Kalisha Dent, an international studies major and Korean language minor, is graduating in this year’s class of 2026. We sat down to discuss her reflections on academics, time spent abroad, and the student life community at the Jackson School. Here’s what she had to say:
How has learning Korean language shaped your experience?
I went to Korea last summer with the FLAS scholarship. And then because I took Korean, I got another scholarship for the spring quarter. I think the Korean language program gave me a lot of opportunities and gave me a chance to go back to Korea, which I haven’t done since I was really young.
What were your favorite courses that you took while you were here at the Jackson School?
I really liked Modern Korean Society with Professor [Yong-Chool] Ha. I thought the topic of that class was really interesting. I also took an Arctic 200 class, which is kind of far from all the other classes that I’ve taken, and I thought that was really interesting. I wish I had time to take more Arctic-related classes.
This year, actually, I took a negotiations class, international negotiations. I took one in the fall about the EU, and then I took one in the spring about the Korean Peninsula, like nuclear energy in the Korean Peninsula, nuclear weapons … I thought it was so much fun. It was a little stressful, but I had a really good time. I think I was really lucky because I loved my group. We all still talk now.
Kalisha Dent (right) presenting on Task Force Evaluation Day on March 13, 2026.
What were your takeaways from Task Force?
I was an editor in my Task Force … I think one thing I realized is how specific you need to be with your language, how technical language is, because we were doing ours on autonomous weapons systems. We found that there were a ton of autonomous weapons … The big picture is there, but the tiny little details — this report is going to somebody who actually works in that field, so those details need to be correct. And I think that was the most challenging part.
What did you learn from your experience in the Jackson School Student Association (JSSA)?
Honestly, JSSA prepared me a lot for my internship in Korea, since I helped guide young Korean students around. I think it prepared me a lot for Task Force to not be afraid of speaking my mind, because I think that was something I was really worried about. Like, “why don’t we try doing this?” So I think it helped me prepare a lot for those things.
When you think about the future, what graduate programs or careers have you been thinking about?
I know that for grad school, although I do want to continue studying Korean language, I want to take a more cybersecurity-based approach, or information systems, or something like that … I think that’s something that I learned. A lot of my friends want to go into security studies or other different things, which I think is really fun, but I think I also love the human side of things, like how is technology impacting humans here or here, or how are the policies changing on this?
