topics. Concepcion hosted one of these discussions during the Windham networking event, speaking with students at her former high school.

"There was a lot that they did not know about Eastern that I told them, and they seemed extremely intrigued," she said. "I was so happy that so many of them wanted to go to college. That really warmed my heart."

Concepcion continued: "I think that outreach overall is super important in letting these kids know that (Eastern is) a possibility that would assist them in taking the next step in the right direction."

Speicher was pleased with the outcomes of the visits and is excited for what the future holds. "Many came back from visiting English classes with enthusiastic reviews, and we're currently working on helping other students visit classes in the future," she said.

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