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Meriem Sadoun
- Major
- Psychology
InterFuture provided me the space to travel and conduct research in the UK, South Africa, and the United States. Accepting my position as an InterFuture scholar meant I was committing to a rigorous two year program. One that paralleled the responsibilities and research activities of a graduate student. I applied to the InterFuture program the summer after my sophomore year, when I was studying abroad in Tunisia as a Provost Fellow. I arrived home from Tunisia at the end of May and by June I was off to my first research conference in Boston. That was the first of many conferences where I participated in workshops and seminars to develop and refine my research skills. As a result of the program’s holistic approach, I learned everything from research methods to cultural competency skills while I built my confidence both as a person and a researcher. Over time, I was able to transform my interests into a working academic project on the experiences of Muslim girls on high school sports teams. My research training prepared me to make every moment a research activity. If I was learning about the host culture, it meant I was able to understand my project better in context it was currently in. I spent a notable amount of time interviewing athletes and attending their sporting events. I made unexpected friends, guest starred on a South African radio show, and met a renowned scholar based in London. Through these experiences, I learned what it meant to be an academic researcher and the importance of cultural competency.
