My Projects
Stickers as Identity Signaling Among Skidmore Students
Social Research Methods — Research Project, Fall 2025.
For my Social Research Methods course, I created a research project examining how stickers function as a form of identity signaling and group affiliation among Skidmore students. Using ethnographic observations, interviews, and a small survey, I explored how stickers on laptops, water bottles, and campus spaces communicate belonging, interests, and shared experiences.
Unlike large universities, where individual stickers blend into the crowd, Skidmore’s small size means students repeatedly see the same people (and the same stickers). That repeated visibility gives stickers a different social meaning. I found consistent sticker “styles” across groups, like STEM vs. Arts students, and learned that stickers help students express who they are while recognizing shared interests in others.
This project highlights how everyday objects can shape campus culture, especially in tight-knit communities.
Classrooms Across the Ocean: Mobility and Education in the Pacific
Contemporary & Transnational Pacific — Research Presentation, Spring 2024 (Study Abroad)
For this project, I created a presentation on the educational challenges students across the Pacific Islands face, where limited resources, geographic isolation, and mobility barriers often make access to schooling difficult. I examined how factors like inter-island travel, lack of infrastructure, teacher shortages, and, more recently, climate change shape students’ daily experiences and long-term educational opportunities.
Alongside these challenges, I focused on equity-oriented solutions that center Pacific students’ voices and needs. These included expanding technology access to reduce geographic barriers, integrating culturally grounded and community-led approaches, and designing education policies that listen directly to students and families who are most affected. Meaningful change requires not just adding resources, but creating systems that honor Indigenous knowledge, prioritize equity, and respond to what Pacific communities themselves identify as necessary.
I Love My Bubbe!
Children’s Literature — Original Children’s Book, Fall 2023
For my Children’s Literature class, I wrote and illustrated an original children’s book about a young Jewish girl who is teased at school because her peers think her grandmother looks like a witch. The story uses a simple, accessible narrative to explore how antisemitic tropes show up in children’s media, often subtly, through villain imagery, caricatures, or harmful stereotypes.
By centering a Jewish family and giving voice to the child’s confusion, hurt, and resilience, the book encourages young readers to question where these images come from and how they affect real people. It also highlights the importance of representation, empathy, and cultural understanding in children’s storytelling.