Meet 2018 RBSI Scholar, Leann McLaren

Leann McLaren, University of Connecticut

Leann Mclaren is a political science and history double major at the University of Connecticut, in the honors program. She serves as the vice president of the University of Connecticut’s chapter of the NAACP, as well as on the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Leadership Board. A Dean’s List and New England Scholar, her research interests center on the effects of racial bias in congressional legislative proceedings and how this may affect policy making. Over the course of her undergraduate career, Leann has been able to accumulate a good deal of research experience, as she has assisted on several projects facilitated by university faculty, including homicide and sex trafficking on women of color, gender bias in congressional hearings, and archival research on Caribbean immigration. She also has many internship experiences, including at the University of Maine School of Law’s Pre-law Undergraduate Scholars Program, and her current role as a congressional intern in the United States House of Representatives, in the office of Congressman John B. Larson. Leann also has a passion for volunteer work as she has been on several alternative break service trips, including to Birmingham Alabama, and at Right2know, a civil rights organization, as a part of her study abroad trip to Cape Town, South Africa. Leann hopes to receive a doctoral degree in political science and teach at the university level.

See all 2018 RBSI Scholars.