Before the spring semester of my freshman year at UIUC, I received an email inviting me to apply for the James Scholar program. I told my roommate Allie at the time about it and she encouraged me to apply as she was in the James Scholar program in her college and how there are a lot of unique opportunities to explore. I took her advice and applied and have been a part of the program since. Now, being a junior I am very happy with my decision to apply to the program as it led me to my favorite experience of college thus far. One requirement of the James Scholar program is to be a part of a research project with a professor or grad student and to present the work from the study at a research symposium. I have been working with a grad student since the spring of my sophomore year and we are preparing to present the project I have been working on with them the spring semester of my junior year. So far I have learned about different aspects that affect how plurisexual people define their sexual identity labels, which is a topic I did not know I was interested in until I got involved with it. Going through the research process has been such a learning experience and has inspired me to always deep diver into learning about what I am passionate about. I am grateful for everything the James Scholar program has offered me and I’m very excited to present my research findings in the spring of 2021.

Caroline is an HDFS junior with a concentration in family studies and aspires to become a social worker.