Columbia University

Field Journal Week 1

May 30, 2025

Xinyan Chen

Student, Columbia University

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How have the workshops and discussions on leadership this week changed your understanding of what leadership means?
I realized that leadership can take on many different forms—I'm used to seeing the leader as a sort of "figure" for a movement, someone who is highly visible and proactively making top-down decisions. However, this week's workshop showed me that it is equally possible to be a leader no matter how much influence or status you have within a certain organization: Leadership is a product of one's own initiative. This definition of leadership grants those who abide by it more agency than a definition of leadership that requires pre-existing status, and I'm very excited to exercise this agency.
How might you imagine applying one of the four ways of leading during your summer on campus?
During my summer on campus, I plan on really supporting my fellow scholars in any way I can. I think it's important to recognize that we can—and should—rely on each other for help. By developing my "side-by-side" leadership, I can become an effective sounding board for the ideas of my classmates and strengthen the connections between our cohort.
What is everyone most excited about engaging in as part of their summer research project?I'm most excited about creating course material for EFL education. Currently, I teach an EFL class, and the materials we use are not the most intuitive for learners, nor are they necessarily conducive to contextual application of English in the world. I am incredibly excited about learning more about the best pedagogical practices for teaching adults a foreign language, and actually applying it in real life!

Xinyan Chen (She/Her)

Student, Columbia University

I'm a rising sophomore at Columbia University studying Linguistics, Cognitive Science (with a specialization in Neuroeconomics), and East Asian Languages & Cultures. I'm interested in how language shapes society, the translation and transmittance of language, behavioral economics, and how language shapes perception, which in turn shapes decision-making.

I am the coordinator for an EFL program near Columbia. My current research interests revolve around how to make language education more effective and accessible, and how to utilize community resources to make the economics of free language programs feasible.

My research interests include literary histories, the linguistics of poetry, sociolinguistics, the economics of language, and how governments shape linguistic communities. Outside of academia, I spend my time reading a lot of fiction (especially in translation), playing Stardew Valley & Papa's games, and cooking (and eating) my heart out :) I'd love to connect with you all!