Student spotlight: Isabella Jolly

LATROBE, PA – Growing up in Los Lunas, New Mexico, a small town in the Rio Grande Valley, Isabella Jolly was immersed in Native American history. “I've always been close with the culture of indigenous people, and I've always respected it,” she said.

Jolly is of Spanish and Mexican descent, which is an important element to her connection with indigenous history.

“I grew up around the culture, but my own culture and heritage is uniquely intertwined with theirs historically and in my own life,” she said. “My ancestors would not have survived in New Mexico without the help of indigenous communities, and our communities have faced many similar hardships and discrimination over the years. In my life, I had friends growing up that lived on the reservation, and we experienced each other's cultures through our friendship.”

When Jolly had to come up with a topic for a short talk in a history class during her freshman year at Saint Vincent College, she chose the Long Walk—a forced march of the Navajo people (Diné) in 1864 that led to hundreds of deaths. She was surprised to discover that none of her classmates had heard of it before.

“I thought it was something everybody knew about,” said Jolly, a junior majoring in history with minors in anthropology and public history. “Then I realized I’d been taught about it [in elementary school] back home because it’s a regional history thing. For the past three years, I’ve been figuring out that a lot of the things I know about are not necessarily nationwide things.”

That five-minute presentation had a profound effect on Jolly’s plans for her academic career and beyond.

Mentored by Dr. Elaine Bennett, dean of the School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Jolly is researching how indigenous people are portrayed and overlooked in history classes. “We don't talk enough about indigenous history,” Jolly said. “It’s something that is washed out of our textbooks.”

Jolly’s research project does not focus on any one society or country but rather calls out how some societies are often overlooked in textbooks in favor of more well-known societies like ancient Greece and Rome. “I am trying to show how educators can utilize the textbooks they are given and give the proper attention to these overlooked societies that played just as big a role in history as the Greeks and Romans did,” Jolly said.

In late March, Jolly will present her findings at the Society for Applied Anthropology’s annual meeting in Portland, Oregon.

Jolly is on track to graduate in May 2026, and she has begun looking into grad school options for a master’s degree in anthropology.

“I hope to translate all of that into curatorial work at a museum,” she said. “A museum is like a bigger classroom where I can teach multiple topics, and I can have a say in how history is portrayed. I want to make sure that history is being taught to the best of our ability.”