Bella Jung ’24

Childcare as Commodity: The Impact of Capitalism on Children, Parents and Communities

My Tanner was called Childcare as Commodity and the Impacts of Capitalism on Children, Parents and communities. It was based on my time as a live-in full time nanny for four years. I learned that it’s really hard to take care of kids and being a parent and choosing to have kids … it’s mentally and physically and financially taxing to have children, and it’s not a light decision … and [yet] we’re still constantly pushed to have this nuclear family, and to have children. I was advocating to rethink that decision, and to move away from the form of the nuclear family. I was advocating for community support and mutual aid when it comes to raising children. There are various levels [to how] you can help with kids, you can say ‘Hey I’ll make you a meal for tonight’ or … send me your grocery list, I’ll get your groceries while I’m out, too.’ I just wanted people to rethink their perceptions of children and how we address childcare.

I got more confidence in myself, and just reaffirmed my experiences. I also had to deal with my internal patriarchy and misogyny because I was decounting what is traditionally women’s work. I think that was probably what I got the most out of it was having these like internal reflections.

Jordan Bates ’22

Centering Compassion: Putting Love Pedagogy to Practice at Aga Khan Primary School

My internship was supposed to be in Uganda, but it was virtual. I worked at a school, Aga Khan, over the summer. As an education studies major and someone who is also doing the early elementary school certification program here, it was an internship that resonated a lot with me as someone who’s also trying to get certified and wants to become a teacher. The education classes, and even the Africana Studies classes that I have taken here at Wellesley talked a lot about pedagogy and the different teaching practices. I was able to kind of see firsthand how pedagogy connects to real life classroom experiences.

One thing that I thought was really cool about presenting was introducing everyone to Lisa Arrastia’s Love Pedagogy and talking about how you teach the classroom with a center on compassion and community and humanizing yourself, but also humanizing and putting at the center children’s experiences and their lived experiences. I really loved the experience, and I’m still talking with some of the teachers there now. It was really great to kind of get to share what I have been constantly reflecting on in my education classes, and thinking about the type of teacher that I want to be as well.

Lillie Godinez ’24

Auditing YouTube’s Information Panels: What Do They Cover and How?

This past summer I was basically auditing YouTube, trying to figure out what their policy is for discouraging conspiratorial content on their platform, and how widespread that policy is, and how it’s being used basically.”

I think the best part was feeling like a researcher. You know what I mean! It felt really good to tell people about my research, and it was also really nice to present it in front of people. I thought I would be nervous but I wasn’t, because I was just talking about what I know and what’s interesting to me.

If you’re looking for opportunities, my biggest advice is to go to office hours. It was nice to have that connection with my professor. I went to office hours to ask her what is something that I can do over the summer to improve my CS abilities and teach myself Python, and that’s how I got introduced to this opportunity.