Khadija Tall is a triple major studying international relations, political science and modern languages and a member of the Pierre Laclede Honors College. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)
From an early age, Khadija Tall’s family encouraged her to take an interest in the world around her.
Although she was born in St. Louis, Tall spent most of her life growing up in Guinea, her parents’ home country, after her family moved back when she was 5 years old. Her grandparents were professors and her mother worked for the U.S. Department of State in Guinea, so her family traveled frequently and often discussed culture and politics in other countries.
“When I was a kid, my dad would get me used to caring about what’s happening in the world and looking at the news,” Tall said.
When it came time to pick a major – in the French education system in Guinea, students choose a major in high school – Tall wanted to chase that feeling and quickly landed on political science. During her first year of high school, she earned an internship at the United States Agency for International Development in Guinea where she was able to work closely with key decision-makers in both Guinea and Washington, D.C., to learn about their work and how it affected people. The experience stayed with her, reaffirming her decision to pursue a career in political science or international relations.
By the time Tall turned 18, her family had moved to Ghana – her father is now a diplomat in Ghana – and Tall enrolled at a university there to study international relations. Knowing she wanted to finish her degree in the United States, she eventually found her way to the University of Missouri–St. Louis upon the recommendation of her mother, who is an alum. Tall quickly fell in love with the campus at UMSL, where she’s now a triple major studying international relations, political science and modern languages and a member of the Pierre Laclede Honors College.
As both a transfer student and an international student, Tall found UMSL to be an especially welcoming place.
“I think that UMSL is a very global school in the sense that there’s people from all walks of life here,” Tall said. “I’ve had classmates of all different ages and life experiences, but also from different countries. I’m away from home, so I found fellow West African students, but I’m also able to learn about other communities around the world. Especially for what I’m trying to do as a major, it’s amazing. It’s great to know the subjects in the course and retain that knowledge, but it’s even better if you have real life experiences with real life people that come from around the world. I really love how UMSL has that global effect.”
Tall said the faculty and staff at UMSL have also been extremely helpful, unlike some other universities where students can feel like they’re left to figure everything out on their own. In particular, Violaine White, an associate teaching professor and coordinator of the French program, has been a valuable resource and a mentor for Tall. The two first met when Tall applied to become a French tutor, as French is her native language. White encouraged Tall to add a third major of modern languages with an emphasis in French and helped her to feel confident balancing coursework for three different majors.
“She helped me navigate the three majors and also helped in understanding how to balance my work in my student life and my work life with French tutoring and working in the Welcome Center and Office of Admissions,” Tall said. “She believed in me, and she really helped me, because she’s also been an international student at UMSL once, and so she has that aspect that I can relate to. The fact that a lot of people were really welcoming and open to me when I first got to UMSL made me want to also leave my mark and do the same to new students, international students or anyone that comes to UMSL that might feel a little lost.”
Last summer, Tall was able to build on her interest in political science outside of the classroom when she interned with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C. through the Honors College’s D.C. internship program, which was launched in 2022. As an intern, she spent three months working closely with the Democratic National Convention, reaching out to citizens through phone and text banks to share information about different candidates running for office ahead of the November election. She found the work fulfilling but a bit hectic – particularly since former President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race in mid-July, leading the DCCC to switch their focus to former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Tall enjoyed exploring the city with UMSL’s large alumni network in D.C. and her fellow interns – while previous years have seen just one UMSL student intern in D.C. through the program, she was part of a cohort of five. She was also excited to work with Grace Eickel, an UMSL alum serving as the DCCC’s distributed phone director. For the first month and a half of her internship, Tall shadowed the director and her assistant, taking minutes in meetings, helping with background research on different candidates and checking voter registration numbers. Toward the end of her internship Tall was able to host her first phone bank on her own. While initially nerve-wracking, the experience wound up being the pinnacle of her internship.
Tall said her internship with the DCCC allowed her to apply much of what she’s learned in the classroom at UMSL to real-life applications. It also gave her a peek at what life in the professional world will look like after she graduates in May.
“When we graduate, we don’t really know what the future will hold,” she said. “We don’t really know what the professional world looks like until we’re in it. Three months living in D.C., walking to get the Metro to go to work, it was kind of like a sample test of seeing what my life would be like working in political science and international politics. It allowed me to see myself in those shoes and see that this degree allows me to do things like that, which is incredible.”
