Meet our CHC Graduate Scholars, Megan and Lily!

(Megan Cole, pictured on the left and Lily Grimes, pictured on the right)

Mary Gillis, Honors Advising Director

We’ve all been there – staring down our honors thesis, like valiant knights facing down a noble opponent, or a fearsome dragon, or a windmill.

At times adversary, at times old friend, we have championed, challenged, and ultimately conquered this final CHC requirement. And we are not alone; we are prepared and encouraged in our quest by faculty, family, honors advisors, and cherished friends.

And now the Campuswide Honors Collegium is proud to announce the addition of another important source of support and advice in the honors research/thesis process – the CHC Graduate Scholars award program!

With the generous support of donors and the Office of the Vice Provost of Teaching and Learning, the CHC offers this award to two UCI graduate students annually (one STEM and one non-STEM) who are experienced researchers, mentors, and members of the UCI academic community. CHC graduate scholars meet one-on-one with CHC students who are embarking on undergraduate research about the benefits of research, the research process, finding a faculty advisor, preparing for life after college, etc. CHC graduate scholars also develop related programs and workshops for CHC students.

Honors Advising Director Mary Gillis recently interviewed two CHC alumni who were among the first CHC graduate scholars awardees, Lily Grimes (CHC 2014) and Megan (Cole) Roy (CHC 2018), about their experiences in this role and its impact on student success.

Mary: Let’s begin with a quick introduction – tell us about your graduate programs and academic interests.

Megan: I received my PhD in English with a Graduate Emphasis in Critical Theory in June 2024. My interests are energy humanities, ecocriticism, environmental humanities, and political economy; my dissertation is called “Fossil-Fueled Fictions: Coal, Oil, and the Making of American Literary Modernity.”

Lily: I’ve just graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and I’m working on a collection of short fiction as well as a short novel. I write in my fiction about the body, and illness, and violence, and pleasure, and the mind’s intersections with the body, and the body’s epistemological capacities. I also recently served as fiction editor of Faultline Journal of Arts and Letters and absolutely loved the experience.

Mary: Why did you decide to come back and assist CHC students as a graduate scholar?

Lily: When I was an undergraduate the CHC put me in touch with a quality education, which challenged me and allowed me to grow with support, care, and encouragement. I came from a financially underprivileged background and had always more or less just been figuring school out on my own (I loved it, which helped), while most of my peers in high school had always had a lot more support. The CHC provided structure and put me in touch with professors and curriculums that changed my life forever. Since undergrad, I’ve known that I’ve wanted to be involved in education, helping students realize their own potential and power, and so I knew when I saw the advertisement for the CHC graduate [scholar] position that it would be a meaningful experience for me. I also felt a lot of gratitude for the CHC and wanted to invest some of my energy back into this wonderful program and its incredible students.

Megan: I decided to return to the CHC in this role because I remembered the extent to which the CHC Research/Thesis project shaped the trajectory of my own academic journey, and I wanted to help fellow CHC-ers turn their own curiosities and passions into honors-caliber research. I know how daunting the prospect of research can be when you’re first setting out on a new project, but I also know how wonderful it feels to dig into an interest, learn everything you can about it, produce original insights, and share what you find. It’s been a privilege to support CHC students as they begin their fascinating research projects, and to hear about the incredible work they end up turning into their theses.

Mary: You created several important new initiatives to support CHC students, including creating curriculum for a thesis writing support group, leading research workshops for lower division students about the honors thesis and how to get an early start on the research process, and revising foundational CHC research resources. Can you say more about the impact of this work and the graduate scholar role in general?

Lily: I feel strongly that as educators we need to keep students engaged in their own education by extending them both our trust and a good amount of responsibility. Belief in our students is essential, and when students see that you have extended them your trust and faith—essentially, that you have recognized them as people—they will rise to the occasion. This has always been my experience.

So I think that roles such as the CHC grad [scholar] role are of utmost importance: what we ask students to do is a little bit beyond what they currently know how to do, but which they are absolutely and completely capable of learning how to do, and then doing. Having someone in your corner, when you’re in that position, makes a world of a difference, and the grad scholars are always in the students’ corner, offering a listening ear, advice, practical steps to take, and the knowledge that things will really be okay! Students may limit the scope of their own projects out of fear if they’re not in touch with the support of people who have been where they’ve been, who are doing their own research now, and who can help them through the process.

Mary: In your experience, what are the benefits of doing undergraduate research?

Megan: Undergraduate research gives students a chance to pursue their curiosities in the lab, the archive, the studio, and beyond, and empowers them to become experts in subjects they care about. Personally, I went straight to grad school after earning my BAs at UCI, and doing CHC research absolutely prepared me for the magnitude of research I’d be doing as a doctoral student—but I think that even students who don’t pursue an explicitly research-oriented career path can benefit from undergraduate research. As an undergraduate researcher, you’re a brainstormer, a project manager, a writer, a communicator, maybe even a publicist or an entertainer. Those skills will serve you no matter what you end up doing post-UCI.

Mary: You were each CHC Graduate Scholars in different years. Reflecting on your individual experiences, what was it like to work with CHC students as a CHC graduate and to help them on their undergraduate research journey?

Lily: My own experience of engaging in research and writing my honors thesis, which was a collection of short fiction that I worked on over the course of a year while researching the craft of fiction, was probably the singular project I undertook in undergrad that actually taught me that I could be a writer, that I had what it takes to stand on my own merit in the academic/art community. So I knew going into meetings with CHC students as a grad fellow just how impactful the processes of research and composing the thesis are, and that many students would only continue to make meaningful contributions to not only academia but the world at large after completing their research for the CHC.

I always found it exciting to talk with a student about what excited them, to sometimes surprise them with the advice that following one’s own curiosity was actually the best path forward because the research would only benefit from their engagement and investment in it. There were some meetings I took with students who had been so worried about this project where upon leaving, the students were already making plans about which faculty they were going to reach out to and which books they wanted to check out. I think it was not only fun, but a really meaningful experience for me; I’m about ten years out from undergrad now and sometimes I get overwhelmed by the numerous challenges we’re going to face as a species over the coming decades, but working with CHC students who still have this belief and drive helped to begin healing a part of me that has been deeply hurt and scared about the future.

Megan: The CHC students I worked with are so curious, motivated, and ambitious, and are so knowledgeable about their respective fields and majors; I learned so much about such an immense variety of topics from the dozens of CHC students I met with over the course of the year! Their passion for their research is incredibly infectious, too; I’m a literary critic by trade, but just by virtue of talking with CHC students, I’ve found myself invested in everything from neurobiology to Chinese history to photographic arts. The intellectual diversity among CHC students is really astonishing.

Mary: It seems like you really enjoyed working with CHC students in this capacity.

Megan: The experience of serving as a Graduate Scholar was rewarding in so many ways, but I felt most gratified by the one-on-one interactions I got to have with CHC students during our Research/Thesis meetings. Throughout the year, I met with students from almost every discipline represented at UCI, and had the privilege of hearing about incredible undergraduate research ranging from art therapy projects to neurobiology studies to app development (and so much more)! Learning about students’ diverse passions and helping them turn their nascent ideas into full-fledged conference presentations, journal articles, projects, and theses was definitely the most exciting part of the experience for me!

Lily: I deeply enjoyed being able to connect with them as people with hopes and motivation to make a difference in the ways that they could. I also found them to be inspiring. Almost every student taught me something new, and I would often take notes for myself during our meetings because they were so great at explaining research or areas of study that I had never even known about before! Grad school can get a bit exhausting, not only because of the workload, but also because of its proximity to an uncertain future. I always appreciated that the CHC students I worked with renewed my enthusiasm for my own interests as well as reminded me that the world is really more interesting and exciting than I would have remembered on my own.

Mary: What are you working on now?

Megan: I’m currently working on turning [my dissertation] into a book manuscript, and am also working on several book chapters and journal articles related to the environmental humanities. Career-wise, I’ll be staying in Southern California for the foreseeable future and starting as an assistant professor of English at Victor Valley College this fall!

Lily: I will be starting a PhD in the creative/critical track of the literature program at UC Santa Cruz in Fall ’24, continuing my creative projects as well as investigating the way that Korean literature by women writers and a great history of “body writing” utilizes the body and the subconscious mind to craft narratives which resist presiding structures of power. I hope to remain in academia as a professor of creative writing and literature, while pursuing projects in editing and publishing as well. I think it’s important to invest in art that keeps us in touch with our human compassion and capacity for justice and mercy as we continue to advance technology away from our complications and “imperfections.” Setting a standard for success that denies human nature and its inherent diversities seems very dangerous to me, so I want to keep working with students to understand and appreciate the ways that literature shows us the beauty of humanity as it is and always has been.

Mary: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions! It was a pleasure to work with both of you. I appreciate your dedication, innovation, and hard work to establish this position and incorporate it into the very fabric of the CHC advising plan. Best wishes for the future and please keep in touch!