Katie Poteet is a Global Studies and Political Science major with an Arabic minor, who will graduate in May 2021. She is a Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar, a member of the Honors College, and a URA Scholar.

Title of your research project:Building a Nation: How National Service Requirements Affect Patriotic Sentiment

Describe your project: This project will investigate whether countries with mandatory military or civil service requirements for young adults also have higher levels of patriotism throughout the country. The results will help understand whether these policies are effective in increasing patriotism throughout a country.

Who is your mentor(s) for your project?
My mentor for this project is Dr. Carolyn Forestiere, Chair of the Political Science Department. I chose to research this topic under the supervision of Dr. Forestiere because she has extensive knowledge of Western Europe, which is the region I will be studying, and because I enjoyed working with her as a research assistant as she rewrote her book on research methods in political science over the spring semester. Dr. Forestiere is so encouraging and enthusiastic about research!

How did you become interested in this project?
I first thought of this research project during the fall of 2019 while taking POLI 301: Research Methods in Political Science with Dr. Forestiere. The topic was outside the scope of the class because our research projects had to focus on the United States, so I saved the idea until there was an opportunity to pursue it further. I chose to focus on Western European countries (in addition to a select number of Central and Eastern European countries) after talking with Dr. Forestiere because there are a number of countries in the region that have some type of mandatory service policies or have recently done away with them.

What has been the hardest part about your research? What was the most unexpected thing about being a researcher?
I expect to encounter many confounding variables that may be hard to identify. Many factors can influence citizens’ levels of patriotism that have nothing to do with mandatory service such as a widespread shared identity or a well-liked leader of the country. It will be difficult to determine whether high levels of patriotism are caused in part because most of the population has engaged in mandatory service, but I plan to do this by comparing many different countries with varying degrees of national service requirements and analyzing the differences in overall levels of patriotism in those countries.

What has been the most rewarding part?
The most rewarding part will be contributing to the larger conversation around national service requirements in the public policy sphere. There has not been a lot of research on this topic because researchers have traditionally focused on how one country’s patriotism changes when the country implements or removes a mandatory service requirement, which does not happen very frequently. I am excited to see if my approach will yield new results and help policymakers foster patriotism and high spirits in their countries, or whether such requirements should be phased out of the conversation.

How will you disseminate your research?
I plan to present my research at URCAD and submit my final paper to undergraduate research journals like the Journal of Political Science and the Journal of Public and International Affairs. This project will serve as my honors thesis for the political science department.

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research?
Sign up for a research methods class in your major or a related one! Even if it is not required to graduate, it can strengthen important analysis and writing skills that will be helpful for your future. It will also walk you through the research process step-by-step so you can understand the basics before starting your own research.

What are your career goals?
I want to be a researcher at an international affairs or public policy think tank and conduct research on transitional justice. I am currently interning at the Brookings Institution researching the intersection of climate change and girls’ education and I really enjoy the process of investigating an issue, writing up the findings, and sharing it with an audience. I plan to get my Ph.D. in human rights one day and work at an organization like Brookings, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or even the United States Institute of Peace.

Photo: Katie at the United States Institute of Peace (one of her dream jobs).

Keren Herrán is an Individualized Study major with a focus on

“Global Health Considering Environmental Factors”, who will graduate in 2021.

Affiliations:

URA Scholar

Meyerhoff Scholar

Honors College

France-Merrick Scholar

LSAMP Scholar

UMBC Esperanza Scholar

UMBC Zainab Damji Scholar

LaMont Toliver Alumni Memorial Scholar

Title of your research project: Analysis of Mental Well-being of Environmental Migrants in Maryland 

Describe your project:

I aim to identify and assess the mental health consequences that adult environmental migrants experience as a result of their relocation to Maryland. By doing so, I hope to inform health professionals, researchers, and policymakers within Maryland of the psychological state of environmental migrants within our population and how we can best serve their unique mental health needs.

Who is your mentor(s) for your project? Why did you choose them?

My mentor for this research project is Dr. Dawn Biehler, Associate Professor within the Geography and Environmental Systems department. I chose to pursue this investigation under the guidance of Dr. Biehler because she has extensive experience in analyzing the various subfields that intersect within my project    (human geography, environmental justice, and public health) and because she has been an incredible adviser and role model for me during my academic career at UMBC. I have so much to learn from her!

How did you become interested in this project?

I became interested in this project upon meeting with Dr. Biehler the fall of my sophomore year, the fall of 2018, when I met with her to share my public health interests. I expressed to Dr. Biehler that as an aspiring researcher, I wanted to focus my efforts on projects that benefited minority populations, especially Latinos. Dr. Biehler encouraged me to consider how advancing knowledge to solve international health concerns can be done without having to even leave the Baltimore region, given that this area has a wealth of diversity of migrants and refugees. She noted that within Maryland, the topic of analyzing the health consequences faced by individuals who relocate here due to natural disasters, environmental degradation, or climate change, was understudied. She proposed that I consider evaluating how the health conditions of this specific subgroup of migrants change as a result of their migration journey to Maryland and adjustment to a new culture.

This project proposal resonated deeply with my conviction to serve marginalized and underserved communities. Conducting this study is also very personal to me since my family is from Puerto Rico and El Salvador, two regions that have both been hit hard by environmental phenomenon and disasters. After Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 hurricane, hit Puerto Rico in fall 2017, the U.S Census Bureau estimated that 97,000 Puerto Ricans left the island and migrated to the continental United States. Of these thousands of Puerto Ricans, how many suffered a disruption of medical therapies because of their relocation? How many experienced inaccess to their usual medications along their journey? How many faced mental health consequences, such as survivor’s guilt, after their relocation? 

For El Salvador, the nation’s ongoing environmental catastrophe of extreme droughts on the Pacific Coast is increasingly exacerbated by climate change and hotter weather patterns. Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua’s Pacific Coast agrarian communities (the “Dry Corridor” region) are also experiencing this crisis. According to the World Food Program, residents of the Dry Corridor report that recent failed crop seasons have been the worst they have ever seen in the past 35 years. As a result, it is no surprise that the emigration from these counties augmented by 500% between 2010-2015 as more and more farmers have been unable to continue to sustain their livelihood and have decided to migrate in order to escape malnutrition and poverty.  What health consequences do these migrants experience as a result of their environmental migration? Are their needs met by their new host communities despite potential lack of citizen status? Do language barriers pose a threat to the health of this already vulnerable group?

What has been the hardest part about your research/what was the most unexpected thing about being a researcher? 

Although I am currently in the initial stages of my research, I can foresee that it will be difficult to recruit migrants to participate in this interview study and share their experiences with me. Migrants are a vulnerable group in society and can be legitimately distrusting of researchers due to disrespect they have been shown by academics in the past. Furthermore, now that I have narrowed my research question to be an evaluation specifically of how environmental migrant’s mental health changes after migration, I also predict that discussing certain painful memories may cause potential participants to decline wanting to participate in interviews. Thankfully however, the funding UMBC has awarded me via the URA Scholars Program will allow me to purchase gifts as a token of appreciation and thanks that I can use as an incentive for migrants to participate in my study. 

What has been the most rewarding part?

Thus far, conducting preliminary interviews with UMBC college students who are environmental migrants has been incredibly rewarding. I am inspired by my peers’ resilience and optimism despite the mental health challenges they have faced due to their environmental migration journeys. 

How will you disseminate your research?

I will be presenting my research both at URCAD and the INDS Capstone Presentation conference. I hope to submit my presentation to other conferences as well and I aspire to publish my results in an academic journal. 

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research? 

I would advise other students who are considering getting involved in research to identify professors on campus whose work they find interesting. Chances are that even if you are not sure what project idea you want to pursue, if your interests align with those of your mentor, they can help point you in the right direction and get you started! 

What are your career goals?

I aspire to ultimately enroll in a public health doctoral program that will equip me with the added training and credentials necessary to work in international settings alongside health workers, designing creative programs that mitigate health issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. Organizations such as the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, CARE International, John Snow Inc., ISGlobal, and Jhpiego are all research-based nonprofit institutions I could see myself working in.