This Senior Spotlight aims to focus on a fourth-year student in our department who has gone above and beyond in their time at UP. Whether that is through academics, extracurriculars, or community service, our first student to be featured has demonstrated their dedication and commitment to learning and the UP community. What follows is the complete interview with Crystal Wallace, conducted by Isabel Hidalgo.
Wallace
My name is Crystal Wallace. I’m a senior Psychology and English double major and I am from Brentwood, California.
Hidalgo
Thank you. So the first question—did you come to the University of Portland with English as a declared major?
Wallace
Yes, I did.
Hidalgo
And how did you know that it was going to be a pathway for you?
Wallace
So it’s a little cheesy, but it started in high school. Freshman year, we had a college preparatory class where we talked about what we wanted to pursue when we got to college if we had chosen that route. I had set on doing psychology then. And then sophomore year came around and I was in English class with a teacher who was super passionate about English and we read Fahrenheit 451. The book itself, in describing literature being banned and not being able to read and the burning of all these books—it made me realize that I don’t want that to happen. I value literature and I think that everyone else should also value the power of words and reading. So that’s where I really processed that I wanted to be an English major or at least wanted to do something with English. That made me take the AP courses later on and then I declared English from the get-go when I applied to the University of Portland and then ended up adding psych later anyways.
Hidalgo
Why the combination?
Wallace
I’ve always been interested in psychology, human behavior, and the brain and how it works. When I found out that I had enough credits that I could add psychology to my pathway here at UP, I thought “why not?”
Hidalgo
And what has this combination given you that you don’t think you would have gotten otherwise?
Wallace
English and psychology are super interconnected in ways that people oftentimes don’t initially think of. You’re analyzing behavior in both disciplines—you have a book and then you have a person. In psychology you analyze human behavior and in English you analyze literature. You can just turn a book into a brain and you turn English into psychology. You’re analyzing characters or you’re analyzing a person or you’re finding all these patterns and behaviors or themes. So I think that the combination of the two really works well, because you can pull from each discipline when you’re in the other one, or you’re working with the other material. They parallel each other in ways I didn’t even realize until I became a double major.
Hidalgo
Is there a particular text where you were able to use both your majors?
Wallace
That’s a good question. You know, The Girls by Emma Cline. It’s about a cult, loosely based on the Manson family, and I also did a project on cult behavior and violence for a psychology class. And also Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Those two have really stood out.
Hidalgo
So, I understand that you are the vice president of the English Honor Society, Sigma Tau Delta. Can you just explain a little bit more about what your organization does and specifically what you do as vice president?
Wallace
Sigma Tau Delta is an English Honor Society here on campus, and it’s a society that brings together English students maintaining a minimum GPA of 3.5 after taking two or more upper-division courses and three semesters of college coursework. It brings together the community in order to do “bookish” things together, while also recognizing the hard work students put into their studies. Since we are such a small university, having the Society actually really helped me in particular, to do things with the English community that I wouldn’t have done otherwise. For example, the annual Portland Literary Arts Festival, Book Talks, Powell’s outings — those are all things that STD can set up for the English community. Sarah James, the President of STD, and I now organize those outings for students to be able to go see writers and participate in the workshops. We talk to Dr. Larson and decide which days we would like to go in order to see particular authors. We also set up socials, such as the Society’s Induction Ceremony and the English Department Social at the beginning of the year. We also try to get the word out about the year’s ReadUP or the talks that are going on throughout the year.
Hidalgo
You are also an intern for Public Research Fellows. How’s that experience?
Wallace
I’ve been an intern for PRF for quite some time, since 2019, my junior year. We had to finish what didn’t happen in 2020, as our event for my first year with PRF was shut down due to COVID. As an intern for PRF my main focus, along with Sarah and Dr. McDaneld, has always been reaching out to the UP community and getting them involved and getting them aware of what’s going on with the theme and projects that are happening in PRF. So for this year, we’ve done a few tabling events to publicize “College after COVID” and the Interdisciplinary Roundtable. We also create the PRF newsletter to put out about the fellows, the projects that they are working on, and any relevant information related to PRF to make sure that the UP community knows about what our organization enacts. So we do a lot of work in trying to make UP aware of PRF.
Hidalgo
And as if you’re not busy enough, you are also on the Editorial Board for Writers. The submissions just closed (late February), so can you tell me a little bit more about how the process works? This is the first time that Writers will be printed since the pandemic started, so how has that been going?
Wallace
Our senior editors, Sadie Wuertz and Cora Hyatt, really handle a lot of the logistics, so props to them because they do so much work. To pick a theme for Writers we’ll have a meeting and we’ll start with one word, and then everyone will go around and say the words that come right to their mind. From that we’ll try to curate something based on key words and create a color theme and then we’ll work together to create posters and mood boards. We just had our first fall edition ever, which was published exclusively online. That edition was specifically themed, as the pieces submitted had to somehow fit the theme that we had chosen. And then the spring edition, it has a theme as well but it’s open to anyone, there’s no real theme restriction. And for the submission process, what we do is we get everyone’s submissions and we anonymously rate each submission. We then come together and decide which ones will go into that edition. It’s a fun process and I enjoy doing it a lot.
Hidalgo
Now kind of tying everything a little bit together—how was balancing the workload, with a double major and three different positions?
Wallace
I decided to take it a little easier this semester. But I was a little frazzled last semester. It was a lot—it was a lot a lot. I think it really helped, being interested in everything. I really wanted to do all of these positions, and I really wanted to go to class and learn about everything. So that has really helped with motivation.
Hidalgo
Okay, so this might be somewhat of an inappropriate question to ask because you did just mention how much you love psychology and English, but has there ever been a moment when you consider dropping a major?
Wallace
Never—I have considered adding a major before. Yeah, I thought I was gonna go pre-med—that did not happen. Never thought about dropping any of them.
Hidalgo
So, as a senior, you’re probably getting a lot of questions about what you are going to do after graduation. Career-wise, what are you hoping to do with your double majors?
Wallace
So that’s a stressful topic for me right now because I have a lot of interests in what I’m going to pursue post-grad. I’ve thought about doing bibliotherapy, which is therapy with literature, writing, reading, etc. But that is such a specific job that I would need to go to a grad school where that’s a specialty that they provide. And I would most likely have to move to where the job needs me, which is not something that I would really like. So the other options that I’ve thought about are publishing and then working my way up through that. I thought about being a professor for either psych or English just because I like both. Or just a therapist and incorporating my own interests like bibliotherapy where I can still incorporate literature.
Hidalgo
Not to jump around here, but how has the English capstone been for you so far? And be as honest as you would like.
Wallace
The capstone has been a little frustrating for me just because I already knew what I was going to write about. And I feel like I’m kind of doing a lot of busywork. I think that seven weeks in I should have a little bit more done, or added on to my writing experience, and maybe that’s something on my part that I need to improve on, which is entirely possible.
Hidalgo
Were you aware of how or what made up the capstone?
Wallace
Maybe I asked Dr. Larson, so I had an idea. But that was the only time that I had an idea of what capstone was. Otherwise, I was just like, “I don’t know what I’m doing for capstone.”
Hidalgo
Were you surprised about the 20 to 30-page limit?
Wallace
No. If I had to take a guess for what capstone would mean for an English major, it would be a lot of writing. That’s kind of what I thought it would be. So I wasn’t surprised, but I was surprised to find out that there was a creative writing portion. There’s an option of writing creatively which I would have done if I had known beforehand that we needed the specific writing workshops.
Hidalgo
Are you taking both of your capstones this semester?
Wallace
No, I actually did my psychology thesis last semester, instead of psych capstone, which was fun. That added to the hecticness of last semester for sure. I am still working on my psych thesis because I’m going to the Western Psychological Association (WPA), which is super cool. WPA is a convention that happens in Portland where students and researchers get to present their research to the cohort. My psych thesis relates to English, so that’s exciting.
Hidalgo
And how does it relate to English?
Wallace
I wrote my psych thesis on narrative empathy theory. Essentially that is the provocation of empathy while you are reading. Narrative empathy theory says that while reading fictional pieces, it provokes cognitive empathy. And then that empathy leads to pro-social behavior in reality. So I was testing whether or not narrative empathy theory is something that actually provokes pro-sociality. For example, if you read a piece of fiction about a certain demographic, would you act more pro-socially towards that demographic in reality because of the empathy produced while reading?
Hidalgo
So is there any advice that you would want to give to double majors that you think they may need or something that maybe you would have wanted to hear?
Wallace
Okay, yeah. I’m going to start with English majors. If you’re an English double major, do not preface it as “I’m an English double major and I’m also doing this second major just in case it doesn’t work out.” Because I feel like that takes away from the value of English and it takes away from just how much you can actually do with English. And you don’t need a backup plan. Of course, double majors are fantastic. But don’t make it seem like one is more valuable than the other because each discipline brings its own innate value. Just being that interdisciplinary person, it’s so valuable. If you have the chance to be a double major, do it. Or if you have the chance to add in a minor, just do it, because it enriches so many of your classes. There’s nothing wrong with just having one major, of course, but I feel like because I was on two tracks, I was able to pull from different portions of each section making my experience at UP just that much greater.
Hidalgo
Okay, now as a senior, looking back on your four years, with your double majors and the positions that you’ve taken on, is there anything that stands out the most to you? I know that can be a little bit difficult, choosing one particular moment.
Wallace
Honestly, my experience with Public Research Fellows. If I had not met Dr. McDaneld, my college education career path would have been completely different. I almost transferred freshman year and I didn’t because Dr. Larson sent out an email about Women’s Suffrage and Dr. McDaneld, and I thought, “I want to work with this professor.” So that was a really important moment for me and staying at UP because I’ve gained so much from that.
Hidalgo
Are there any final thoughts you would like to add?
Wallace
Well, I have to thank Dr. McDaneld for enriching my college career way further than what “freshmen Crystal” would have thought. Working with her for practically three years has been something that I know that I’m going to look back on and think, “wow, I’m so glad I did that.” I’ll treasure it for a very long time. And I wouldn’t be able to do it without my partner in crime, Sarah James, so she’s definitely had a big impact on my career here at UP. The three of us work really well together. And I’m eternally glad that we got the opportunity to work with each other for so long. Because I feel like that’s not a very common thing for students to be able to get that close with both the faculty and another student. I want to give them an endless amount of gratitude. I’d also like to thank Dr. Hersh—I’ve taken a lot of classes with her and she’s also my advisor, and she’s just helped me a lot in general, with writing and with classes. She’s so patient, creative, and kind and some of my favorite English courses were hers. So those are the two professors I’d like to thank.