JUNIOR COHORT

Deepti Aravapalli

Plan II/Business Honors

If freshman year was an exercise in learning how to spread my wings, sophomore year was a lesson in how high I could fly before the wax holding everything together threatened to melt. Saying no has never been my strong suit, and as a result I tend to pile more onto my plate than I can feasibly handle. While I have managed to get away with this for most of my life, this past fall served as a rude awakening to the toll this mode of operation was taking on my mental and emotional health. I am so grateful to have had the support and wisdom of my cohort through all of it. I can’t put into words what it meant to have the safe place that is the Dedman community as I was navigating the most difficult semester of my life.

To recap the 2019-2020 academic year, beginning in the classroom, I discovered as a transfer into the Business Honors Program that I was not as compelled by my business classes as I had hoped to be. While I found philosophy discussions enthralling, accounting and business communications just didn’t seem to do it for me. Though disappointing, I found solace in my Playwriting class. This was the first chance I’d gotten to explore creative writing and theater in college, and it consumed me in the best way imaginable. I went on to take another drama class in the spring, which cemented my interest in the subject. Additionally, I had the opportunity to serve as a teaching assistant for Professor Lee Walker this past semester and working with students proved to be one of the most rewarding experiences of college.

From an extracurricular standpoint, I served as Director of Marketing for USIT, a finance organization I’ve been in since freshman year. I was fortunate to be part of the Skaaren Climate Scholars Program, where I learned a great deal about climate change and got to meet so many incredible people that work in that space. Additionally, I was the fellow development director for the Social Entrepreneurship Learning Lab, which meant that I got to mentor ten fellows as they built ventures to address social issues. My friends and I also got the chance to consult for the food truck, Bananarchy, and I served on the regional board for Destination Imagination, an organization I’ve been involved with for over a decade. Finally, I found such a special community when I was tapped into Texas Orange Jackets. This group of women consistently empower me to do and be better.

If there was a silver lining to a stressful year, it was that it forced me to consider what I wanted to prioritize going forward. This reflection yielded three things that I am most compelled by: sustainability, social justice, and storytelling. As I move into the second half of my collegiate experience, I am excited to be pursuing things that allow me to further explore these realms.

Brynna Boyd

Plan II/Communications & Leadership with a minor in Educational Psychology 

My second year of college has come to a strange and unprecedented conclusion (to say the least). But even as the end of the spring semester 2020 marked a new normal, more challenges, and unexpected circumstances, this school year itself was tagged with “newness” from the beginning as it was my first year as a Dedman scholar.

Having this community, transformed my experience as a student. I looked forward to our Monday meetings, had a great time studying (but mostly just chatting) in the Dedman office, and had support from friends and faculty members as I jumped into new endeavors. One of these ventures was taking the Communication and Leadership Seminar course, in the fall semester. This class opened a whole new realm of what I can pursue within communications. Through exploring dilemmas of leadership and ethics across fields, I found myself gaining skills that transcended the coursework and were crucial to my roles within student organizations and my eventual internship. From this course, I also had the opportunity to attend the Wall Street Journal’s Women in the Workplace conference that focused on the experiences of women of color in professional settings. Ending the fall semester, I had new mentors, insights, and ideas to start the spring.

This started with honing my skills in community engagement and outreach as an intern at Creative Action. This was a great opportunity to combine my focus on education equity and social justice with my work in communications and leading positive change. I also had the chance to go back to New York as a student panelist on a discussion about the future of ethical workplaces. However, within weeks of returning, classes transitioned online along with my internship, my study abroad was cancelled, and I was left thinking of how I could continue to do meaningful work despite all of these adjustments.

Primarily, things transitioned quite smoothly for my internship, as I was moved from summer camp recruitment projects to being a mentor for the Youth Action Council. I really enjoyed helping students establish their ideas and digital projects while keeping up the feeling of community despite being online. Furthermore, I was able to complete the Plan II Student Association Diversity Committee’s first report on the student and faculty experience in the program. This included data from our town hall, student surveys, faculty interviews, and student interviews that we presented over Zoom to the administration. The response to our proposal was even better than we expected as not only were faculty grateful for and impressed with our research, but at the point that I am writing this, we’ve already seen many of our action items being initiated. In light of studying abroad being canceled, I busied myself with an internship through the Girl Scouts where I helped create and lead virtual college readiness workshops. I have also continued as a research assistant for a study on school based marginalization and began my own research as a Mellon Mays Fellow.

This summer of 2020 has also brought about new challenges as instances of anti-Black violence took place across the nation. Following the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, I was increasingly called to action as the president of the Black Honors Student Association. Though racism has persisted long before these recent events, the demand for change across entities I am a part of was to a level I have not previously witnessed. As the president of a Black organization, I have been a part of the Black Policy and Leadership Council, and I have had a more active role in seeking change within and outside of the university. Within the Black Honors Student Association, I—with the help of friends and a fellow Dedman, Madison—created a sticker fundraiser to raise money for organizations that support and uplift Black voices. I have also started to think more critically about what my work, research, and activism means for my community, as I examine diversity, inclusivity, and student experience in educational contexts.

Hailey Hollowell

Plan II/International Relations & Global Studies  

Entering sophomore year without a clear future path was anxiety-inducing to stay the least. While it has been a messy process, this has been the year where I have become more comfortable in uncertainty which has given me the freedom to grow and discover my interests. Through my Dedman community and cohort mentorship (Shoutout to the Courage Cohort!), I have become a happier, more inspired person and scholar.

During the 2019-2020 academic year, I had the privilege of developing leadership skills in my first home on campus, Liberal Arts Council. As a co-chair of the College Ambassadors Committee, I was tasked with gathering feedback from the liberal arts student body and presenting it to administrators in innovative ways. My co-chair and I hosted town halls, focus groups, and surveys while introducing our new members to life on campus and in LAC. I similarly enjoyed my time as Peer Mentor for a small group of new Plan II freshmen.

Alongside these fulfilling roles, I began to specialize within my International Relations and Global Studies major. I worked with Innovations for Peace and Development in the fall, coding international peace-building projects, which helped me set my sights on NGO development work. Encouraged by Julie, I began independently researching topics out of personal interest to try and refine that passion a bit more. Eventually, my cohort helped give me the confidence to cold-email a professor to see if she was looking for any assistance. Happily, she was receptive and I have been studying statelessness with her for the past seven months and counting.

The spring semester challenged my ideas about development and encouraged critical self-reflection on issues within the humanitarian field. I began my position as a Business Development Intern at a local nonprofit that does community-led clean water projects in East Africa. I took two of my favorite classes at UT: Human Rights and World Politics, and Geographies of International Development in Africa. Each discussed historical global power dynamics, and the importance of decolonizing humanitarianism. These experiences have given me a new perspective on the NGO world, and inspired me to strongly consider graduate school.

Of course, there was supposed to be more to write about! The pandemic ended up canceling three different academic trips for me. Over spring break, I was planning to visit New York as a selected youth representative at the 64th UN Commission on the Status of Women. I had the panels and discussions I would visit planned and everything! I was also selected as a member of the 2020 Texas Intelligence Academy Cohort to spend an intensive ten days in D.C. over the summer meeting with intelligence officials, politicians, and educators. Finally, (and worst of all!) our Dedman Maymester to the former Yugoslavia had to be postponed. While I am sad about missing out on these experiences, I am immensely grateful that our Dedman Monday meetings have continued (and that we made it to Marfa in February). I am also happy to report that my research supervisor and nonprofit job welcomed me back for the summer, and I feel like I am learning more deeply by staying with the same employers.

I am still overwhelmed by the generosity of the Dedman family. This program has given me an impactful sense of financial (and emotional) security throughout family employment crises, global pandemics, and more. While this coming year will be difficult, I know I will be able to rely on my Dedman family for support.

Janae Steggall

Liberal Arts Honors/International Relations & Government with a minor in History

The past academic year 2019-2020 was one of hardship and fulfillment. The Dedman Scholars Program has fundamentally changed my life and granted me the ability to take risks and explore my intellectual interests and passions. The community and family I’ve found within the DDSP has empowered, encouraged, and supported me through every stumble and triumph. I’m endlessly grateful for each and every one of my fellow Scholars and the faculty that uplift us. A warm thank you to Dr. Musick, Dr. Brown, and Dr. Casey for being so warm and supportive of us and our dreams.

I’m ecstatic to say that I’m conducting research with a professor on a topic I’m passionate about! I took a course with Dr. Laubenthal on the Politics of Memory and became deeply passionate about commemoration, reparations, and the healing efforts of nations and peoples after traumatic events. Through this course, she and I began writing a research paper on the role of Necropolitics in America. We hope to finish and publish our work by the end of the next school year!

I’ve explored more of my personal passions and intellectual curiosities. I served as the Chair of the Civic Engagement Alliance, a network of organizations working together to create a more civically engaged UT, this past year and had a truly rewarding experience. We received a joint resolution from Representative Hinojosa and the former state Senator Kirk Watson honoring TX Votes and our hard work. The FAC was the busiest polling station in the entire county for the 2020 Primary Election, with over 2,000 votes cast on Election Day alone. Creating UT’s Campus Plan based on NSLV data and then seeing incredible turnout for elections is exhilarating and pushed me to work harder. I attended the Harvard Kennedy School and Institute of Politics’ 2020 National Campaign Conference for Political and Civic Engagement in February. I spent the weekend with other civic engagement leaders from around the nation and led a session on coalition building as a form of creating institutional support, especially in the South. Plus, I experienced the craziness that is Primary season in New Hampshire and actual snow! It was an amazing experience and one that I’m glad I experienced with other devoted and passionate women from TX Votes. At the end of the spring semester, I was elected President of TX Votes.

My first year as a Writing Fellow for the LAH freshmen course Introduction to Liberal Arts and a Proctor for the LAH course The Ideas of Civic Engagement was rewarding beyond belief. Watching their writing and plans to create their own nonprofits improve was well worth it. Serving as an LAH Mentor was also an overwhelmingly positive experience. I loved providing my group of aspirational students the same attention and advice that proved pivotal during my time as a freshman.

The Normandy Scholars Program, in which 20 UT students of all majors come together and take 5 courses that dive deep into WWII history, may have awoken me to a hidden passion. Connected to the politics of memory and the complications behind commemoration, Holocaust studies may be something I’d like to pursue as a career. Through the Normandy Scholars Program at UT, I made life-long friends, engaged in difficult conversations and introspection, wrote more than I thought possible, and enjoyed every second. I wish I could go through the program again! The community I experienced and gained while in the NSP was vital to getting through the COVID-19 crisis and centered me in times of turmoil. The distance and rigor of the program would have been much harder were it not for the tight-bonds with each other and with our professors. I am grateful for this experience and my fellow 2020 Normandy Scholars.

I’ll be a part of the Brumley NextGen Scholars Program with the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law in the fall of 2020, to learn how to conduct policy research and present it to stakeholders. In the spring, I’ll be conducting my own research program and presenting it!

Prior to COVID-19 reaching the U.S., the month of May and June of 2020 were meant to be spent in England, France, Germany, and Poland to experience the history we’d learned in the NSP. We all hope to experience this trip next summer. After returning from the Normandy trip, I was likely to intern as a Student Mentor with the Student Leadership Program at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. I also planned on attending the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Conference in person, representing UT and TX Votes. My focus this summer of 2020 is leading the charge in preparing TX Votes and Longhorns for the July and November elections, taking care of my 2 year old sister and younger brother, and working toward a 4.0 in my summer courses at UT. I’m optimistic for the future, whatever may come!