CONWAY, Arkansas (April 5, 2024)—The
Hendrix College Committee on Engaged Learning has announced $84,428.06 in
Odyssey Program funding awarded to 14 projects in the February 2024 funding cycle.
These projects involve a range of academic, professional, and personal
explorations, from tying fishing flies to joining archeological digs to researching
PFAS interactions with microplastics to establishing a sustainability garden on
campus.
Since 2005, the Committee on
Engaged Learning has awarded more than $5 million—$5,172,335.57 to be exact—in competitive
Odyssey grants to support 1,561 projects by Hendrix students, faculty, and
staff. This cycle’s funding recipients span four of the six Odyssey Program
exploration categories:
ARTISTIC CREATIVITY
Oliver Naumann ’26
The Art of Fly Tying
Supervisor: Andrew
Morgan
Oliver will study, design, and
create multiple fly patterns appropriate to three methods of fly fishing and
will share his designs, along with a fly-tying demonstration, in a final
presentation or instructional video.
PROFESSIONAL AND LEADERSHIP
DEVELOPMENT
Kirsten Brewer ’26
Official Hendrix Internship: Dental
Assisting for Pre-Dentistry
Supervisor: Andrew
Schurko
Through the Central Arkansas
School of Dental Assisting, Kirsten will participate in a 10-week summer program
to become a certified and registered dental assistant, which will provide
practical experience to support her plans to attend dental school and become a
dentist after graduation from Hendrix.
Kanyn Utley ’25
Official Hendrix Internship:
Strength and Conditioning at Mayflower High School
Supervisor: Andrew
Schurko
Over the summer, Kanyn will
serve as a strength and conditioning coach for the Mayflower (AR) High School athletic
teams developing and implementing workout programs for multiple sports, working
with individuals in sport-specific movement, daily monitoring of athletes,
testing and measurement of athletic performance, teaching athletic technique,
assisting with summer competitions, and more.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
Madeline Caldwell ’26, Jessie
Doyle ’26, Annalee Wesson ’26
Sustainability Garden
Supervisor: Candice
Thomas
Madeline, Jessie, and Annalee
will spend the first part of the summer planning and establishing an on-campus
garden, including developing composting and watering systems, with the
intention of supporting faculty research interests, connecting the campus
community to nature, and providing additional food sourcing.
Vincenzo Redditt ’25, Annie West
’26
Roman Archaeology in Portugal
Supervisor: Chris
Campolo
Vincenzo and Annie will
participate in a 2-week field school experience where they will learn proper
excavation techniques, artifact processing, archaeological drawing, and site
surveying.
Natalie Chidester ’26, Kathryn
Tucker ’25
American Sociological
Association Presentation: Mashrou’ Leila’s Musical Affective Politics: Queer
Resistance in the Egyptian Social and Political Uprising
Supervisor: Izat
El Amoor
Natalie and Kathryn will
co-present research they did with Dr. El Amoor regarding the death by suicide
of a Queer Egyptian following an incident at a Mashrou’ Leila concert as
contextualization of increasing state-sponsored homophobic violence.
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
Ted Bjurlin ’25, Colin Phillips ’26,
Katherine Reid ’25
Research
and Development of the Disco Language for Teaching Discrete Mathematics
Supervisor: Brent
Yorgey
Ted, Colin, and Katherine will grow
their understanding of functional programming, combinatorics, and type theory
by each addressing a different research question coming out of Dr. Yorgey’s
development of a programming language called Disco.
Danny Caceres ’27
Developing
Dipeptide Self-Assembly Design Principles from All-Atom Molecular Dynamics
Simulations
Supervisor: Jakob
Anderson
Building on previous faculty
research, Danny will learn computational chemistry techniques and analyses by
studying the role hydrophobicity plays in the aggregation of dipeptides.
Andres Caro
Effect
of cytochrome P450 on ferroptosis in cancer cells
A student will support Dr.
Caro’s research to better understand the role of the enzyme cytochrome P450 in
promoting a particular type of cell death.
Tanvi Kiran ’27
Controlling Chaos in a Piecewise
Linear Map
Supervisor: Lars
Seme
Tanvi will investigate a complicated
mathematical model, write a computer program to help with analyses of that
model, and design a simple control mechanism for the model.
Matthew Mabry ’25, Katie McClure
’26*
Costa Rica Conservation
Supervisor: Maureen
McClung
Matthew and Katie will spend the
summer working with the Children’s Eternal Rainforest with a particular focus
on amphibian populations. In addition, Katie will immerse herself in Spanish
language learning through a homestay with a local family and by taking Spanish
classes at the Centro Panamericano de Idioma (CPI) Spanish Immersion School in
Monteverde.
*co-funded by the Hendrix-Murphy
Foundation
Matthew Reid
Plant and soil responses to the
extended drawdown of Lake Conway
Dr. Reid and students Braeden Hurley ’25 and Ty Tillman ’27 will partner
with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission on research related to changes in
the soil, plant, and fungi communities resulting from the draining of Lake
Conway.
Elise Remerscheid ’27
Characterizing the Spectroscopic
Impact of Perfluorinated Alkanes Systems (PFAS) with Microplastics from
All-Atom Molecular Dynamics Simulations
Supervisor: Jakob
Anderson
In collaboration with Dr.
Anderson, Elise will research PFAS interactions with microplastics with a
particular focus on communicating findings in easily understandable ways to
broad audiences.
Avery Cagle ’26, Lathan Smalley ’26
Fractal Dimension in Boundaries
of Newton’s Method
Supervisor: Lars
Seme
Avery and Lathan will spend the
summer exploring numeric fractal dimensions, constructing an algorithm to
approximate the fractal dimension and testing it on well-known fractals, and
then applying it to fractals generated by Newton’s Method.
About Hendrix College
Founded in 1876, Hendrix College is featured in Colleges
That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges
and celebrated among the country’s leading liberal arts colleges for academic
quality, engaged learning opportunities and career preparation, vibrant campus
life, and value. The Hendrix College Warriors compete in 21 NCAA Division III
sports. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since
1884. Learn more at www.hendrix.edu.
“… Through engagement that links the
classroom with the world, and a commitment to diversity, inclusion, justice,
and sustainable living, the Hendrix community inspires students to lead lives
of accomplishment, integrity, service, and joy.”
—Hendrix College Statement of Purpose