If walking up to strangers and asking them questions is tough, try doing it in another language.
That’s what Tianna Kidd ’25 is doing every day in the French-speaking country of Cameroon this fall as Wofford’s 2024-25 Presidential International Scholar.
Each year Wofford’s Presidential International Scholar is selected by the college’s president as “the student most likely to make a difference in the future.” The scholarship rewards students who have shown a passion for service learning and global intellectual curiosity with the funding to conduct independent research in non-traditional locations around the world.
Kidd, a biology and French double major from Greenwood, South Carolina, is using the opportunity this semester to study fashion and identity in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon. Her data is conversational, so she must approach people on the street, in cafes, at gathering places or wherever they might be and gain their trust in a foreign language.
It has led her to some insightful conversations, including one recently with the owner of an African fashion company, who discussed how the tribal patterned fabrics representative of African dress in popular culture are less accurate representations of its diversity.
“African fashion can be something that’s bigger and meant to be reproduced and worn by others that’s not just, ‘This is my culture and family heirloom,’” Kidd says. “I don’t want Africa to be lumped into one big box.”
Kidd is also doing another independent study in Cameroon for the School for International Training, an institution with which she is taking classes in Yaoundé. “The easy way out would be to do a study project about fashion, but my science-oriented brain led me to women’s health,” Kidd says.
Kidd’s second independent study is titled “Breast Cancer Screening in Central Cameroon: Awareness, Availability and Perceptions.” Like her Presidential International Scholar research, it involves a lot of talking to people in French. “I’m constantly looking for people to interview,” she says. “I have a questionnaire, and I ask them to fill out a 10-question form.”
Completing these projects requires a deep understanding of conversational French. Kidd’s intensive training in French began before she attended Wofford. She walked into a 100-level French class in her junior year of high school at the Governor’s School for Science and Math in Hartsville, S.C., and was shocked to hear her professor speaking the language the entire class.
“I was so scared that I was in the wrong placement,” says Kidd, “and he looked at me and was like, ‘Hey, this is going to be one of the few times I speak English to you, but yes, this is French 1. You’re in the right place.’”
Kidd accepted the challenge and began to master French at Wofford, where she has taken 300- and 400-level courses like “The Francophone World: The Global South” with Dr. Jocelyn Franklin, assistant professor of French, and “Professional Fluency” with Dr. Catherine Schmitz, professor of French.
Once her women’s health study is finished in mid-December, Kidd will leave Cameroon to continue her fashion research in Morocco, where the predominant language is Arabic – which she is hoping to pick up through immersion – but many also speak French.
Kidd will return to the United States at the end of January. For her project on fashion and identity in Africa, she is planning to create an art exhibit to share with the Wofford community in May. Kidd envisions it will showcase more than just pictures.
“I want there to be tangible artifacts that people can see and touch as I’m talking about them,” she says. “There’s going to hopefully be mannequins, where I can take a couple of outfits and display them. People here are usually getting their clothes tailored, which I find interesting, so I hope to display those.”
The Presidential International Scholar trip is the second study abroad experience Kidd has had at Wofford. She also participated in an Interim course in Nicaragua focused on yoga, meditation and the environment.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to study abroad, and it’s one of the things that I considered when I was applying to college,” Kidd says. “I’m also especially grateful for Dr. Stacey Hettes in the biology department and Dr. Alysa Handelsman in the sociology and anthropology department for advising me throughout my time as a Presidential International Scholar. Their support and encouragement has truly been a key factor in my success.”
To learn more about past Presidential International Scholars, click here.