honorsfall17

Perceptions of Refugees in Aberdeen and the Surrounding Community By Zachary Feil, NSU Honors Program Graduate Asst. Taylor Ellingson, a senior International Business major from Warner, SD, choose her Honors thesis topic because she noticed an increase in the number of racist statements among Aberdeen community members both in person and on social media. Ellingson also noticed a growing number of refugees in Aberdeen, and she wondered how the two correlated or overlapped. Ellingson is a student who always tries to make those around her feel comfortable. It comes as no surprise that she hopes her thesis research will help the Aberdeen community find ways to make our newest residents, a growing number of refugees from Somalia and Myanmar, feel more at home. Ellingson explains the motivation for her thesis, “Refugees are coming from all walks of life across the globe, and it is my belief that everyone deserves a fair chance to prove themselves. Some people just need a little help getting started with that, and I think it is our moral obligation to try and help refugees get accustomed to our ways and integrate into society.” Using a survey instrument, Ellingson sought to measure racism and track perceptions of refugees in Aberdeen at the same time. Ellingson asked Dr. Fouberg howmany surveys would give her good data, and Fouberg responded “1,000,” and she set that as her goal. Remarkably, Ellingson received over 1,500 survey responses. After removing surveys completed by those who do not live in Aberdeen or the surrounding community (based on survey answers) and incomplete surveys, Ellingson has 1,102 valid surveys to analyze. To get this many responses, Ellingson did everything from tabling in the student center to emailing all students, faculty, and staff on campus, to pleading on Facebook. Ellingson learned how to use SPSS to compile the data. Her survey included questions other researchers had established on racism that led to a racism score for each survey. She included questions from Pew Research on perceptions of Muslims locally, nationally, and globally. Ellingson also wrote her own questions about perceptions of refugees in the Aberdeen area and knowledge of a nationally- recognized hate group in Aberdeen. What is remarkable about Ellingson’s data sample is the more than 1,100 responses have a nearly perfect normal distribution on the racism scale. She received responses from those who scored high on the racism scale to those who scored low, and everyone in between. Ellingson did a preliminary analysis of her survey data to present a poster at the National Collegiate Honors Conference. Ellingson will fully analyze the data in spring 2018 for her Honors thesis. She believes that the results of her data analysis can be illuminating for not just his community, but also other communities nationwide. She plans to publish her findings in order to increase awareness of racism and its correlation with perceptions of refugees. She hopes that her research will assist in the effort to break down the social distance between longer-term residents and newly arrived refugees who settle in communities around the United States. Ellingson explains that the racist stereotypes that she sees on the news and has heard in the Aberdeen community are unacceptable, and she would like to see Aberdeen be the community that is able to rise above the hatred we see on national news. Ellingson does her part in welcoming everyone to the Northern community. She has given more than 800 tours of the Northern State University campus as an Admissions Assistant over the last 3.5 years. Ellingson is also active in Honors Club (former president) and Business Club (PR Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary). She is helping run Northern’s SnapChat as Communications and Marketing Tech Fellow. As an International Business major who will graduate in December 2018, Ellingson is looking to find a job in her major. She would prefer to stay in the South Dakota or Minnesota area and has expressed interest in working for a company such as Daktronics, a Brookings based company that creates digital displays and scoreboards worldwide. H O N O R S A L U M N I N E W S L E T T E R 5 H O N O R S A L U M N I N E S L E T T E R 4 N O R T H E R N S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y