Senior Spotlight

Ad’mirel Durden Spotlights Sarah Del Carmen Camacho

Tell us a bit about what personally motivated your project. So, my project started in its first iteration as always focusing on Central America, and that personal motivation came from both my parents immigrating from Nicaragua from the civil conflict in the 1980s. My preliminary reading was trying to learn the historical context and learn where my parents were coming from. My parents had a difficult experience leaving Nicaragua to come to the United States and it wasn’t a fun experience for them to talk about. However, I could learn more about it academically. My personal motivation to do Central America and China relations comes from the fact that I spent 10 years learning the language, bringing my family background and identity together along with my academic pursuit.

What advice would you give to juniors (or future Mellons) about conducting independent research?

My advice is to set out a timeline from the day you’re at and the date of the completion of the project. You should go back to the timeline and have a list of items in between to get to completion. Professor Fenderson has you do monthly updates, but the jumps in between summer break and winter break are huge so you want to see the progress you’re making. Also, speak to as many professors as you can about your research because you never know when you can get different approaches that your advisor has not considered. Talking with different professors can give you advice on your project, but you don’t have to take their advice all the time. It also can help you get your name out there that you are doing research which is huge.

As of this current moment, what kind of scholar do you see yourself becoming?

At this current moment, I see myself becoming a scholar of Global Studies. I’m interested in how global and cultural understanding informs international relationships. Something I’ve gained an interest in since starting my project is language and translation.

What’s one of the most memorable experiences from your time in Mellon Mays at Washington University?

One of my most memorable moments was a day in seminar, and there are these days in the seminar when we are getting into the crunch of the semester. This can be with thesis or extracurriculars and you can tell we all have something to get off our chest once we do check-ins. After check-ins, we feel all feel better after because we know we are not alone in the process and someone says something, we all burst into uncontrollable laughter and those moments of laughter are my favorite moments.

What is your greatest takeaway from being a part of the Mellon Mays program?

My greatest takeaway is what brings us together: it’s not the work that we are doing, it’s the fact that all of us are committed to following an inspiration, or an idea and that we all are willing to support each other to reach that dream. I’ve learned that it is not an easy process. There is a lot of self-confidence, self-discipline, and self-reliance to do a project of the size that Mellon has you do, but even though they are all self-something, you still need a community that supports you and reminds you that you can do it.