For the past eight years, students in Jeffrey Wilson’s Expository Writing course, Why Shakespeare?, have grappled with Shakespeare’s prominence in modern life. Expecting students to be generators, not just consumers, of knowledge, the course culminates in a Public Shakespeare workshop. Students turn their 10-page heavily footnoted research papers into short public-facing essays written with fire and joy. In honor of the final semester of Why Shakespeare?, Key Terms is thrilled to showcase the impact the course has had on its students and the broader Shakespeare community.
Key Terms is pleased to welcome an accomplished group of undergraduate interns to our team. The interns will be interviewing faculty, alumni, students, and staff about non-fiction writing and its influence on their scholarship, perspectives, and careers.
Key Terms features our students and teachers, past and present, in the classroom and in the world.
Spring 2021 Undergraduate Interns
Lina Cho, 2023
Concentration: Comparative Literature with a secondary in East Asian Studies
House: Dunster
Hometown: Sydney, Australia
Lina’s all-time favorite activity is sitting down to a bowl of ramen and hot tea at Santouka on a snowy Cambridge day. Currently, however, she’s back home in Sydney, spending her time going for walks, producing a comedy podcast, and watching good Korean films. (Also, looking at pictures of Santouka ramen on Yelp).
Simone Chu, 2021
Concentration: Government, with secondary in History
House: Currier
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Simone is an aspiring journalist with a love for storytelling, reading, and sunny days. She is also a cat lover.
Natalia Hajlasz, 2022
Concentration: Mathematics, Chemistry Secondary
House: Lowell
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Natalia studies mathematics and chemistry. Outside of classes, she is an active member of Gender Inclusivity in Mathematics (GIIM). Her ideal evening is sitting on a windowsill with a book and a warm cup of tea.
Bernadette Looney, 2023
Concentration: Government with a secondary in African-American Studies
House: Cabot House best house
Hometown: Kansas City, Missouri
Bernadette allows herself to go down many mental rabbit-holes that sometimes produce interesting conclusions to seemingly mundane problems. She wouldn’t call herself a writer but does enjoy reading about and writing on thought-provoking topics. She was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri and would take slight offense if you said she was from Kansas.
Mary McDermott, 2022
Concentration: Social Studies
House: Winthrop
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Mary studies the rural-urban divide and has developed a love for writing over her time as a student of the material. Outside of academics, she is a member of the Radcliffe Heavyweight Rowing team. When on campus, she loves to explore and work in the many different coffeeshops of Cambridge and Boston.
Isabel Mehta ‘24 (she/her/hers)
Concentration: Undeclared, but strongly considering Social Studies
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Isabel is a lover of words and stories and most of all, writing! She is a staff writer for the Harvard Political Review and is always reading something, even if it’s the back of a cereal box. She is also on the Women’s Lightweight Rowing team.
Ryan Nguyen ‘25
Concentration: (potentially) Government with a secondary in Ethnicity, Migration, Rights
Hometown: Westborough, MA
Ryan loves collecting stories and can be found conducting candid interviews of friends to street vendors and even strangers sitting quietly on park benches. His favorite activities are writing, reading, learning languages (currently Spanish and Arabic), and hiking.