Passion never rests
Jennifer Smith took time off from high school. A lot of time. After dropping out in ninth grade to work with racehorses, she didn’t return to finish her GED for 16 years. But once she did, she kept going. And going.
Community college was next, followed by transferring to the UW. Smith excelled in school, but what she really wanted was to find out where she belonged.
“Coming back as an older student, it can be hard to find a niche,” says the mother of three. “I didn’t have a lot in common with my classmates. We were at very different places in our lives.”
It didn’t take long, though, for Smith to find her focus. Supported by a Mary Gates Research Scholarship and accepted into the Summer Institute in the Arts and Humanities, she was able to immerse herself in research.
The program not only gave her the opportunity to develop a research idea, it also taught her what was possible when she combined her growing interests in history, politics and Indigenous communities with what she knew best: horses.
In her years as an assistant racehorse trainer, Smith iced and bandaged horses’ legs to prevent injuries, managed feeding and veterinary schedules, supervised barn employees and kept in constant contact with the lead trainers and owners. She and her children even adopted a former racehorse — a 17-hand dark bay gelding named Pirate.
So when it came time to choose a research topic, she says, “I found a great way to marry my past and my present.” At the end of the summer of rigorous research, Smith had produced an analysis of a cross-cultural debate on managing populations of wild horses on Yakama tribal lands.
“After that,” she says, “I wanted to continue doing research because it allowed me to combine what I learned in the classroom with something that was independent — and was mine.”
Smith was able to dive deeper into her topic with the help of another Mary Gates Research Scholarship, a Comparative History of Ideas Research Scholarship and the History Department’s Faye Wilson Scholarship, among others.
Two more quarters of historical research and a quarter of independent study took her deep into the history of the Yakama Nation’s relationship with the U.S. government. Into the tangled complexities of symbolism, environmental degradation and tribal sovereignty. Into a conflict in which the very animals she knew and loved were at the heart.
The subject provoked mixed emotions and heartbreak, but for Smith, it was the intricacy of her research that made her want to keep going. “Once I found this topic, I knew that I wanted to do as much as I could with it,” she says.
In addition to easing her financial burdens, the scholarships she received reinforced Smith’s belief in herself. “Because I didn’t go through high school, I lack a lot of confidence at times,” she says. “So to have other people see that there is value in me as an academic, in my research, has been wonderful.”
Smith sought out opportunities to share her ideas — she presented at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research and twice at the UW’s Undergraduate Research Symposium. As an Undergraduate Research Leader, she helped other students find ways to match their interests with research in the humanities and social sciences.
“I just want students to know that their work is valuable and has the potential to earn funding and acknowledgment,” she says.
Smith graduated in June with degrees in history and the comparative history of ideas, and was named the Dean’s Medalist in the Humanities. This fall, she starts graduate studies at the UW in history. She looks forward to working with her adviser, Josh Reid, an associate professor of history and prominent Native scholar, as she continues to explore the topic she’s most passionate about.
“I just hope that my work helps people better understand why things are the way they are and what needs to change,” she says. “My goal isn’t trying to speak for anybody, but finding the evidence, writing the story and letting the story speak for itself.”