Megan “MJ” Jaurena is an undergraduate student receiving her B.A. in general linguistics and is the undergraduate Student of Distinction from the Department of Linguistics.
Jaurena attended Fresno City College before transferring to Fresno State in the fall of 2022. Since then, she has been an academic powerhouse for the linguistics department, engaged in research and attending conferences while representing Fresno State.
After initially assisting in research during the spring of 2023, she co-presented the results in the fall of 2023 at the prestigious National Sociolinguistic Conference (NWAV51) held at NYC’s Queens College. Her talk explored how a period at the end of a text message changes its receiver’s interpretation.
A month later, she presented on another topic at the Western Conference on Linguistics (WECOL) held at Fresno State, where she explored how ants have the same notion of “other” as in 1st and 2nd person words like “I” and “you.”
“She is an excellent student, an outstanding researcher, a community activist and a wonderful representative for the field of linguistics,” said Dr. John Boyle, assistant professor of linguistics.
MJ is well-known among the faculty for her meticulous class work.
“I’ve never had a student that thorough in over 25 years of teaching,” Dr. Chris Golston, professor of linguistics, said.
Following graduation, Jaurena plans on pursuing her master’s degree in linguistics.
The College of Arts and Humanities at Fresno State 