The annual Marina Keegan ’08 Fellowship is an opportunity for Upper School students to pursue projects that combine creativity with community impact. Funded by the Marina Keegan Memorial Fund, the fellowship provides students with resources to develop projects connected to art and activism while honoring Marina’s legacy. This year’s recipients are Erin Yu ’27 and Mirabel Ge ’27.
Erin Yu ’27
Erin Yu ’27 will pursue a poetry anthology project based on the stories and experiences of Chinese immigrants in her community.
“I’m going to be writing poetry based on the interviews in both Mandarin and English,” she said. “My goal is to use poetry to capture the nuances of language and the impact of translation.”
She was inspired by her role as the Upper School (US) poet laureate.
“It’s a way to write about my own identity and share a piece of myself,” she said. “I think continuing to do poetry for this fellowship is going to help me strengthen my skills and also share other people’s experiences with a theme of culture and identity.”
The goal of her project is to demonstrate the importance of language in a multilingual society by sharing her anthology with her local and school communities. She plans to create a chapter book and distribute it through public libraries, as well as the US’s Almy Library.
“I want my project to highlight what language can do for you in the United States and show that there are others here that don’t speak English or are treated differently because of the language that they speak,” she said.
Mirabel Ge ’27
Inspired by her grandmother’s experience with late-stage Alzheimer’s disease, Mirabel Ge ’27 will lead culinary therapy workshops for elderly residents in memory care homes.
“In all my childhood memories of her, I’ve always associated food with my grandparents every time I went to their house,” she said. “My family loves to eat and cook together and it’s also a passion of mine.”
Mirabel will direct hands-on cooking activities.
“I’m going to host cooking workshops, like baking, and hopefully it’s a mentally stimulating activity to connect with the community,” she said.
Mirabel hopes these workshops will evoke a sense of comfort for the residents.
“When you get put into these memory care homes, you’re not with your family and it’s a new environment,” she said. “I hope that through food, they’re able to be reminded of cooking in a community or family.”
She plans to host continuous workshops throughout the summer in different memory care homes.
