After spending a whole summer working on my essays, I walked into that interview only to have the panel tell me the essays didn’t sound like me or capture who I was in person. I was discouraged to hear this, but with only a week until the application was due, I sold my football ticket for that weekend and sat in a coffee shop all day on Saturday, re-writing my essays, this time from the heart. It turned out to be worth my time, because I ended up getting the fellowship many months later!

I care about politics because I care about people. Not all of society’s problems can be solved by having the right leaders in place or by passing the right legislation, but many can. Politics is really personal.

As a fellow I am working on my dissertation research and also using the Senegalese National Archives to help me understand the colonial origins of the present-day bureaucracy. I hope to learn more about the ways in which the bureaucracy can shape public policy, and how the bureaucracy’s interactions with citizens help government stability and development.

Research can feel unrewarding for it is an incredibly slow and difficult process. Receiving honors like the Astronaut Scholarship provides justification for my research efforts; others see that I am willing to endure the process in order to discover and create. But this feeling of justification soon turns into inspiration. Because others believe in me, I now have a duty to maintain a caliber of research that is worth believing in.

Claire has the background, energy, ability, and even the already-established personal connections to succeed. She has shown an amazing level of leadership and gone way beyond the typical expectations of a first-year graduate student.

The semester in Paris was way outside my comfort zone, but it gave me the confidence to pursue whatever opportunities become available in any corner of the world. I plan to apply for everything I can and see what doors open up.