Fostering history
Andrew
Riggs / The Collegian
Kellie Foster, a dual major, received $3,000 for her studies on
women leaders in the Black Panther movement. |
By Jackie Womack
The Collegian
One Fresno State student took
her love of learning all the way to Chicago this summer.
Kellie Foster, a senior with a dual major in Africana studies and sociology,
was selected to participate in the Summer Research Opportunity Program
at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The program is a competitive
organization run by a consortium of Midwestern universities designed to
increase the number of underrepresented students who choose academic careers.
“It was a really priceless experience for me,” Foster said.
“Having the ability to work with a mentor who was already where
I see myself being in the future.”
Foster’s mentor in the program was Cynthia Blair, professor in African
American studies and history at the University of Illinois.
As part of the program, Foster was given a $3,000 stipend, travel expenses
and room and board.
For her project, Foster, 21, researched women leaders in the Black Panther
movement.
“The women in the Black Power movement are often just placed in
the background and I wanted to bring them to people’s attention,”
she said.
Foster, who is originally from the Los Angeles area, said she first heard
about the program while attending Dillard University in New Orleans.
“While I was at Dillard University, there were a number of Dillard
students who went to it,” she said.
Foster transferred to Fresno State after two years but didn’t forget
about the program. She applied for it and asked one of her teachers in
Africana and sociology and chair of the Africana American-Indian studies
program, Yaw Oheneba-Sakyi, to give her a recommendation.
After checking out the program, Oheneba-Sakyi gave his recommendation.
“She was a perfect candidate,” he said. “She’s
serious, she’s going to grad school and she’s going to become
a professor. I knew she was the right candidate.”
Foster said the culmination of her research during the program was the
presentation of a 13-page paper at a conference. She said she’s
still not done with the research and continues working on it as a Robert
McNair Scholar, a Fresno State program similar to the Summer Research
Opportunity Program, which provides mentors and aid to underrepresented
students.
Sociology professor Timothy Kubal, Foster’s mentor in the McNair
program, said she was an enterpriser.
“One of the things that’s really interesting about her is
that she’s a free thinker,” Kubal said. “She has her
own way of looking at things and that’s interesting and exciting.
You can tell she’s a real go-getter.”
Foster said her love of the field of research led to her career choice
of teaching at the college level.
“I just have a really strong thirst for knowledge and academia allows
me to pursue it,” she said.
Foster said she has some practice already for the teaching and advising
parts of her future career: she was a tutor at a high school last spring
as a part of her Community Service class and she currently advises sophomores
as a team leader in the Educational Opportunities Program.
She said when she isn’t working, researching or going to classes,
she likes going to concerts.
“I’m a fanatic of live music,” she said. “I prefer
smaller, more intimate scenes like blues and jazz.”
Foster said while her future plans include graduate school, they are a
little different.
“I’m going to skip the masters and go straight to doctoral
studies,” she said. “I’ll get my Ph.D. in sociology.”
She said she was looking at universities in the East: University of Pennsylvania
at Philadelphia, Columbia and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Foster
said the research that she started could continue.
“If I continue to research it in my doctoral program, it could wind
up as a book,” she said.
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