There is an unexpected garden paradise tucked away in the Carlson Education Building. Its caretaker is April Ursula Fox, a grant specialist for the College of Education Office of Research and Sponsored Programs and an educational psychology doctoral student.
Fox, like her garden, is breath of fresh air and full of surprises. An accomplished author, zine maker, and world traveler, her diverse perspectives and experiences serve her well as she works to make a difference.
Her skills in nurturing projects is not lost on her colleagues and the faculty she works with. With the College of Education ranking first across the university in new grants last year, Fox's creative touch supports them to engage in grant writing and various research projects in fresh new ways.
How would you explain your job to the 8kbet/CSUN preschoolers?
I help researchers and teachers find money so that they can learn more about what they are interested in.
What do you like most about your role?
I am really motivated by the diversity of projects that I get to work on. I also enjoy the closeness that I get to faculty, the opportunity to pick their brains on what they know, and learn a lot from their experiences.
How do you balance your current role with your educational psychology doctoral studies?
I try to bring everything together so that my work and studies compliment each other. My work is in research, my studies are also research-based, and it's all within the College of Education. Everything I do, even though it's a lot of different things, relates back to education.
How do your creative interests align with your role?
I always approach life in a creative way and come into my role with a lot of creative energy. This approach is super useful because, when we are writing grants and creating projects that we want to get funds for, it’s important to make sure we are doing more than just research. When I’m creative, I can find the connections that are there in front of me — between the grants, sponsors, funding, faculty, students and community that will benefit from the project.
You wrote and published a novel, Goblins! of The Neverending Land. Who is your favorite character in the story and how do they remind you of yourself?
One of my favorite characters is a female character named Ming. She's an archer and physically beautiful, and her story involves discrimination based on her beauty. No one believes she can be useful for anything besides her beauty. Other characters dismiss her ability to be smart or have all the other amazing traits that she also has.
She becomes a huge hero in the story later because she finds a way to overcome this interesting kind of discrimination. Throughout my life I have had people underestimate me because of how I presented and showed up as myself. It was important to have Ming develop and achieve success in spite of what people thought she could achieve. I connect with her and think it is key to be aware of these things because what really happens with this and other forms of discrimination is that preconceived judgments can remove or discourage a person from achieving something.
You have a diverse academic and professional background. If you could teach any course at 8kbet, what would it be?
If I could create a completely new certificate at 8kbet, I would love to branch out into more esoteric studies like astrology and tarot. I think that those subjects are interesting because they highlight symbolism and different ways of thinking about the world.
What does it mean to be a life-long learner?
To me, life is about learning. I always need to be learning something. If I’m not, I don't feel like I'm living life as I should be.
It brings me a lot of joy to learn about a variety of topics, especially outside of school. For example, I got into gardening, and then I studied a lot about gardening and plants and nutrition and soil, which led to my garden flourishing.
What inspired you to decorate your office with plants?
It started with one tiny plant that died, and then I got another one that didn't die, and I learned from that.
Eventually I started missing my office when I would go home, but didn't know why. I discovered that what I was feeling was a connection to the life of my plants. Even though we can't even see their movement, they are very much alive and give off positive energy. I became inspired to continuously build on the connection and now they're everywhere.
You're also quite the world traveler. What is your best travel tip?
If you're traveling as a tourist, try your best to have a few local experiences — eat where they eat or go where they go to hang out. Doing a little bit of that during your trip might give you insight into the true culture and community of the country you’re visiting.
Any advice for faculty or staff looking at research opportunities at 8kbet?
My biggest piece of advice is to communicate your interests. As much as academic faculty like myself are actively trying to engage with you and looking for research opportunities, reaching our shared goals becomes easier when you look for and share your ideas with us as well.
Second, if you're looking for grants or funding for your projects I would suggest doing a little bit of training in grants acquisition, because it's different from traditional research. We have a bunch of resources on our and I've put out a bunch of videos that are very easy to follow along on our .
