Learning about research
With the help of her faculty mentor, Debra Chang ’12 discovered during the summer that good research sometimes requires a little dancing. Chang, a sociology concentrator, participated in the new Behavioral Laboratory in the Social Sciences (BLISS) program for the chance to work on a research project with a member of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS). She was paired with Nicole Newendorp, a lecturer and assistant director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Social Studies, on a study of elderly immigrants in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood. Newendorp sent Chang — who speaks Mandarin — out to collect data from a number of social groups, including one for retirees who enjoyed ballroom dancing. She soon found that the best way to get the seniors to agree to interviews was to join them on the dance floor. “I always wanted to learn ballroom dancing at Harvard, but because I was doing this...