In Spring 2017 while I was a junior at Brown, I did a GLISP about the Russian Orthodox Church in Yaroslavl, Russia. That experience of writing a syllabus, asking a professor to be my advisor, and actually performing research abroad prepared me more than almost anything else for graduate school life.
As a Ph.D. student at Yale, I am regularly considering future research opportunities. Due to my GLISP experience, I am better equipped to decide with whom to consult and what kinds of research approaches fit my interests best. On my GLISP, I learned that I prefer ethnographic research to archival and already that is influencing the type of work I want to do for my dissertation.
Not a week goes by that I do not think about my GLISP research and what it taught me about myself and my topic of study. More than those practical benefits, the GLISP gave me confidence in myself and my ability to plan and execute research about which I am passionate.