Milan Evans is a fourth-year linguistics major, driven by her passion for giving a voice to communities that have been historically silenced—her love for Native American language and culture brought her to the Digital Archive of Indigenous Language Persistence (DAILP) team.

Milan has been involved with DAILP since she was first introduced to the project by her linguistics professor in the fall of 2023. Originally, she came to Northeastern to study physics with the goal of going to medical school, a journey that took her from the physics department to the biology department and finally, to her home in the linguistics department. She finds that linguistics perfectly marries the humanities and the sciences.

Milan has always had a deep fascination with words and language. Milan’s mom would bring her to programs at their local library and read stories to her at bedtime. When her mom eventually retires, Milan hopes to run her own “Library on Wheels,” going to different disadvantaged neighborhoods and bringing books to children who might otherwise not have access to them. Milan came to adore reading because her mom was such a huge activist for her literacy. Milan came to cherish individual words and how they combine to become something more than the sum of their parts; they become language, which she now gets the chance to explore every day with DAILP and in her linguistics major. As well as English, she can speak French and Chinese.

Additionally, she is involved in the Northeastern Linguistics Club and Health Disparities Collaborative, a group focused on minimizing health disparities across the globe. In Summer of 2024, she traveled to Scotland to explore the Gaelic language, which, though impacted by colonial legacies, is currently experiencing a resurgence around the globe. It was here she fell in love with travel. She imagines herself traveling all over the world, learning language after language after language.

Milan credits her interest in helping historically silenced communities to her own experience growing up in Long Island, New York, where she lived in a considerably disadvantaged neighborhood. Having directly experienced the financial limitations of her upbringing, Milan understands just how essential education is for understanding each other across cultures, across linguistic boundaries. Education unites us.

Her involvement with DAILP is wide-ranging! She first began with linguistic glossing and studying translation tables of the Cherokee language. Most recently, she has been integrating our audio files collected from fluent community members into the instructional materials found in Cherokees Writing the Keetoowah Way, bringing the magic of spoken word to the website! Her love for the project is clear, in both her words and her actions. She appreciates the opportunity to make an impact on her community, the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than herself, something important and lasting.

Milan is currently applying to graduate schools to continue her linguistic studies. Looking forward, she hopes to become an academic professor, helping others to understand the sheer beauty and importance of sharing culture, sharing traditions, and sharing language.