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 Field: Political Science
SR-EIP: Cornell University (1995)
Undergrad: Xavier University of Louisiana (1996)
Graduate School: Purdue University (2001)
Current: Associate Professor, University of Connecticut, Political Science
Email: evelyn.simien@uconn.edu
Could you talk about any memorable experiences from your summer research at Brown?
- The thing I was most impressed with was that I think they had fourteen libraries at Cornell. Coming from a historically black college that didn’t have those resources, it was overwhelming, but in a good way. I felt humbled and blessed.
- I participated in a different program the previous summer, and the Leadership Alliance was more intimate, there was much more one-on-one attention from my mentor. Looking back on it, I’m awed by having had the experience of working with Anna Marie Smith. She was a very hands-on mentor. We met every week and she made arrangements for me to meet with other faculty and graduate students. She reviewed drafts of my statement of purpose and she wrote a letter of recommendation for me when I applied to graduate school. I’ve remained in touch with her and I still see her at professional conferences. She really took care of me. She was very forward thinking in that she helped me look beyond the 8-10 week program to the application process and what graduate school would actually be like.
Can you talk about the role of mentorship in your career?
- Anytime you represent a group that is underrepresented, you’re going to draw lots of students. I naively thought it would just be students of color, but it has also been women across races. I initially thought I would return to teach at an HBC, but I was on a panel at Purdue and an undergraduate stood up and said “what about us?” I realized that there are students at all schools who need positive mentorship.
What advice would you give to this year’s Leadership Alliance participants?
- First and foremost take the GRE-prep very seriously. In this day and age, don’t take anything for granted.
Is there anything else that you would like to mention?
- Don’t doubt yourself. Enough people will give you a lot of reasons to think that you can’t do it, but you can’t be guilty of that sort of self talk.
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