Stories That Matter
How one alumna’s gift is furthering BU student research and writing
Mika Yao, a double major in political science and international relations, spent the summer of 2024 as an intern in Boston University’s Center on Forced Displacement, where she wrote profiles of students and faculty members and copyedited articles for the institute’s magazine and website. At the same time, she developed an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) proposal for a research project on immigration that she had started the previous year. She is now expanding on that research for a thesis for Pardee’s combined Bachelor of Arts in International Relations/Master of Arts in International Affairs.
Yao (CAS’25, Pardee’25,’26) was part of the first cohort of the Social Science Summer Writing Internship Program (SWIP), a collaboration between the CAS Writing Program’s Writing in the Disciplines initiative and the Center for Innovation in Social Science (CISS) that is funded by a gift from Jennifer Simpson (CAS’00) and the Psalm 103 Foundation.
“SWIP allowed me to explore research interests while developing my writing skills,” Yao says. “I had always felt too inexperienced to allow myself room to develop personal research projects. However, SWIP showed me how I could heighten my writing and research skills while simultaneously aiding existing research centers.”
SWIP provides paid writing internships for students majoring or minoring in social science disciplines at research centers and in offices across campus, including CISS, the Center on Forced Displacement, the Center for Mind & Culture, the Institute for Global Sustainability, and the CAS Communications Office.
The students write about faculty and student research, develop independent projects, and contribute to institutional publications. They also work on their own personal social science research projects, turning papers they had previously written for classes into research proposals for UROP funding or honors theses.
Students are guided in this work during weekly workshops led by Stephen Hodin, a senior lecturer in the Writing Program, where they evaluate social science publications, develop and refine their writing projects, and review each other’s work. The program culminates in a public showcase where students present their work to peers, mentors, and colleagues.
“Writing is one of the most important skills students need to succeed,” says Deborah Carr, A&S Distinguished Professor of Sociology and CISS director. “SWIP is a win-win for students and BU’s social science institutes.”
In the first two SWIP summers, student proposals have spanned a wide range of topics—from LGBTQ+ spaces in Boston to the evolution of sex work policy in Massachusetts; from the impact of IMF policies on gang violence in Central South America to cultural preservation in Sri Lanka. One student examined the life of Reverend George Burroughs, a man executed at the Salem witch trials; another proposed an ethnographic study of the BU Women’s Soccer team as part of a larger exploration of abuse and intimidation in college athletics; and a third planned to compare college admissions systems in China and the United States.
“These students are illuminating complex social issues through writing,” says David Shawn, SWIP program director. “We want our interns to see that making a difference in the world requires being able to tell important stories.”
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College of Arts & Sciences Experiential Learning Connector Experiential
The College of Arts & Sciences Experiential Learning Connector encourages students to lean into their interests, find their passions, step outside their comfort zone, and build confidence by engaging in new environments and developing transferable skills. Through the CAS Experiential Learning Connector, students are benefiting from a career-focused curriculum that is preparing them with the essential skills and experiences they need to be successful upon graduation.
We strive to implement these all-important programs by identifying more internships and mentorships; creating opportunities for increased community engagement; and offering more direct professional development programs for students. But demand for experiential learning is increasing, and some opportunities present unforeseen costs that can impose a financial burden on many students. Support from donors like you allows us to make more opportunities available to more students, in part by providing stipends for unpaid internships and fieldwork.
College of Arts & Sciences Dean‘s Fund
The CAS Dean’s Fund helps to recruit and retain outstanding faculty; foster community, diversity, equity, and inclusion; innovate in educational programs; catalyze research innovation; and provide financial support and access.
College of Arts & Sciences Scholarship Fund
Our students are our impact: they go on to become the leaders of tomorrow. Some dive deep into their fields of study, emerging, for example, as world-class chemists or prominent museum curators. But many others use the skills and values developed through the liberal arts to become distinguished entrepreneurs, pioneers of medical research, leaders of global economies, writers, and more. This is our opportunity to help get them there.
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