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Where are they now?
In the Spring of 2008 I sent an email out to seniors enrolled in PMB to see what they were up to. The following is that email plus the responses I received:
Notes by (and on) a few of Albion’s students
I sent an early e-mail to PMB students asking for some nifty stories about individual student’s accomplishments. The following is one week time-slice of what students say about themselves. Several of the best stories that I know of are not here. Many of the ones that are here are new to me, despite my familiarity with many of our good students. The email to PMB Honors students and their responses to me follow immediately. I find this to be very enjoyable reading. I believe that any parent visiting the College would want their son or daughter to be like many of these students, and to study with this strong faculty cohort. _______________________________________________________________________ Section I: My e-mail and students’ responses: My email:
Hi PMB folks,
I am giving a presentation to the Board concerning Honors at Albion. Focusing on students and what they are doing is our best feature, so I have a request of you. If you're doing something cool or unusual, if you are going to grad or professional school, if you are pursuing a research opportunity, have a scholarship to do work (either as an underclass student or as a graduating senior) please email me and tell me about it. I want to put together a sample of our amazing students and what they are doing so that the Board gets a good idea of the shape of our program as seen in its wonderful students.
Thanks for reading this (and please reply if you want),
Gene
_______________________________________________________________________ Hello, I went on the Holocaust Studies Service Learning Project last May, which was the best learning experience of my life. I have spoke at a local church about my experience working in the Jewish cemetery, visiting Auschwitz, witnessing anti-Semitic acts, etc. I am also setting up a couple of opportunities to speak with local high school classes and classes from my hometown. This summer, I will be completing a FURSCA project in Victorian British Literature. The tentative title is: "Fallen Gentlemen in Victorian Literature and Society." I will be looking at microfilms of newspapers from the mid to late 1800s and also considering literature of the period such as The Importance of Being Earnest and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I hope that this project will serve as preliminary research for an honors thesis. I also just found out that I was selected as one of the winners for the Jay Olson German Award. I hope that is the type of stuff you are looking for. Thanks, Kristin _______________________________________________________________________ Not so much a scholarly pursuit, but this summer I am returning to work at a Girl Scout adventure camp in Traverse City called The Timbers. I'll be working as a Camp Counselor but my real job is more of a trip leader. The way it works is that we facilitate two to three week camp sessions where we typically spend one week in camp preparing and planning a trip with our girls (ages 11-17). Then the second week we lead trips out into the back country of Michigan, Canada and Wisconsin doing canoeing, backpacking, bicycling and remote camping trips. It's a pretty unique program and takes me all over the unbeaten paths. We teach wilderness survival skills, leave no trace camping and a little bit of environmental education too. Just somethin kinda different. It's also a really rustic camp, so we learn to live without the perks of running water and electricity! ~ Sarah _______________________________________________________________________ Next fall I will be starting a PhD program in Experimental Psychology at the University of Mississippi. I will be working in the lab of Dr. Ken Sufka looking at Depression/Anxiety modeling in chicks. Usually rodents are used to assess the effectiveness of anti-depressant medications, but these models have not been shown to be uniformly responsive to all classes of anti-depressants. The chick paradigm however has shown response levels to all classes of anti-depressants similar to clinical data. I met Dr. Sufka while attending the Society for Neuroscience conference this past November in San Diego, California. This trip was partially supported financially by the Albion College Neuroscience Foundation. Amy _______________________________________________________________________ Professor Cline, I am graduating from Albion College a year early (this is my third year of college) and going into Purdue University's Department of Statistics as a Ph. D. student this upcoming fall. Jeremy ______________________________________________________________________ Next year I will be attending Chicago-Kent School of Law (which is affiliated with the Illinois Institute of Technology). I received a full-tuition scholarship for my first year and $20,000 per year after that providing I maintain a certain GPA. I am excited to move to Chicago and begin working on my law degree! Jackie ________________________________________________________________________ I am going to be working in a lab at the U of M Medicinal Chemistry Department over the summer. -Kristi ________________________________________________________________________ I have been working with Craig Bieler as a Student Research Partner, using spectroscopy to study derivatives of the chemical Benzoic Acid, and will continue to do so next year. Also, I have received a FURSCA grant to stay on campus this summer to calibrate and use the Physics department's 11" telescope. Culver ________________________________________________________________________ I'm not sure if it would be so much cooler than any other individual (hope it is still considered cool though). I will be studying abroad next Fall in Nairobi, Kenya where I will learn the Swahili language and will head my own research project focusing on aspects of Kenyan Youth Development. Deondra _______________________________________________________________________
I'm doing two sort of cool things
right now:
Hey
Renee (and Gene). I will be going to University of Cincinnati next year
for a Neuroscience PhD program! Nothing too unusual but still cool! _______________________________________________________________________
Hi, _______________________________________________________________________ Hi, I'm not quite sure exactly what you want for this, but this school year I was doing research for Dr. Melissa Mercer-Tachick for her research project on Free Choice Learning Environments. I did a lot of preliminary research (through a number of sources and articles) about Free Choice Learning Environments themselves and the "3 R's" Melissa was focusing on (Relevance, Relationships, and Rigor). I met with Melissa often and discussed my findings and presented her with the hi-lighted and annotated articles. I found it to be a really rewarding (and interesting) experience (especially because it fit into my concentration, which is education), and I really enjoyed working with Melissa. Please let me know if you need/wanted anything else in regards to this. ~Anna ________________________________________________________________________ I was awarded a Snyder Scholarship to do Organic/Biochemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this summer. I do not know the details of the project yet, but I will be working with RNA (an increasingly hot topic in Biology and Chemistry). I can email you back if you would want any more scientific details about what the lab that I'll be joining is working on, but I am not totally aware at this point of what I will be doing. Good luck, Phil _______________________________________________________________________ I know this is usual out of many Honors students, but I am doing summer FURSCA studying attention mechanisms and how it is affected by aging and motivation manipulations. My honors thesis research is a precursor to graduate school studies in the cognitive sciences. I am strongly considering a concentration in comparative biolinguistic studies between humans and non-human primates. Although it is more common for many neuroscience concentrations to go either into neuroscience PhD programs or med. school, I have directed my interests to an interdisciplinary notion of thinking about how humans and animals acquire knowledge and higher order mental processes. Both my Honors and Albion psychology education have strengthened my desires to go in this intellectual route. -Christina Psychology/Neuroscience Concentration _______________________________________________________________________ I'm doing an
REU in Molecular Biotechnology and Genomics at Iowa State University
this summer and also, I'm a part of the Honduras Medical Brigade that
will provide medical relief to small towns in Honduras this August. _______________________________________________________________________
The past few summers I worked for
MSU Pharm/Tox Dept. Published a paper on enos and its effects on
hypertension. _______________________________________________________________________ I don't know
if this is what you're looking for, but this summer I'm going to spend
it writing a story down that my dad tells to help kids learn the basic
rules of the English language. After it's written I'm going to try and
get it published. I also am working with my sister to try and get the
camp, for adults with mental retardation, that my family has run for the
past 15 years, Special Friends Camp, to expand from a one week deal to
something that happens year round. Oh, and I'm trying to write my own
novel _______________________________________________________________________ Dr. Cline, _______________________________________________________________________ I
am doing some interesting research this summer at the University of
Michigan as a Research Assistant for the clinical testing of a new
medical device. This device is a CVR (cardiovascular resonance) device
that uses complex chips developed by the US Army and a physicist at
Eastern Carolina University to detect blockages in the carotid artery (stenosis).
I will be doing both paper research and getting certified to do human
clinical research including administering the 30-40 second test on
patients. I will be working closely with U of M researchers and with a
former member of the U of M Medical School Board of Admissions. If it is
as accurate as ultrasound, the CVR device will change health care
greatly because currently it is much more expensive and takes much more
time to do testing for stenosis, which can lead to stroke. Hope this
helps. _______________________________________________________________________ Arielle,
The highlights of my time here at
Albion.....
Publications M.A.-International Relations ________________________________________________________________________
This summer, really the week after
I graduate, I'm starting my training in the Medical Scientist Training
Program at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine.
This will involve receiving both medical and graduate training in
osteopathic medicine and neuroscience, which will eventually confer a
degree of DO/PhD once I complete everything (which can take 7-8 years,
typically). This summer I'll first be completing a 6 week lab rotation
followed by a 6 week anatomy course. Following this I complete all my
graduate courses in one year, take my comprehensive exams in
neuroscience, and choose a research advisor to complete my PhD under.
For the next two years after that I'll complete all my fundamental
medical courses, followed by however long it takes to complete my PhD
research and write my dissertation. Lastly, I'll complete my medical
training with two years of clerkship at a base hospital! Then I'll be a
DO/PhD, also known as a physician scientist! _______________________________________________________________________ I participated in the Computational and Systems Biology Summer Institute (CSBSI) at Iowa State last summer. It was jointly sponsored by the NIH and the NSF. http://www.bioinformatics.iastate.edu/CSBSI/ Next year I will be attending graduate school, either in computational biology at Iowa State, where I have been awarded the NSF-IGERT graduate traineeship (http://www.igert.iastate.edu/) or in biostatistics at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health. Elizabeth ________________________________________________________________________ Sarah, _______________________________________________________________________ Hi Dr. Cline, You know a lot of what I'm doing already, but just to highlight the really cool things: - my thesis was the first performance-based one - I won the concerto competition here twice, and this year am performing an entire concerto, which very few people have done here before. - I'm going to grad school in the fall for a Master's of Music in Oboe Performance (haven't decided where, but I'm going) ... I think those are the most important things....
Alli (NB: Alli auditioned at Yale and at Indiana in oboe.) ________________________________________________________________________
Halie _______________________________________________________________________
Right
now, to supplement my education here at Albion, I am taking courses to
achieve a Certificate in Youth Ministry offered by the Center for
Ministry Development (CMD) of the Catholic Church. I am also taking
courses to receive my Certificate in Catechesis through the Archdiocese
of Detroit. I will have both of these certificates completed before I
graduate in the Spring of 2009. I also currently have an internship (not
for credit) at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Jackson, MI as a Youth
Minister where I teach Sunday school and run youth group activities.
This summer, I also have an internship (not for credit) at St. Raphael
Catholic Church in Naperville, IL as the Director of Vacation Bible
School where I am in charge of coordinating Vacation Bible School for
150 kids and approximately 80 volunteers. _______________________________________________________________________ I am on my way to medical school, most likely at MSU. This past Monday, I presented my research as a poster in New Orleans at the American Chemical Society's Annual meeting. I was awarded a Certificate of Merit for content and presentation of my poster from the division of Environmental Chemistry... Kinda cool I guess,
-Jacob (Abbreviated) Curriculum Vitae Amanda Double major in Psychology and Biology, Neuroscience Concentration, member of the Prentiss M. Brown Honors Institute. Presentations Tilot, A.K., & Jechura. T. J. (2007) Examination of Unihemispheric Sleep in an Australian Lizard, the Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps). Poster presented at Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, November 2007, San Diego, CA. Poster also presented at the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience Meeting, November 2007, San Diego, CA, and the Michigan Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference, April 2007, Grand Rapids, MI. Presented as a platform presentation at the Albion College Elkin Isaac Research Symposium April 2007 Albion, MI. Tilot, A.K., & Figueiredo-Pereira, M. (2007) Chaperone Rescue of Protein Aggregation in Inflammation Associated Neurodegeneration. Presented at the Leadership Alliance National Symposium, July 2007, Stamford, CT. Conferences Attended November 3-7, 2007. Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA. July 25-27, 2007. Leadership Alliance National Symposium, Stamford, CT. April 27-28, 2007. TriState (Plus) Conference on Animal Learning & Behavior, West Lafayette, IN. April 21, 2007. Michigan Undergraduate Psychology Research Conference, Grand Rapids, MI. October 14-18, 2006. Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA. Professional Affiliations 2007 _ Present Society for Neuroscience 2007 _ Present Psi Chi Honors April 24, 2007 Invited to introduce Dr. Stephen Pinker, Harvard University, for the keynote address of the Elkin Isaac Research Symposium. 2006 _ Present Albion College Fellow 2005 _ Present Albion College Dean's List 2005 _ Present Albion College Trustee Scholarship Research Experience Spring 2006 _ Present Research in Biological Rhythms Since the spring of my first year at Albion College I have worked in a circadian rhythms laboratory, under the direction of Dr. Tammy Jechura, using analysis of video recordings of eye position to determine the presence of unihemispheric sleep in a common lizard. Currently, my research involves the effect of circadian disruption on pregnancy, as well as areas of brain activation under exposure to social odor cues and light. June 4th _ August 2nd, 2007 Summer Program for Undergraduate Research Fellow This past summer I participated in a summer research program at the Center for the Study of Gene Structure and Function, Hunter College, CUNY, in Dr. Maria Figueiredo-Pereira's lab and learned several cellular biology techniques including cell culture, Western blotting, PCR, gel electrophoresis, among others while working on a project involving the role of a chaperone protein in neurodegeneration. August 2005 _ May 2007 Student Research Partner As part of the Student Research Partners program at Albion College, I worked under Dr. David Reimann of the Mathematics/Computer Science department on an archival project about the department's history and faculty. In my second year of the program, I transferred to Dr. Jechura's lab and served as her Laboratory Coordinator, working closely with the other members of the lab on project execution and care of Octodon degus. May 2006 _ July 2006 Internship in Marine Biology Worked as an intern for Elizabeth Matthews of the Biology and Marine Biology department at the University of Alaska, Southeast at the Juneau campus. As her intern I helped input data collected from studies of seal populations along tourism routes and became proficient with the End Note software. Grants Spring 2008 Albion College Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Research Grant, awarded $500. Fall 2007 Albion College Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Travel Grant, awarded $600. Fall 2006 Albion College Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Research Grant, awarded $350 Fall 2005 Albion College Foundation for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Research Grant, awarded $500. Service Fall 2007 _ Present Psi Chi Vice President, Albion College Chapter Winter 2007 _ Present Nu Rho Psi Co-Chair of Organizing Committee Winter 2007 _ Present Kappa Delta Sorority Vice President Operations Fall 2005 _ Present Honors Institute Honors Council Member Fall 2007 English Club Vice President and Secretary Research Interests Circadian Rhythms Neurodegeneration Neuroscience Genetics and Genomics Cognition Consciousness That is my CV as of February 2008, here's the addendum: March 28-29:
Tri-State Plus Conference on Animal Behavior and Learning
at the University of Kentucky
_______________________________________________________________________
The following is the more standard information we have collected in recent years about select 2008 honors graduates: Paul Beach '08 is in a joint PhD/DO program at Michigan State University Mallory Below '08 is a PhD student in Psychology at Indiana Arielle Carter '08 is attending graduate School at the University of Chicago studying International Relations Brianna Caszatt '08 likes to write and will be living in England Cam Harris '08 is a graduate student in Psychology at the University of Cincinnati Stacy Eads '08 is attending graduate school in education at the University of Louisville Catherine Fontana '08 is attending Trinity College in Dublin on a Mitchell Scholarship Catherine Game '08 is attending graduate school at the University of Michigan in the school of Natural resources and the Environment Paul Gehres '08 Jenkins Award winner, is studying environmental economics at the London School of Economics Alli Gessner '08 Jenkins award winner, is working on her master's degree in music performance at DePaul University Jim Harris '08 is attending the University of North Carolina in Charlotte where he is working on a graduate degree in German History Grace Keeney '08 won a Fulbright while competing with PhD students, and is studying at the London School of Economics before moving on to Brazil where she will work with NGOs on AIDS policy Shauna Paradine '08 is a graduate student in Chemistry at the University of Illinois, Champaign Phil Riley '08 is in the graduate program in organic chemistry at the University of Illinois Jeremy Triosi left Albion early to join the PhD program in mathematics at Purdue Jason Sebacher '08 is preparing his chops to Teach for America Jackie Zablocki '08 is attending the Chicago Kent School of law
Megan Anderson '07 Krystin Darmafall '07 Aaron Glenn '07 Drew Hasley '07 Sarah Heddon '07 Jenkins Award Winner Brynn Howard '07 Rachael McKinny '07 Scott Shewcraft '07 Wendy Simanton '07 Jenkins Award Winner Sarah Carver '06 Sarah is a PhD student in microbiology at Ohio State. Dan Coupland '06 Dan is a PhD student in in Physics at Michigan State. Rachel Lyons '06 Rachel is an MFA student at George Mason Jayne Ptolomy '06 Jane is a PhD student in History at Yale. Jordan Triosi '06 Jordan is a PhD student in psychology at the university of Buffalo. Sarah West '06 Sarah West in working for Teach for America in the Chicago area. Laura Jordan '05 Jenkins award winner: Has settled for a moment to work on a PhD in social anthropology at the University of Manchester Ligia Paigna '05 Ligia is a graduate student at Johns Hopkins David Pierce '05 David went to the PhD program in Philosophy at Georgetown Yen Thieu '05 Yen went to graduate school at Brandeis Jason Kennedy '04 Jason is a professor at the Art Institute of Ohio Jeremy Szucs '02
Gene Cline, Great Issues in Humanities Professor and
Director of Melissa (Beatty) Lewis '01
Honors Student Kara Christenson '06 interviewed the following alumni at the Reception held at the Observatory during Homecoming. Beth Kudirka '98 Irina Calin-Jageman '98 Bob Calin-Jageman '98 Matt Keck '96
Wynne Martin '94
*Julie Stotz-Ghosh '92
Leslie Addison '92
Andy Keck '91
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Albion College ◦ Albion, Michigan
◦ 517/629-1000
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