Jada Daniel’23 wants her scholarship to support and give visibility to communities of color.
来源:Ray Broad ' 26

Jada Daniel’23 is a person of many talents. 三专业, 高级船级员, 排球运动员, 麦克奈尔的学者, Black Students United president, she plans to become a defense attorney, 社会学家, 和活动家. She came to 十大菠菜台子 from Riverdale, Ill., seeking a small school, good academics, a good 创意写作 程序. What she found exceeded her expectations—and even led her on a totally different career path.

Jada toured Beloit four times before she decided to enroll. After visiting the campus and meeting her future peers, she “felt like [she] was at home.” She started out at Beloit intending to major in 创意写作, but after being influenced by Beloit professors 查尔斯·维斯特伯格, 罗恩·沃森, 索尼娅·玛丽亚·约翰逊, Carla Davis, she shifted her focus to her current majors: 社会学, 批判认同研究, 政治科学.

“I was very conscious of the socio-political realities of marginalized groups and how systems and structures have been constructed to oppress them, but I couldn’t quite make sense of it or articulate it until I continued to take those classes,杰达说。.

的 unforgiving national political climate during the last few years has been fundamental in shaping Jada’s studies in college. “I think that having a front-row seat to the world being on fire for the Black community not only radicalized me, but reinvigorated my curiosity and learning interests. Beloit has challenged me to think about things I wouldn’t normally think about, 至于我的待遇, how my community is treated, 和交集, which is something I want to research in the future.”

Jada hopes to use that passion to help underserved communities and people 与 marginalized identities. “I want to do scholarship as a form of activism. With the McNair 程序 here, I’ve been able to find research interests that are grounded in transformative justice and abolition.”

作为麦克奈尔学者, Jada has conducted multiple research projects that combine her interests in 社会学, 批判认同研究, 政治科学.
来源:Ray Broad ' 26

的 麦克奈尔学者计划 aims to increase the number of low-income, first-generation, underrepresented students in Ph.D. 程序s and support undergraduates’ scholarship. 通过这个项目, Jada has studied the association of Blackness 与 criminality in schools, 这个消息, 与in Black communities. 最近, she presented a research project at a Black History Month event about the connection between the hypervisibility of Black students in school discipline and the justice system and lower graduation rates among Black students in Chicago public schools.

This research is only the beginning for Jada. “I see myself contributing to activism through scholarship, 与 deep reflection on impacting academia and the communities I identify 与,她说。.

Her time at Beloit has benefited her, thanks not just to the college’s “absolutely stellar” academics, but also her involvement 与 Black Students United, 学生会, across multiple departments. “在这里, I’ve gotten to experience lots of things that I wouldn’t have even gotten out of my shell to do,杰达说。. “Beloit has definitely exceeded my expectations. I didn’t think that I would meet as many people as I have.”

Jada recently completed her search for graduate schools, officially accepting her top choice of Ph.D. 程序s in 社会学 at Northwestern University, where she hopes to teach 社会学 and eventually work to become a criminal defense attorney.

She is well on her way to fulfilling her dreams of scholarly activism beyond 十大菠菜台子. 不管她接下来做什么, Jada’s goal is to “give back by producing compelling and accessible research that works 与,而不是 on, marginalized and underserved communities to uplift Black joy, liberation, abolition.”