With graduation approaching, we wanted to take the time to highlight a few of the Kennedy Center’s top students—we interviewed five students to learn more about how their experiences at BYU have shaped them.
William Martindale, one of the Kennedy Center’s seven valedictorians of 2024, will be graduating with a double major in Asian Studies and Statistics, with minors in Chinese and History. Following graduation, he will attend grad school; afterwards, he plans on going into academics or working for the State Department.
What drew you to your program?
I was originally drawn to Asian Studies as a minor because, as a half-Taiwanese, it felt like a good way to connect with my heritage. I ended up switching to it as my primary major because I enjoyed the interdisciplinary aspects of it and, frankly, I just loved doing research in the field. I've really enjoyed incorporating my outside statistics knowledge into my assignments and using broad area knowledge to push the boundaries of specific fields of study. It's also nice that the field is so broad. My first term paper after I officially joined the major was a review of the literature on conspiracy theories in contemporary China, and I got to incorporate primary source material, histories, and research from political science and psychology into it. Life's just so much better when you're not limited to just one tool.
What were your favorite classes?
My favorite classes have been those involving Southeast Asia. Something new in my brain just turns on when I start learning about the region. Southeast Asian politics and history is just so interesting and complicated in ways that that you don't see even in other parts of East Asia, and there's just so much research to be done on the region. My favorite term paper to write was for Dr. Diana Duan's Southeast Asian history class, where I attempted to understand why a 1970s Filipino dictator would publicly claim to be descended from a 16th-century Chinese pirate. Shameless plug: that paper will be in this year's edition of BYU's Asian Studies Student Journal, along with six other selected papers from last semester's Asian Studies Student Symposium.
What has your experience at the Kennedy Center been like? Were there any professors that made an impact on you?
My experience at the Kennedy Center has been fantastic. Because the cohorts are so small, I feel like I know so many people in my area of study, and I've gotten to know the professors really well. I'm particularly grateful for Diana Duan and Joel Selway. I've had the privilege to work under both of them in teaching and research roles, as well as to do mentored research under them. They've both helped me to push my boundaries; Dr. Selway has taught me to write both very broad and very specific styles of papers in ways that I'm not used to, and Dr. Duan has encouraged me to get my research out there and even helped me speak at the Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies.
Did you participate in any studies abroad?
Last summer, I also participated in the Taipei study abroad for Chinese language learning. It was fantastic; I got to visit my family, travel around the island, learn a lot of Chinese, and do library research for my Honors thesis about Taiwan's March 19th shooting conspiracy theories.
To those who are considering your major/minor, what would you say? Do you have any tips for students on getting the most out of their program?
This is a great major if you're interested in doing original research on Asia incorporating broad area knowledge from multiple fields. If you're thinking about switching into the major like I did, you might be surprised how much of your old knowledge will still be applicable. Asian Studies (all area studies fields, really) is a really broad field and as a general rule, if you're still somewhat interested in your old major, you can find a way to apply it somehow.
If you want to get the most out of your Asian Studies degree, the most important thing is relationships with professors. I've had so many research opportunities because I chose to develop relationships with professors working in the fields I was interested in. The department also has a lot of opportunities to present and publish your research, which is a great way to get experience and engage with your own ideas on a deeper level. I guess all the advice I have boils down to this: do research! And as much as possible! It's a way to get new opportunities, it's a skill you can apply no matter where you go, and it's just a lot of fun.