From a young age, Khephra Owl was drawn to languages, offering as they did portals to new worlds. Her best friend growing up in Marin was Iranian, and they enrolled in Farsi classes together. Khephra would go on to enroll in a multitude of other language courses along with high school Latin. But it was Japanese that fully captured her attention. It began with film: Japanese horror, Studio Ghibli, and the films of Miyazaki. Enrolling at a community college with a focus on singing and music, she worked as a Japanese tutor. It was there that she first became interested not only in the study of language but in how language itself was being taught. She revised a course textbook, color coding it and reorganizing it depending on individual learning styles.
The strength of UC Berkeley’s programming in study abroad in Japan was top of mind when it came time to transfer. Working with UCEAP, Khephra enrolled at Doshisha University in Kyoto in Spring ’23, where she had the opportunity to take courses fully in Japanese. She also began working closely with a professor who mentored her in the field of second language acquisition and pedagogical research. Under their guidance, Khephra conducted qualitative research with native English speakers learning Japanese. “My research was about why it is that Japanese is so difficult for English speakers to learn, and how we can make it easier," she said. "And I found really significant discrepancies in the way that Japanese is taught to native Japanese speakers at a young age and how it’s taught to English speakers who are adults. Most of the time it’s actually taught in the same way, which I think is not beneficial. It doesn’t take into consideration how people at different stages in their life learn and how acquisition occurs.”
Khephra followed up her semester in Japan with a summer in Oxford—where she developed a research project on indigenous Japanese languages in the context of a dominant national language—as well as a semester in DC interning with the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), chaired by Bernie Sanders. A Berkeley Hope Scholar, Khephra’s experience in the foster care system informed her strong interest in teaching and education policy. Referring to her path from earning an associate’s degree in early childhood education to interning for the Senate after enrolling at UC Berkeley, she said: "I thought, why stop there? I'm at one of the best universities in the world, let's try to make change in the education system on the biggest scale that I possibly can."
I thought, why stop there? I’m at one of the best universities in the world, let’s try to make change in the education system on the biggest scale that I possibly can.
Upon graduating, Khephra hopes to continue her research efforts in a PhD program with a focus on applied language acquisition. Her ultimate goal is to author a Japanese textbook and help shape language education policy in the US in the direction of increased multilingualism and integration of heritage languages in all classrooms. She works in the Study Abroad office as a peer ambassador, urging fellow Berkeley students to take advantage of the opportunities offered through campus exchange programs. “Research here on campus is so competitive a lot of the time, it’s difficult to get into," she said. "And when you study abroad it’s a really good way to get involved in research. Doing that research in Japan opened so many doors for me, I’m sure it’s one of the reasons I got the internship in DC. That’s something I try to tell a lot of people, if you’re interested in research but you can’t find an opportunity on campus, go abroad."
Doing that research in Japan opened so many doors for me, I’m sure it’s one of the reasons I got the internship in DC. That’s something I try to tell a lot of people, if you’re interested in research but you can’t find an opportunity on campus, go abroad.