The Mount’s high achieving fellowship students are pursuing research, language study, internships, volunteer work and teacher training this summer in locations from New York City to Memphis to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Two students headed to Central America. Rachel Keifer traveled to Nicaragua with the Christian Veterinary Mission for international mission work, while Roderick Stephen Thomson went to San Juan, Costa Rica to volunteer in an elementary school and with hunger outreach programs as well as to conduct research for his senior honors project. Thomson is also working on completing his Teaching English as Foreign Language (TEFL) certification through the Council on International Educational Exchange.
Several students conducted scientific research. Veronica Balick is doing cancer research at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Elizabeth O’Hare is conducting research to determine the biochemical effects of major bowel resection in the lab of Dr. Samuel Alaish at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Pediatric Department. Michael Guckavan is building an accurate rule-based model of the FGFr pathway for use in oncology and drug discovery research in the lab of Professor Susan Mertins, Ph.D. at the Mount.
Elizabeth Boyle participated in an oral history internship at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City as well as a research assistantship to perform editing and research work for Professor Jamie Gianoutsos’s book manuscript, The Rule of Manhood, before its submission to Cambridge University Press. Isabel Ross also traveled to New York, visiting West Point to conduct historical research on the Office of the Superintendent and West Point women for her senior honors project.
In addition, Sydney Johnson is pursuing Arabic language study with a tutor in Lincoln, Nebraska; Abel Amdetsyon traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts to attend a Harvard Summer Seminar titled “The Wisdom of Work”; and Kate Heintzelman is completing her TEFL certification.
These travel and study opportunities are sponsored by the Office of Competitive Fellowships, in conjunction with the President’s Office. The Office of Competitive Fellowships, led by Professor Jamie Gianoutsos, seeks to foster a community of students who desire to translate what they learn at the university into action for the world. To this end, the Office helps students pursue awards to fund graduate education, research, domestic and foreign service, and language study.
