Student Spotlight – Charlotte Mayeda

Charlotte Megumi Novia Mayeda

Beloit College, international relations (with a focus on China and human rights)

“Michigan State taught me that higher education is a lot of work, but the impact you make in the communities you work in is the best payoff in the world.”

How would you describe yourself in a few sentences?

Second generation Japanese American, born and raised in California. My passions include activism, nature, travel, and reading comic books. The most valuable thing I have learned in life, thus far, is that the communities we live in and build give us the support we need to thrive in spaces that were not made for marginalized bodies. We are the future, the future is brown.

What kind of research are you working on this summer? Who are you working with?

This past summer I worked with Dr. Mary A. Finn, Director of the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Our project, “Community Context and Individual Offender Characteristics: Influence on Prosecutorial Outcomes”, is an ongoing analysis of how prosecutors in New York County use offender race/ethnicity and neighborhood composition to determine bail amount, pre-trial detention, and sentence length for an offender. The most valuable thing I have learned thus far in my research is that prosecutors, like everyday people, have biases that effect the decisions they make in the workplace.

What have you learned so far?

Temporarily living at a Research One institution, I learned that the cafeteria food is better, the resources are endless (in comparison to my liberal arts college), and that people are always looking to make an impact in whatever work they do. Michigan State taught me that higher education is a lot of work, but the impact you make in the communities you work in is the best payoff in the world.

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