SHANDU FOSTER
Sociology
Summer 2011
Shandu Foster went from living his entire life in the bustling metropolis that is New York City to living alongside the cornfields of southern Indiana. Foster began his journey at Hunter College where here completed his Bachelor's Degree in Sociology. At Hunter, Foster was awarded a National Institute of Mental Health - Career Opportunities in Research (NIMH-COR) undergraduate fellowship designed to involve underrepresented minorities in social science research. During this time Foster interned as a research assistant and recruiter with the Center for HIV/AIDS Educational Studies & Training (CHEST), a center that conducts research on the social and psychological factors associated with HIV transmission. His research interests are broadly defined in the areas of medical sociology, social psychology, race, gender and sexuality. These interests are what influenced Foster to pursue his PhD at Indiana University. Foster will be a second year graduate student in Sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington (IUB) in the Fall of 2011. Foster is particularly interested in the social determinants of health as well as disparities of health and hopes his research will help society better understand the social factors that complicate individual health outcomes. He wants to help improve understanding as to why some people have poorer/better mental and physical health than others based on issues of race, gender, sexuality, and social class. Foster's master's advisor at IUB is Dr. Peggy A. Thoits a sociologist whose research examines unequal social distributions of stress experiences, coping strategies, social support, and mental health problems in the general adult population. Foster has found her work compatible with his own research interests. Outside of his research, Foster is also involved in campus life. He is the Vice President of the IUB SACNAS Chapter, the co-chair of Race and Ethnic Relations (RER) Committee in Sociology, an active participant in IUB AGEP, and plays on the IU Men's Club Volleyball team. Foster's future goals include securing a tenure track position at a university to conduct research and teach undergraduate students. Foster has found inspiration in his journey in the following quote. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?"-Marianne Williamson.
MELISSA QUINTELA
Sociology
Spring 2010
Indiana University Bloomington Graduate Student Melissa Quintela is the first individual in her family to pursue higher education. She had to work hard to reach her goals, she said. Quintela was raised in Texas, and did not graduate from high school, making her accomplishments that much more unique.
While Quintela was completing her Bachelor’s Degree at Texas Tech University, where she majored in Family Studies, she held an internship with Child Protective Services. It was this experience that led her to pursue a doctoral degree.
“I felt helpless and ineffective in the level that I was working in my internship. It made me want to pursue education as high as I can go,” Quintela said.
She then obtained her Master’s Degree in Sociology from New Mexico St. University. Currently, Quintela is at Latino Studies Dissertation fellow in her final year at IU and nearing completion of her PhD in Sociology.
She has always had a passion for youth and adolescent well-being, and has focused much of her graduate research on immigrant youth. Quintela’s dissertation looks specifically at immigrant youth’s experiences in the Midwest. Being that her research is so local, she feels it can be implemented to better understand how to help immigrant students succeed on IU’s campus.
In the future, Quintela hopes to affect public policy to improve minority and immigrant youth’s success in American schools and society. She also plans to become a university professor, where she can be involved with the community and bridge her research with hands on service opportunities.
On the IU campus Quintela a member of the Midwest Crossroads AGEP, and was a participant in the 2008 Compact for Faculty Diversity. She is the Service Advisor for Dream IU as well as an active member of Muejeres En Accion (Women in Action). Quintela also does community service work with the Indiana University Latino Graduate Student Association and the Racial and Ethnic Minority Relations Committee in Sociology.
Quintela lives by her personal life view that we each have a part in helping society.
“We are all interconnected; whatever we do affects someone else,” Quintela said, “if we are more conscious of this idea, than we will be more careful and compassionate when we interact with others.”