Christian Okeefe is an undergraduate student at Michigan State University who is currently pursuing a Bachelors of Science in Anthropology and a Bachelors of Arts in Global Studies. Okeefe’s interest in these majors began when she spent time as a student ambassador in Hikone, Japan. Her experiences in Japan cultivated the passion she now holds for the Japanese language and culture. She believes that her studies in language have increased her insight in both anthropology and global studies.
Okeefe recently received the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship award which has allowed her to study abroad in Japan. Although she is currently in Japan, she still assists Dr. Catherine Ryu and her team with research about how language learners hear and repeat tones, with particular interest in Mandarin Chinese. Together, they are working on creating multi-model representations of language learning application and the applications themselves.
After graduation, Okeefe hopes to pursue a PhD in Anthropology with a special research focus on Asia. Her goal is to expand her skills and gain enough knowledge to teach others about the world in order to eliminate cultural stigma and racial prejudice.
