McNair Scholar 2022 Malaya Merriwether
My dream is to earn a Ph.D. in African American History and teach in higher education. I want to focus my research on the intersection between Blackness and gender and examine the inequities that Black men and women face as well as the assets and strengths they possess due to their intersecting identities.
Research project
Can Youth Create Systemic Change? An Exploration of How Youth-Informed Research Creates Change in School Districts
Abstract: Many scholars have used community-based participatory action research and asset mapping to center youth in the identification and development of solutions to problems affecting youth communities (Mosavel et. al 2018). Asset-mapping as a community development strategy provides an effective framework for communities to identify and utilize shared assets to address issues interfering with residents’ wellbeing. Existing evidence demonstrates that asset mapping can significantly improve students’ academic achievement and quality of life (Arriero et. al 2018). With this insight, more research is necessary to determine how youth-informed research and asset mapping can create students-led changes in schools and communities. To meet the needs of diverse students, their voices must be amplified when identifying community assets and analyzing how these assets provide opportunity for growth and fulfillment. This ethnographic, youth-informed study uses observational data and analysis to assess how asset mapping and research can enhance culturally relevant instruction and create sustainable change in school communities.
Faculty mentor
Abigail Rombalski is a Lecturer in the Racial Justice in Urban Schooling minor. She earned her Ph.D. from the literacy program in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include working with youth towards racial justice across school, community, and digital spaces. Other areas of interest include community-engaged research, critical literacies, urban education, youth participatory action research (yPAR), and curriculum development. Dr. Rombalski is a co-founder of the YoUthROC research team, an affiliate project with the R.J.J. Urban Research Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC) in north Minneapolis.