Two DSU juniors do summer research at Harvard as Du Bois Scholars

DSU students Nia Dooley and Gabriel Thomas may love their HBCU experiences at DSU, but over the past summer they proved that they can also thrive in an Ivy League higher education environment.

The two DSU students spent most of the summer break with other academically excellent students from other HBCUs as part of the prestigious Du Bois Scholars Program at Harvard University.

The Du Bois Program is one of the fruits of Harvard’s work to understand its direct, financial, and intellectual ties to slavery. As part of Harvard’s atonement for its connection to the “Peculiar Institution,” the Ivy League school has worked to deepen its partnerships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Ms. Dooley is a 3.76 GPA junior Elementary Education major from Indianapolis, Indiana. Ms. Thomas is a 4.0 GPA junior Chemistry from Clerendon, Jamaica.

The DSU Honors Program made the two students aware of the Harvard internation opportunity in the fall of 2024, and Ms. Dooley and Ms. Thomas made it through a multi-stage application process to be accepted in the program.

Ms. Dooley’s research focused on how a stronger pedagogical connection could be established between Harvard and HBCUs. She worked in the Harvard Library under the mentorship of Dr. Jerome Offerd, Jr., Associate Librarian for Community Development, Belonging, and Engagement at Harvard.

“Mine was an independent research study on how Harvard and HBCUs can create a mutualistic system of pedagogical exchange between Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and HBCU education departments,” Ms. Dooley said. “I wanted to find was the solution to how HBCUs could get access to the library resources of Harvard. They have the largest library system in the world. In exchange, HBCUs can collaborate with Harvard to have more of their students learn about culturally responsive education and in teaching in diverse classrooms.”

Ms. Thomas research took place in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she focused on the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome. Her mentor was Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett-Helire, who is a Harvard faculty member and a prominent American viral immunologist whose coronavirus research was instrumental during the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome is a type of Coronavirus, which has a 39% fatality rate. That is a higher than COVID-19, which had a 1.6% fatality rate,” Ms. Thomas said. “It is prevalent in Saudi Arabia. We wanted to see if we could get ahead of it before it becomes a potential global pandemic.”

Both students said their Harvard experiences were transformative.

“The intellectual friction and community culture fostered among my cohort sharpened my skill and revealed the beauty of genuine interpersonal connection,” Ms. Thomas said. “The wealth of information garnered from my research, supported by Harvard faculty and resources, has contributed to the blueprint of my identity as a scientific researcher and has cemented my future career pursuits.”

Calling it a “life-changing experience,” Ms. Dooley said she is going make her DSU peers aware that such experiences are possible for them as well.

“I hope I am able to show other students at DSU the types of opportunities and resources that are available to them outside of the walls of our own institution,” Ms. Dooley said. “I hope that in the future, institution such as Harvard will recognize the value of learning from HBCU students and faculty just as much as HBCUs can learn from Harvard.”