Marina Keegan
Summer Fellowships

Since hearing about this fellowship, I have read as much of Marina Keegan’s writing as I can get my hands on… I can see her remarkable ability to reveal hidden truths and the exceptional way she is able to turn them into a very personal and human story. She took the nuanced problems she saw around her and constructed creative stories that made a point about specific issues and society overall. The ultimate goal of my project is to do something similar, and use my interest in journalism, research, and podcasts to make it possible.

According to her mentor at Yale, Anne Fadiman, Marina was “idealistic” but also “fierce, edgy, provocative.” My work continues her spirit of idealism by imagining a town government that could work for all, but that ideal is impossible unless the status quo is challenged. My work will carry on her fierce and provocative spirit as I advocate and drive to make Town Meeting more accessible and transparent to all. Marina ended “The Opposite of Loneliness” with the plea to “make something happen to this world” and my work will continue that spirit of making change in the best place I know how to, my hometown.

In The Opposite of Loneliness, Marina Keegan reminds people that no effort to help is too small. It is easy to feel that small changes will not make an impact, but Marina explains that it is worth trying to make a difference in our own communities nonetheless….  From this experience, I have come to understand Marina’s words even more. I may be young—I may only be one person —but I can still do anything. I can still make an impact.

Marina Keegan’s passion for and dedication to activism and art are qualities that I can only hope to emulate. I feel that I share her adoration for art through photography, something that I pursue both inside and outside of school. In terms of activism, I have a deep love for my local community and look for any opportunity that I can to help in areas that face inequality, challenges, and stigma. Although I never knew Marina Keegan, I have heard enough about her to know that she is a woman I look up to. I hope to follow in her footsteps as … someone who truly loves her community, endeavors to serve it, and enthusiastically pursues her artistic interests.

During my fellowship, I focused on Marina’s emphasis on the future….  While I cannot erase the dangerous influences that social media and society have on boys and girls, I can try to help prevent these factors from ruining a child’s life. I am certainly not done with my work on the prevention of eating disorders. My sisters and I have curated a plan to reach out to elementary and high schools in the Greater Boston area and encourage them to educate their students about low self-esteem and eating disorders. I am honored to have received this fellowship, and I know that my work and Marina’s words will stay with me forever.

Marina’s legacy and the resulting fellowship do give students a chance to continue something they already love, but it’s also, to me, unique in its space for discovery. With this fellowship, you have an opportunity with very few restrictions. There is no “allowed to” or “should have”; there is just “what do you care about?” …. There are endless possibilities, and none of them need to be something you’re already good at. To me, that freedom is already “making something happen to the world.” It sure made something happen to mine.

This fellowship was such a rewarding experience because I could help my community to fight a challenge that I’m passionate about and I feel prepared to continue my work with the mental health stigma after graduation…. One way to fight the mental health stigma is through art, because art can inspire, spark important conversations, and evoke change…. I never knew Marina, but I know that with this fellowship, her legacy lingers in our BB&N community and beyond, and it helps to “make something happen in this world.”

Before taking on this project, I knew that autism was not fully understood, but I could never have imagined the extent of how autism impacts families and students. Especially in independent schools, in addition to strong academics, we must take on education about autism in order to foster empathy and understanding among our students….  I distinctly recall how every interview served as a springboard for conversation within my own family….  I hope that my project will encourage students to apply for the fellowship especially for personal causes, because I believe these causes will have the potential to bring out the most change.

Completing this project in Marina Keegan’s name was an honor and a guiding force as I navigated the intricacies of the issue…. I remember noticing [Marina’s] ability to discern the greater implications of everyday incidents; it was clear from her work that she was keenly aware of the people and events around her. Working on my project, I began to realize how listening and observing would help me create the most effective product… I felt her values, her urge to spark change rooting my project and instilling in me the sense of purpose I needed to make this book a reality.

I learned about the challenges that come with creating a project by myself—and at a homeless shelter, too. I had to be flexible with the families, and I had to be persistent. More importantly, though, I learned about kids. I realized how observant they are when they would predict the ends of our books. I learned how creative they can be when they’re doing something they enjoy…. [N]ow, I’m even contemplating studying education in college…. I like to think that Marina would be proud of this project. I think it emphasizes her ideas about increasing interest in literature and doing something important in the world.

[I]n her lifetime, Marina tasked herself and others to simply “make something happen to this world.” If my work this summer even only scratched the surface of what Marina might have meant in saying this, then I believe I have just done that. “This world” can be small or big, local or international, personal or public. Ultimately, I made something happen to my world. Furthermore, “something” can happen overnight or over the course of a day, a week, a year, ten years, or a lifetime. There is no time limit imposed on progress. In the end, what matters most is one’s resolve, determination, and grit in making something happen.

I truly enjoy editing and re-listening to my fellow Black peers who went through similar experiences and feel comfortable enough to finally speak their truth in a forum that wasn’t filtered. I am truly thankful for the opportunity to explore a topic that has been such a big obstacle in my BB&N career. This was the best closure of my high school career I could ever ask for.

The most important thing I learned while working in the Jungle [a refugee camp in Calais] is that human beings are meant to share their stories. If we want to see a change in the world, we must first start by sharing. We are meant to share our likes and dislikes and fears and hopes, and above all, all human beings are meant to treat and be treated with dignity. The Marina Keegan fellowship changed my life. It will continue to change my life as I pursue a career helping others. I am forever appreciating and reflecting on the power of this fellowship and the woman who gives its name.

Marina is an inspiration, and her voice has rung loud and clear…. Through organizing this project, I learned about communication, compassion, and the kids at the hospital—many of whom came from across the world to be treated…. The kids we helped were four- to seventeen-year-olds in wheelchairs with tubes stuck to their wrists and inside their noses. Kids for whom getting through a single day was a triumph. But they were also the kids who were always laughing, who excitedly asked me, “When is the next event?” and “Can you stay a little longer?” In our hectic lives, it’s easy to forget to appreciate the little things, but these kids never do.

One of my biggest takeaways from The Opposite of Loneliness was this lack of permanence to everything, how we can take advantage of what we know best to make change…The outcome [of a children’s writing group in South Africa] was so much better than I could have hoped. It was so interactive, so genuine, that it became more of a storytelling group than anything else…. Marina is a true inspiration, one who I know will continue to guide me (and the rest of her avid fans) with her words of wisdom and encouragement for a long time to come.

I just want to say, as a side note, how grateful I am that this Fellowship exists. As a stubborn, opinionated, and wildly passionate teen, Marina is a huge inspiration and role model for me. Reading descriptions of her gives me faith for who I am, and hope for who I aspire to be. I am so glad to be in an environment where we have opportunities like this to make our personal mark on the world.

Marina’s writing always offers something personal, but with ideas that feel universal, and make you want to jump up and do something, right that very minute….  She pushed to challenge both herself and her peers to live their lives to the fullest, and use their passion and drive to do something meaningful. My experience working at BCF made me recognize how much of a difference one person doing something they care about can make.

By painting murals with students to convey messages of hope, and designing classes alongside the teachers, we shared the same diligence, openness, and curiosity in our work to create joy amid their difficult living situations. We had a sense of purpose, which was to better the lives of these students so that they could have positive opportunities in the future…. As I decide what direction I want to take in the future, rather than sticking to cookie-cutter roles, I hope to follow a career that uses my passion for design to help others. I aim to take on Marina’s mindset of making everything possible.

By painting murals with students to convey messages of hope, and designing classes alongside the teachers, we shared the same diligence, openness, and curiosity in our work to create joy amid their difficult living situations. We had a sense of purpose, which was to better the lives of these students so that they could have positive opportunities in the future…. As I decide what direction I want to take in the future, rather than sticking to cookie-cutter roles, I hope to follow a career that uses my passion for design to help others. I aim to take on Marina’s mindset of making everything possible.

In my work with AMOS, I hoped to in some way encounter who Marina was through getting myself out of the comfortable and into the unknown in order to give others the chance for life to its fullest capacity… I was able to create my own campaign for the National Popular Vote rather than simply volunteering with an organization that supports the bill. This independence gave me more room to experiment, learn, and grow… for that, I am truly grateful.

My experience with the Marina Keegan Summer Fellowship has been extraordinary. I feel accomplished for having played a part in the passage of the National Popular Vote in Rhode Island. Through campaigning for NPV, I have developed skills in salesmanship, activism, and graphic design that will last me a lifetime.
The Marina Keegan Summer Fellowship’s strength comes from the independence the grant encourages. Because of the grant, I was able to create my own campaign for the National Popular Vote rather than simply volunteering with an organization that supports the bill. This independence gave me more room to experiment, learn, and grow than I would otherwise have had, and, for that, I am truly grateful.