Bridges Alumni Magazine

This collection of poetry was selected by Frederick G. Williams, former Gerrit
de Jong Jr. Distinguished Professor of Luso-Brazilian Studies. Selections were chosen for their literary merit and include a range of topics and viewpoints.

Recent statements by President Russell M. Nelson and other church leaders offer insights into how to think about differences among people—and offer important guidance in thinking about racism through what President Nelson called a “journey of understanding and overcoming.”

We don’t have to look far to find a long history of inaccurate and damaging approaches to teaching non-Africans about the African diaspora. But there are better ways to learn about it—and some educators and institutions are evolving to adopt them.

Deborah Taylor shares how moving from a “conversation about race” to a broad, global view where becoming informed helps Black students make decisions that shape the world.

Brooke Dean’s expertise involves helping people and solving problems creatively, a skill set that has been invaluable in her role as a U.S. diplomat in Asia.

Marren Haneberg is launching a global career in which understanding risk is the plan.

Isabella Errigo was awarded a prestigious Fulbright research grant during the summer of 2022. She is currently in Ecuador, building on her master’s program research about the impact of land use on aquatic systems.

When Ashlen Lemon, a linguistics major and TESOL minor, heard about the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Program in Cambodia, the timing felt providential. At the time, Lemon was in Cambodia studying culture and the Khmer language at the Center for Khmer Studies, and she had heard about the Fulbright program through her classmates there.

Jo Huey, a Middle East studies/Arabic (MESA) major, will be the first to admit that she took a roundabout path to studying the Middle East and Arabic. While serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ in Malaysia, she was applying to transfer to BYU, but she had minimal time to research different majors. When she noticed MESA listed, it caught her attention.