I am incredibly humbled and grateful to have been a part of this extraordinary undertaking and program. It is invaluable to have opportunities for junior researchers to expand their knowledge and impact on the scientific world.
Hello, my name is Tatianna Dugué and I had the fortunate opportunity to be a part of Columbia’s first cohort of GLOBES. This program, although hindered from traveling abroad to complete our pivotal research, was still able to complete the office of Undergraduate Global Engagement’s mission perfectly. Our cohort’s project exemplified the idea of global engagement by creating a replication project encompassing polarization across the world. We researched whether the original U.S study was generalizable to other global regions and if addressing people’s inaccurate polarized beliefs could remedy these errors. Our impactful study, although local to each member of the 2020 cohort’s computer screens, expanded across over 25 countries and countless time zones. With the sudden change of the world state due to COVID-19, my peers and I were ushered into a new digital environment. This digital environment allowed us to transcend country lines and borders and communicate with people from around the world. Through Zoom, we learned the rest of our spring course material, finished our preparatory work for the project launch, and completed data collection. Indeed, the transition was sudden, however, Dr. Ruggeri and the JRP team were thoughtful and encouraging in the continued work of our program. Proof of dedication cannot be better highlighted by a GLOBES peer of mine waking up at 4 am every week to attend our pre-data collection meetings. Every member of GLOBES was committed to creating impactful science and lasting research.
Our spring course in advance of our expected time abroad, more than prepared us for the challenges of science and research. As scientists, we are expectant of unknown variables. Even though a global pandemic was not completely in our purview, we knew the importance of robustness- not only in our findings but in our endurance as student-researchers. We have been fortunate to find our work well-received by many and has produced a successful replication for the measures of the original study. Our research has shown that inaccurate and negative meta-perceptions are exhibited across the world in many countries and that informing people of their false beliefs may be an effective intervention to ameliorate intergroup relations. Overall, I am incredibly humbled and grateful to have been a part of this extraordinary undertaking and program. It is invaluable to have opportunities for junior researchers to expand their knowledge and impact on the scientific world.
