After receiving my admission letter from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the spring of 2021, I was left with a dilemma that countless students from less fortunate backgrounds ask themselves - how will I pay for school? Three weeks after my initial acceptance, I received another email from one of the program directors, Dr. Nonie Lesaux, the Larsen Professor of Education and Human Development, researcher, and current HGSE Interim Dean, about my acceptance into the Saul Zaentz Early Childhood Fellowship program. 

This fellowship provided additional co-curricular activities during my graduate studies and a $26,000 scholarship, enough to cover half the tuition cost for the 1-year program. 

This was my ticket in. 

As part of my cohort's fellowship experience, we were required to complete fieldwork during the spring semester with an organization of our choice. I was fortunate enough to have been connected to the great people at Noggin, an early childhood media program within Nickelodeon/ Nick Jr. Noggin became known in the world of children's educational media through popular shows such as PAW Patrol and Peppa Pig. 

During preliminary conversations with senior developers and researchers, they described a new development called, "The Big Heart Learning Program." This program was a Social Emotional Learning program designed for early childhood audiences ages 2 and above, and their families. At the time, they only had a 9-month subscription-based SEL program, bringing learning apps, games, e-books, and exclusive short films. Noggin created a diverse animated cast, representing different races, ethnicities, and abilities, to create a more inclusive learning program.

One of the key areas that developers wanted to ensure was the authenticity of the characters they created, while designing the program that can help enhance identity development for their young audiences. It provided an opportunity to dive into the characters more deeply and figure out what how to effectively promote identity development. 

At the end of the semester, I presented the team with a literature review of the comprehensive articles and research that I thought would be pertinent to the development of their character, Yasmina, who was of Iranian origin. Iran has a rich and diverse history that go back thousands of years. Their cultural customs and political movements have often been depicted inaccurately with a focus on fear in western media, and I hoped to learn more about how we got there and what children's media could do to reverse these trends and promote a healthy stance on the complexities of the human experience.