Research opportunities enhance education for Kim Frisque ’19

Kim Frisque ’19 of Menominee, Michigan, was selected as a fellow for the Graduate School Exploration Fellowship for the summer of 2018. The program provides research experiences at leading universities to undergraduate minority and other under-represented students who are a part of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest.

Frisque is majoring in religion and history at Ripon College. During the eight-week program, Frisque worked with Dr. Catherine Wanner to complete a detailed, 25-page research paper titled “The Role of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russian Expansionism.”

The paper examines how the Orthodox Church in Russia works with and influences the Russian government’s political moves. It focuses on Russian-Ukrainian relations and the 2014 annexation of the former Ukraine territory Crimea. Frisque then presented her research at a symposium held at Pennsylvania State University with other program participants.

She most appreciates “experiencing grad school without having to apply and pay,” she says. This program is “a way to help students who are underrepresented to get the chances that other students have.”

“It gave me the experience of what grad school is going to be like, where you are more independent than an undergrad student,” Frisque says, “but you still have to meet with advisors and professors to show them that you are doing the work in a timely manner.”

During the summer of 2017, Frisque worked with Professor of Religion Brian Smith on research about Just War principles during the Korean War.

She plans to pursue master’s degrees in both library science and history. “My favorite part of research is sitting in the library and going through the stacks,” Frisque says. “I love the organization that is there, and I have always been fascinated with the library.

“I really want to be able to sit around knowledge every day and to be a resource for people when they need to find information within the vastness that is a library.”

Dakota Marlega ’21
Waupaca, Wisconsin