About Our Tenth Issue
The tenth issue of CANAL is something to truly celebrate.
For ten years, CANAL has provided students with unique mentorship opportunities as they refine their research and creative projects for publication in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Khmer, German, and English.
We have published 55 essays (thirty in Spanish, sixteen in Italian, seven in French, one in Portuguese, and one in Chinese) with an incredibly diverse range of topics. You will find writing on community policing, the environmental sciences, the history of fashion,l esbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning+ (LGBTQ+) identity, literary analysis, autism research, and multilingual education.
CANAL has featured 11 unique poetry projects (four in Portuguese, three in Spanish, two in Khmer, one in Italian, and one in French) as well as 37 language-learning projects involving fiction, open-resource creation, and diverse approaches to linguistic development (twenty in Italian, ten in Portuguese, two in German, four in Spanish). Students have conducted nine fascinating interview projects—three in Italian, two in Spanish, one in Chinese, one in German, one in Portuguese, and one in Khmer.
While each project has been unique—with its own trajectory and process—it is often the case that students who submit their work to CANAL engage in careful discussions about language, academic research, interpretation, history, and writing. A project that begins as a class assignment can, through this editorial process, grow into a much more complex, multilayered work.
When we were discussing how to celebrate this decade of student creativity and faculty mentorship, we decided that it would be meaningful to ask all our past contributors to reflect on their experiences with CANAL (Melany De Los Santos and Monica Melo provided invaluable help in seeking out their contact information). We asked these contributors what they remembered, specifically, about their experiences with CANAL, what impact it had on their lives afterwards, and if there were any thoughts that they wanted to share with readers now about their work.
Reading these responses was very special.
It showed us the far-reaching impact of CANAL and the importance of working beyond the limits of the classroom to strengthen student voices as writers and creators—particularly in languages other than English.
Many contributors highlighted how important it was to work with an editor to take their writing and creative work seriously as it was prepared for publication. These were experiences that strengthened their understanding of themselves as writers and creators and opened them to new possibilities as they began their careers.
We were able to see how CANAL directly impacted their professional lives—how writing and publishing was, in many ways, a career-connected experience.
Jannelis Medina explained how her experience publishing an essay, in Spanish, on Puerto Rican identity and activism led to her career as a special education teacher in Lowell, where she uses her Spanish abilities working with multilingual families.
Leonel Contreras wrote that publishing in CANAL helped him get a job at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development as a bilingual employment counselor.
Kat Claybaugh wrote that after presenting their work in CANAL at a gender studies conference the year it was published, it led to an Honors College thesis and then to working in immigration law after graduation.
Montana Heise reflected on how publishing in CANAL deepened her confidence in her writing abilities and influenced her decision to do her graduate studies practicum in Costa Rica—a choice which led to her work supporting students in study abroad programs at UMass Lowell (UML) and now as part of the Tufts Global Education Team.
Darnnellyz Batista explained that her essay in CANAL helped with her admission into Merrimack College’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program and that now, as a clinical mental health counselor, the themes of her writing (particularly understanding generational trauma) are part of her daily work.
Julian Viviescas Mejia decided to travel to Northern Greece to volunteer in the refugee camps of the nonprofit Lifting Hands International after interviewing Dr. Pietro Bartolo, a prominent advocate for migrants’ rights in Italy, for CANAL and his honor thesis. He described how the skills he developed within both of his CANAL projects transferred directly to his current role as communications director for Boston City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune. He emphasized that supporting the rights of migrants is a part of his current role that he strongly values.
We invite you to read these reflections from 18 of our past contributors because they are windows into the lives of UML alumni who are building on what they learned and experienced at the university. They include compelling thoughts on the importance of writing, researching, and publishing in languages other than English—and how it allowed them to connect to new international communities and develop stronger relationships with family histories, cultures, and knowledge. They show UML graduates engaging in deeply meaningful service to others and participating in the world with intellectual rigor, curiosity, and passion.
