Maggie Baird
Dartmouth College

Degree: B.A. in Linguistics

How did the Stamps Scholarship help shape your undergraduate experience?
I was able to do my own research and get experience doing fieldwork, presenting at conferences, and publishing papers. It really helped me see what real research was and decide to go into academia.

Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your freshman self?
Try lots of things, and be honest with yourself about what you like and don’t like!

Who has had the greatest impact on you throughout your college career and how so?
My advisor, Professor Laura McPherson. She introduced me to all the topics I love in Linguistics, and has shown me the path to my own research. She is also a great mentor and has helped me through many problems, personal and academic.

What’s your favorite Stamps Scholar memory?
Travelling to France to work with my consultant!

What comes next?
I’m starting a PhD program in Linguistics.

Please share your favorite inspirational quote.
“The enchanting charms of this sublime science reveal only to those who have the courage to go deeply into it. But when a woman, who because of her sex and our prejudices encounters infinitely more obstacles that an man in familiarizing herself with complicated problems, succeeds nevertheless in surmounting these obstacles and penetrating the most obscure parts of them, without doubt she must have the noblest courage, quite extraordinary talents and superior genius. ” – Carl Friedrich Gauss