Jeff Du

IR 1-12AP
9/11/2019

Biweekly Journal: Week of 9/9/2019

Objectives
● Find an advisor
● Craft emails/letters to find an advisor
● Continue look for scholarly articles
● Narrow down my topic
● Balance IR with college apps and other extracurriculars
● Plan where I want to go for a site visit

For the first two weeks of IR, I’ve mainly been chilling since I basically know how classes with

Sasser work. However, I’ve been reading some articles similar to my topic from IM, and have also been

reusing some sources from my paper last year. I’m planning on continuing on researching immigration

law, possibly expanding on the public charge research that I did last year which has been increasingly

relevant in the past month. However, I’m possibly interested in doing a more local approach and

analyzing local Howard County policies in order to determine their effectiveness compared with the costs.

I did some preliminary research over the summer and gathered some basic facts, and hope to expand on

those basic findings.

I’ve also been trying to find college professors that share interests in immigration law and

conduct research, especially professors at college that I am looking to apply to. My mentor has already

agreed to write a letter of recommendation, but I hope that by building a connection with the faculty, I

will be able to get some positive input from them to the admissions committee. I’m planning on going to

UMBC’s library for my site visit, but I am also currently looking for additional places, possibly Howard

County Government buildings, to find more information about Howard County immigration policies.
 Jeff Du
IR 1-12AP
9/24/2019

Biweekly Journal: Week of 9/23/2019

Objectives
● Find an advisor
● Craft emails/letters to find an advisor
● Look for scholarly articles(focus on local/Maryland)
● Contact more organizations to find data
● Plan where I want to go for a site visit
● Refine research proposal(specifics)

That past few weeks, I’ve mainly been trying to find a lot of research that pertains to the local

Maryland immigration community, so I’ve been contacting organizations such as the Howard County

Government and Think Tanks and asking them if they possessed their resources. I’ve also began looking

for advisors, and although I would prefer it to be someone local who works on studying immigration

specific towards Howard County, I haven't been able to find those individuals so far. My other option

would be to email college professors with a focus on the intersection between immigration policy and law

and economics, which is actually a topic that many professors have conducted various forms of research

on. I have a list of about 10 professors that I could potentially contact, but I’ll look to expand that as the

week progresses.

Going forward, I want to quickly determine if I have enough research and evidence to complete

the topic on Howard County immigration, which will be important in how I contact advisors. If not, I’m

always willing to expand it towards a more state basis, possibly analyzing other counties within Maryland

that may possess more pertinent data. It’s also a stressful time with college app deadlines looming more

and more, which is why I should definitely try and get this done before October to mid-October hits.
 Jeff Du
IR 1-12AP
10/8/2019

Biweekly Journal: Week of 10/6/2019

Objectives
● Continue building lists of advisors
● Craft emails/letters to find an advisor
● Look for scholarly articles(focus on local/Maryland)
● Start preparing for target conferences/complete the target assignment
● Refine research proposal(specifics)
● Look beyond the Howard County Government for data

The past two weeks have mainly been about evaluating my former research plan to determine if it was

actually viable. After scouring scholarly websites and looking for books in UMBC, I’ve come to the

conclusion that I can’t find great immigration data for Howard County. The response that I got from the

Howard County Government directed me to data that wasn’t really specifically about immigration and the

contributions that immigrants make economically. As a result, I may have to scrap that idea and expand

the scope of my research. I could probably research state-wide effects as I’ve found a lot of useful data

and research at that level. Ideally, I would focus on examining areas like tax revenue, public assistance

programs usage, education costs, etc. and looking at costs and benefits that immigrants provide.

I’ve also been refining my advisor letters and expanding my contact lists of who I would potentially

email. As I most likely will not be expanding on the Howard County topic anymore, I can primarily focus

on looking for advisors at universities with fields of interests in public policy and economic research, with

an emphasis on immigration. I’ve already sent out one email but I would like to update my advisor letter

to include my updated intended research area as well as a bit more about my credentials and previous

research.
 Jeff Du
IR 1-12AP
10/22/2019

Biweekly Journal: Week of 10/20/2019

Objectives
● ADVISORS
● Find more advisors
● Look for scholarly articles(focus on local/Maryland)
● Work on rough speech and creating slides for market presentations
● Refine research proposal(specifics)
● Plan a second site visit

The past two weeks, I’ve looked to refine my topic to Maryland specifically, and have expanded the scope

of my topic to include the entirety of Maryland, not just Howard County. I’m specifically looking at

economic areas such as tax revenue, increases in spending towards the local economies, public assistance,

and potentially education. I’ve found some preliminary data on the costs of undocumented immigrants in

Maryland, but I’m not completely sure yet if my research will be focusing on legal immigrants,

undocumented migrants, or both. A lot of my sources have referenced the cost and benefits of both

groups, yet this is something I’ll continue to narrow down. I think my second site visit will be to another

major library so that I can find resources and data specific to Maryland.

As for my advisor hunt, currently I’m 0-4 so far, with potential individuals mainly saying that they were

impressed with my work, but that they were too busy with other research projects with their own

university students. I might have to look beyond university professors and instead look at immigration

think tanks, where researchers may have a bit more time on their hands to supervise an independent

research project. However, I’m definitely planning on sending many more this week (I’m writing this on

Tuesday). If worse comes to worse, I can always ask my IM mentor, but I think his work is mainly on the

actual immigration statute than public policy

 Jeff Du
IR 1-12AP
11/21/2019

Biweekly Journal: Week of 11/17/2019

Objectives
● ADVISORS
● Start looking for a second interview
● Look for scholarly articles(focus on local/Maryland)
● Wrap up marketing presentations (need one more)
● Work on rough outline
● Starting working on thesis

The last two weeks have mainly have been working on my classroom presentations as well as refining the

specifics of my project. I created a rough project proposal that I submitted, which basically details my

current state surrounding my research and where I want to take it. I think I’ll be able to follow the

guidelines set in the proposal since I have a well-defined idea of where I want to take my research. As for

the classroom presentations, I’ve done two so far, both of which I thought went extremely well. I made

sure to talk slower and explain a bit more about the context of my immigration law research to make it a

bit more understandable for ordinary students. I plan to schedule another one by the end of the week, and

will also begin crafting a rough outline with some of the information I’ve found so far. My interview with

my I/M mentor went well, and it was good to get a chance to talk with him again.

My biggest obstacle at this point is still obtaining an advisor. I’ve sent out around 15-17 advisor letters

already and have not received a yes yet. At this point, I’m still going to continue emailing, but if worse

comes to worse, I will send my material to my I/M mentor who is already familiar with my topic (It’s

very similar to last year’s topic) and who already has helped me find sources, direct my research, and

provide helpful suggestions

 Jeff Du
IR 1-12AP
11/21/2019

Biweekly Journal: Week of 11/17/2019

Objectives
● ADVISORS
● Start looking for a second interview
● Look for scholarly articles(focus on local/Maryland)
● Wrap up marketing presentations (need one more)
● Work on rough outline
● Starting working on thesis

The last two weeks have mainly have been working on my classroom presentations as well as refining the

specifics of my project. I created a rough project proposal that I submitted, which basically details my

current state surrounding my research and where I want to take it. I think I’ll be able to follow the

guidelines set in the proposal since I have a well-defined idea of where I want to take my research. As for

the classroom presentations, I’ve done two so far, both of which I thought went extremely well. I made

sure to talk slower and explain a bit more about the context of my immigration law research to make it a

bit more understandable for ordinary students. I plan to schedule another one by the end of the week, and

will also begin crafting a rough outline with some of the information I’ve found so far. My interview with

my I/M mentor went well, and it was good to get a chance to talk with him again.

My biggest obstacle at this point is still obtaining an advisor. I’ve sent out around 15-17 advisor letters

already and have not received a yes yet. At this point, I’m still going to continue emailing, but if worse

comes to worse, I will send my material to my I/M mentor who is already familiar with my topic (It’s

very similar to last year’s topic) and who already has helped me find sources, direct my research, and

provide helpful suggestions

 Jeff Du
IR 1- 12AP
1/2/2020
Biweekly Journal: Week of 1/2/2020

Objectives
● Continue looking for sources
● Contact advisors
● Work on background (finding information specific to Maryland)
● Work on sentence outline

Not much has changed since the previous journal. I completed the Chart Outline with Works Cited

assignment, which helped me organize a lot of my thoughts and figure out which areas I needed to find

more information on. I also sent holiday emails to my advisors, thanking them for them guidance and

willingness to help. Other than that, most of my time has been spent working on college applications, but

now that I’ve completed that, I can devote more time to IR and my actual research. I’ve definitely found

that doing I/M and I/R has given me a lot of essay material to write about, but also that it helps with

showing colleges that you’ve done a lot in your intended major on your own.

For the upcoming weeks, I plan to work on the sentence outline during workdays in class and on my own,

with the hopes of completing a rough draft by the end of next week. I hope to send out a version to my

advisors so that they can make comments as soon as possible.

 Jeff Du
IR 1- 12AP
1/22/2020
Biweekly Journal: Week of 1/26/2020

Objectives
● Revise outline with advisor’s suggestions
● Continue stream of communication for advisor
● Start writing the paper
● Start thinking about what data collection will be like
● Maintain stream of work (counter senioritis)

Since the last journal, I completed my sentence outline and sent it towards my advisor. She gave a lot of

great feedback and also pointed me towards sources that could further improve my research and fix

exiting holes. There isn’t too much to fix; just a few areas that she thought could use a bit more oiling of

argumentation and places in which I could move one part of my outline to another section. Now that

that’s completed, I have begun moving on to my paper, trying to synthesize all my information with more

reasoning. Since I tried pretty hard on my outline (10+ pages :/), I feel that the paper will honestly be a

breeze.

The next coming months will basically be about maintaining work ethic and continuing to research and

write even in the midst of intense senioritis. I definitely want to write a good paper in the hopes of it

potentially getting published/renowned, and I definitely want to create a final product that actually has

some use towards the communities and events around me. I think that that’s enough to motivate me

towards pushing through and trying my best on the work I submit.

 Jeff DU
IR 1- 12AP
2/13/2020
Biweekly Journal: Week of 2/09/2020

Objectives
● Continue editing paper
● Work on refining the specifics of data collection
● Maintain relationship with advisor

The past two weeks have been pretty standard; nothing too out of the blue happened. I received comments

and edits from my advisor and integrated them into my paper. I also began writing the first and second

drafts of my paper, receiving edits from classmates, my dad, and teachers as well. I also began planning

out my data collection; what exactly I wanted to do and accomplish. There’s not too much to talk about;

it’s just been the grind that is writing and completing the paper.

The next few weeks are mainly focused on maintaining stride and pushing through to finish the paper.

This is kind of the gray period of IR/IM where there isn’t too much else to do besides write the paper, so

this journal will kind of be bland :(.

 Jeff Du
IR 1- 12AP
2/26/2020
Biweekly Journal: Week of 2/23/2020

Objectives
● Final edits on paper and send to advisor for feedback
● Work on refining the specifics of data collection
● Start looking for places to present
● Start thinking about the end of the year product.

In the past two weeks, I’ve compiled all the various edits and feedback on my paper into a final version

that I submitted to Mrs. Sasser. I’m pretty happy with the final result; I felt like I covered all my points

convincingly and had an abundance of evidence to support each control and my thesis. There are still a

few edits that I want to make before I send out the final copy to my advisor, but I expect to send it out by

the end of the week. I also created Valentines for my various teachers, including those that wrote my

letter of recommendations. I’m pretty bad at anything artistic, but I made sure to write really drawn-out

messages on the things I really liked about each teacher as well as some of our happiest moments.

The next few weeks are, again about maintaining stride. By the next journal, I probably will begin to hear

back from some of the colleges I applied to, so it’s important that I still keep on pushing through the IR

grind and not giving up even after I’ve been (hopefully) accepted into college. That includes working on

the specifics of data collection and looking for data sources, as well as looking for places to present my

work. The statehouse in Annapolis sounds like a viable option, and I want to look more into doing that.

Jeff Du
 IR 1- 12AP
3/12//2020
Biweekly Journal: Week of 3/8/2020

Objectives
● Not get corona
● Fight off senioritis
● (On a serious note)
● Edit paper with Mrs. Almond’s edits and re-turn in
● Continuing working on data collection (articles + data)
● Continue finding visual graphs/charts for display board
● Refine website

The last couple of weeks have been pretty standard - I received paper back with edits from Mrs.

Almond, which included a lot of really useful comments and suggestions. I plan to edit it over this

impending two-week break and make sure it’s really polished before looking for options to present my

work. I also started working on my data collection, finding statistics and sources specifically related to

Maryland’s immigration population. On that journey, I found a lot of great visuals that I plan to use for

my display board.

As I’ll be stuck at home for the next two weeks, I will have way too much time on my hands. As

a result, I really plan towards making sure my project and product will be as refined as possible. I strongly

believe that the conversation surrounding the immigration debate really needs to be changed and

improved, and I hope to contribute statistics, analysis, data, and empirics to the discussion. Even amidst

my immense senioritis, I really hope that I can find a use for my work that will actually produce tangible

effects, whether it be in policy, rhetoric, or the conversation.

 Jeff Du
IR 6- 12AP
3/25/2020

Biweekly Journal: Week of 3/22/2020

Objectives
● Not get corona
● Fight off senioritis
● Edit paper with Mrs. Almond’s edits and re-turn in
● Continuing working on data collection (articles + data)
● Continue finding visual graphs/charts for display board
● Refine website

Really not much has changed on this coronabreak. I edited my paper for a bit as well as looked for more

data collection and interesting sources. Other than that, not too many updates in terms of my research. It’s

looking like presenting my work anywhere will be a longshot for this year, but I still want to try.

My goals for the two weeks are still the same: understanding more about America’s immigration history

and its current-day contact. Now that I have so much free time I can read the books and papers that I

hadn’t gotten to while school was in session.