Myrna Cintrón-Valentín wrote in with a positive reflection from early on in her Collaboratory career: “During my first semester working on the From Africa to Patagonia Collaboratory project my initial role was as the Logistics Manager, a role in which I was responsible for overseeing the project’s workflow and data organization procedures. Within my first semester working for the project, unexpectedly, this role developed into a more interactive role, to the point where I felt like I was a true collaborator, being involved in the intellectual exchange of ideas as well as the creative brainstorming with both the faculty and the students working in this project. One particular experience that helped solidify my role in the project as a full graduate collaborator was my trip to Yale with one of our faculty collaborators, Ryan Szpiech, to collect data from the archive at the Sterling Memorial Library.
My background is in psychology, and the linguistic work that I do does not require this type of research, so initially I felt a bit uneasy about what decisions I should take to make the most out of the archive. However, this uneasiness quickly dissipated knowing that I was not blindly going into it. We had several meetings with Ryan, who has extensive experience working with multilingual archival and manuscript sources, and it was this experience that allowed us to develop a plan of attack to successfully collect the data we needed.
One important outcome of our work at the archive was the creation of the project’s online digital archive which provides material related to the language, culture, and history of the Argentine Boer community. The production of the digital archive is still in progress, but it will be of great value in enriching our understanding of this community.
Professionally, this experience allowed me to step out of my ‘expertise’ comfort zone, broadening my methodological toolkit as a researcher as well as my ability to see beyond the confines of my own discipline in approaching a research problem. Personally, it allowed to gain greater understanding about the history and significance of this community, and it provided me with more confidence about my role in this project; knowing that the team trusted me enough to collaborate in such a crucial task.”
UPDATE: Myrna accepted a position in the United States government as a Bilingual Research Data Specialist for the Department of Justice in Sacramento, California. Myrna began her new position in April 2019.