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Student Snapshot: Ella Layton ’26 

As a project manager with Dickinson’s Clarke Forum, Ella Layton ’26 (Africana studies, English) prepares, conducts and edits interviews with noted artists, writers, scientists, academics and others visiting Dickinson as invited speakers. Below, Ella discusses what that’s like, describes an internship at The Trout Gallery and more.

Hometown:

Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Majors: 

Africana studies and English.

Clubs and organizations:

(student project manager), Norman M. Eberly Multilingual Writing Center (English writing tutor and writing associate), The Afro-Diasporic and Cultural Collective (historian), Africana Studies Department (intern), Womanist Collective and eXiled Poetry Society

Honors/scholarships/awards:

Benjamin Rush Scholarship, Dean’s List and Student Employee of the Year (honorable mention).

Best thing about my Dickinson experience so far:

Being a student project manager at the Clarke Forum has been such a rewarding experience. I’ve gotten to meet artists, veterans, scientists and academics who have done great work in the world, and I get to share this with the Dickinson and Carlisle communities by preparing, conducting and editing interviews. This past year, I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Dr. Myisha Cherry, filmmaker Baktash Ahadi, Afghan veteran Farida Mohammadi, Dr. April Baker-Bell and Dr. Matthew Guariglia ’12.

Favorite professor:

This is a very difficult question. I’m going to have to shout out to both Assistant Professor of English Sarah Kersh and Associate Professor of English Sheela Jane Menon (although there are many others!.) I took Introduction to Literary Studies with Professor Menon and Writing, Identity & Queer Studies with Professor Kersh during my first semester at Dickinson. They really grew my love for literature and literary studies. Besides being amazing teachers, they’ve also been great advisors and people.

On studying abroad:

I have not studied abroad yet, but I am very excited for the .

In the fall, we’ll prepare for the fieldwork portion of the Mosaic by taking two courses—one with Assistant Professor of Educational Studies Jacquie Forbes and one with Associate Professor of History Jeremy Ball. The courses will focus on how the Transatlantic Slave Trade is taught in the United States versus Ghana. In January we’ll travel to Ghana to conduct fieldwork. That will include visits to former slave castles in Cape Coast and interviews of Ghanian students and professors.

As I kid, I wanted to be …

… an interior designer.

About my internship:

This summer I am one of the museum education interns at . The position had been shared with me a couple times, as they were particularly looking for students in the Africana-studies department to develop and teach curricula from the The Legacy of Two Centuries of Black American Art exhibition. Being an Africana-studies and English double major, I thought this was the perfect opportunity. Through this internship, I have learned how to talk about visual art using formal analysis (the skill of close reading, ever-present in the English department, helped me learn this more quickly). Additionally, I have become comfortable writing lesson plans, which is not something I previously imagined myself doing. Within this space, I have learned how to present difficult topics like race and racism to kids as well as contribute my own knowledge about Afrocentric education into the lesson-planning process.

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Published July 23, 2024