Doctoral Candidate Selected to Millennium Scholars Program
While working as an eighth-grade math teacher, Andrea Kinghorn Busby saw how her students’ lives outside of school intersected with their classroom experiences.
Now, as a graduate student and researcher, she’ll delve deeper into studying neighborhood effects on teachers and children as a new member of the Frances Degen Horowitz Millennium Scholars Program, which is awarded to promising young minority scholars who plan to pursue a career in the field of child development.
Busby, a doctoral candidate in the Human Development and Social Policy Program at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy (SESP), is especially interested in the contexts of development for children from families with low-income, immigrant, or ethnic-minority backgrounds. Her research also explores how social policy efforts can equitably serve children and families.
“As a teacher, I saw how children navigated various language and cultural contexts over the course of any given day,” said Busby, a fellow in the Multidisciplinary Program in Education Sciences at SESP. “As a researcher, I now use ecological frameworks to understand the intersection of home, school, and neighborhood environments and their impacts on children’s development.”
The Millennium Scholars Program, which is administered through the Society for Research in Child Development, provides education and professional development as well as mentors recruited from diverse racial, ethnic and disciplinary groups.
Busby said she is especially excited about the chance to collaborate with other graduate students from under-represented groups and to establish a strong network of scholars of color.
“I also hope to learn more about the work of other scholars so I can cite them, build on their work, and engage in the intellectual community of scholars of color in the Society for Research in Child Development,” she said.
In addition to teaching, Busby worked as a research intern at Child Trends where she participated in several projects on positive youth development and parenting. She spent 18 months as a full-time volunteer with Spanish-speaking immigrant families. She holds a bachelor’s degree in family science from Brigham Young University.