Chapter 11

"So I want you to be thinking about your final paper early on. It's easy to get caught up in all the information out there and these papers are only 8-10 pages. I know that seems like a lot but trust me it's not when you start writing. I'll be available Mondays and Wednesdays for office hours from 9-11am. Keep in mind I do see some of my biology students as well during those times. I'm always available on email as well. I think we are going to end early today and if anyone wants to talk about the class I'll be in my office in a matter of minutes." Natalie packed up her materials and headed two floors up to her office. She shared it with 2 other doctoral students. One was studying neurobiology and they other was doing microbiology. Since Natalie had two degrees on the go she opted to just share the one office and her psych students would have to see her in the science building. Her lectures were also in the science building.

She had a Monday Tuesday Wednesday schedule. Monday's and Wednesday mornings she had her psych lecture from 6:50-8:50. It gave her just enough time to get upstairs for her office hours. Tuesday mornings she did a lecture from 6:50-9:20. She took a break for meetings with her academic advisors. She met with Dr. Shultz at 9:30 and met with Dr. Carpenter at 10. It gave her enough time to grab a bite to eat before she went to lab at 12pm. Labs were open for 4 hours for students to do work and learn things and Natalie's anatomy class got to work with various dummies and skeletons. When they continued their study they would eventually get to work with cadavers in later years. Natalie scheduled her own research on Tuesdays after labs. She kept her biology stuff on Tuesday and a bit on weekends and kept her Psych stuff to Monday and Wednesday. She also scheduled what she could for interviews with NCIS personnel in between, but mostly Thursday and Friday.

She unlocked the door to her office and sat at her desk. It was a smallish room with three desks and some filing cabinets and book shelves to separate them and to give each other some privacy. Natalie's desk was in the corner past some filing cabinets. She had two chairs opposite her desk for students to sit at and an old desktop computer that she could use. She logged into her account and opened her professor email. It was mostly faculty information and functions but there were also some emails from NCIS personnel wanting to schedule their interviews through her rather than Cynthia since she was very busy this week. She flagged them as important and would look at her day book later. She preferred to keep herself occupied with class things while available for her students.

She'd been making copies of possible essay topics for her students when one walked in.

"Professor Kane?" asked the shy Asian boy in front of her.

"Come in, have a seat," she said pointing to her chairs, "I'm just about done making these copies." When the copier spat out the last page she gathered them up and walked over to sit behind her desk, "How can I help you…" she trailed off waiting for the student to give her his name. With 75 students in her class there was no way she knew them all by name yet.

"Justin, Justin Chow." He was fidgeting in the chair. Probably nervous, she thought to herself.

"Hi Justin, what brings you by?" she asked politely with a smile she hoped would make him feel more comfortable.

"I um…" he paused, "I was wondering if we could talk about essay topics?" He pulled the syllabus out of his backpack. "It says here it could be on stereotyping or social cognition, but I was wondering if I could kinda do it on both?"

"What did you have in mind?"

He sat up straighter, like he gained some confidence in himself, "I was hoping to look at racial stereotypes from an Asian perspective. My family is very old school and I grew up with stereotypes on other races as being inferior to our heritage. I thought that perspective with regards to racial sterotyping would be interesting as Asians aren't generally seen as racists in and of themselves but I know from the small town my parents came from racism is very much prevelant Ma'am."

Natalie smiled, "Sure, something like that could be very doable as you as looking at a stereotype from a specific social group who essentially trained the generations to think a certain way. I think you will have a bit of trouble finding some sources. I know there is a social psychologist from Japan who has done some studies on Asian racism I'd have to look him up again. I would be interested to see if any of his work has been translated. Can I ask why this topic?" she asked.

"My family is racist, and I hated it growing up. So did my dad, that's why he moved us here. But with my grandmother getting old she's come to live with us and she doesn't like mine or my little brothers friends. They are not Chinese so they aren't good enough. I was hoping I could help get her to understand that how she is thinking and treating others is negative and doesn't only affect others but herself too."

"How very ambitious of you Justin. I'll make a note and see if I can get some more information for you. Why don't you see me just before class on Wednesday and I'll get you what I have okay?" she told him.

"Thanks professor, and thanks for understanding. I'm not racist" he said almost sadly.

"Racism exists and wanting to study it doesn't make you racist, Justin. We can't move forward as a society and people without first understanding those negative forces. And unfortunately, we can't change the world, but sometimes we can change little things in people's lives and make a difference for them, and that's enough in my opinion. Because," she paused for dramatic effect, "we changed their world."

Justin left and Natalie got back to some of her paperwork. She was starting to feel like everything on her plate was a little much at times. Between school and her doctoral work, she barely had time to think. However, Nat was used to the heavy loads. All her life she looked to push herself because whatever was given to her came easily. She always needed more from her teachers because learning came easily to her. She remembered being a kid and wanting more and increasingly difficult math, reading at a grade 8 level by the time she was 7, and being given special projects until she could be assessed and placed in a proper grade. But even then, she was able to finish work faster than the other kids and could take on a heavier workload. She went to summer school to keep busy and when she was completing her undergrad most students would take 5 classes a semester, Natalie took 8.

For her, organizing her life and education was easy. The hardest part for her was the inability for her hands to keep up with her mind. She thought much faster than she could write or type and at times this could be frustrating. To her, having to slow her thoughts down was annoying. She wished technology would catch up, find a way for her thoughts to appear on screen as they were happening. It would make writing notes and essays and dissertations so much faster.

"Miss Natalie! I was hoping I'd catch you." Natalie looked up and saw her psychology academic advisor Dr. Carpenter in her door way, "Can I come in?" he asked before walking over to her desk. She gestured for him to take a seat.

"Dr. Carpenter, to what do I owe this visit?" she asked him in return.

He pulled out a folder from his briefcase, "I have some paperwork for you with regards to your thesis as well as some letters from collegues and a couple of journals who would be interested in your work when it is completed. I put everything together for you to go over at your leisure. Dr. Kurki, he's the dean of psychology at Princeton, he's offering an assistant of his to help you with your work if you're interested. He's rather disappointed you declined Princeton for us. Personally I'd rather have you here, he tends to like to "collect" students and I think it stunts their abilities to expand in the field if you know what I mean."

Nat was nodding along, used to Dr. Carpenter's personal opinions and tendency to ramble at times. She appreciated his support and his hands off attitude. It was something she had read about Dr. Kurki herself and was a slight deciding factor. A professor at Columbia had warned her this spring, "He tried to take credit for some of my research," she was told. That wasn't something Natalie wanted to put up with.

"I think I'll be okay, and if I need help I'd rather give my own students a chance rather than taking an assistant from someone else," she told Dr. Carpenter.

"That's why I like you so much, you put Georgetown first while you're here" he said with a wink. "If you do want to create a part time research assistant position let me know, we have programs in place to give students extra credits depending on their time and performance. It's a little extra work on your part as you have to do evaluations but it can help with the load."

"I think the biggest hurdle for me is transcribing my interviews. I can do a lot of the research no problem but transcribing takes time." Natalie pulled out some of the notes she had from interviews last week to show him how much she had so far.

"We can look into that. I've got a friend in the Business department, they have students in some programs that could use the practice. They usually contract out to businesses or politians in DC but I'll see if they have an opening." Dr. Carpenter made a note in his binder. "Any you need from me in the coming weeks?"

Natalie took a moment to think, "No I think I'm good."

They both stood then and shook hands. They said their goodbyes and Nat put the folder in her bag to take home with her later. She'd go over everything later.