Kelsey Wu ’19 has scored big in her first semester at Harvard. Her paper, written at Harker as a John Near Excellence in History Education Endowment Fund scholar, was published in the fall issue of The Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal.

The paper, “The Loneliness Disease: Challenges of First-Generation Chinese-American Parents of Autistic Children” was selected by The Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal (THURJ) not only for publication, but also as the recipient of the Best Manuscript Award with a $700 stipend. The article is featured on the cover of the magazine as well.

A biannual publication, THURJ showcases peer-reviewed undergraduate research from all academic disciplines. Manuscripts are rigorously reviewed by the peer review board, and the selected manuscripts are further reviewed by Harvard graduate students, postdocs and professors. “In my case,” said Wu, “I received very detailed comments from two professors and one post-doc on criteria such as importance, novelty, logical flow, rigor of methods, strength of results, and style. I then made edits based on their suggestions and returned the paper to the peer review board for the next round of review.

“I’m endlessly grateful for the Near-Mitra program for providing me such a unique opportunity to engage in college-level humanities research in high school. It has laid a solid foundation for my research and academic writing skills in the social sciences, which are definitely conducive to my pursuit in college.” Here is a link to Wu’s original paper at Harker. We will post the link to the updated THURJ article when the magazine is uploaded.

Wu is working as a research assistant at Harvard Law School, is involved in Harvard Open Data Project, and sings for an a cappella group. She noted she has, “met a lot of interesting and inspirational people here and have made lots of really supportive friends” at Harvard. Go, Kelsey!