Cumulative total of Odyssey grants now tops $5
million
CONWAY,
Ark (May 15, 2023)—The Committee on Engaged Learning is pleased to announce
$121,796.48 in Odyssey funding for 32 projects. These projects range
from a self-reflective cooking experience to assessing historical significance
of family archives to developing a system for reusing chalk nibs from campus
classrooms, and much more. Odyssey funding will also support a number
of students’ professional explorations through internships and research
experiences with local and national entities. Since 2005, the Committee on
Engaged Learning has awarded more than five million dollars—$5,029, 248.08 to
be exact—in competitive Odyssey grants to support 1,537 projects by
Hendrix students, faculty, and staff.
Owen Edgington ’25
Self-Discovery Through
Cooking
Category:
Artistic Creativity
Supervisor:
Kristi McKim
Owen
will spend the fall semester cooking his way to self-discovery and toward the
online publication of a collection of creative nonfiction essays, photographs,
and recipes documenting the journey.
Avie Bishop ’25
Official Hendrix
Internship: Good Shepherd Animal Clinic, Conway, AR
Category:
Professional and leadership development
Supervisor:
Maureen McClung
Avie,
who is exploring the possibility of attending veterinary school after Hendrix,
will hone basic vet-tech skills, acquire more advanced skills, and become
familiar with workplace etiquette in a clinical setting.
Lily Black ’24
Official Hendrix
Internship: Our House, Little Rock, AR
Category:
Professional and leadership development
Supervisor:
Kiril Kolev
Lily
will support the clients, staff, and volunteers of the Career Center at this
homeless shelter and expects the experience will help her discern whether to
pursue a nonprofit career.
Alexis Carter ’24
Official Hendrix
Internship: Conway City Attorney’s Office, Conway, AR
Category:
Professional and leadership development
Supervisor:
Delphia Shanks
Alexis
will support and shadow attorneys in their case and trial work and expects to
hone her research, analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills while
learning about legal careers.
Annie Elliott ’24
Official Hendrix
Internship: Centro Sávila, Albuquerque, NM
Category:
Professional and leadership development
Supervisor:
Kiril Kolev
Annie
will assist with grantwriting and fundraising, publicity and outreach, and
providing programming and services to clients while supporting the nonprofit’s
role as a leading member of the policy focused Albuquerque Justice for Youth
Collaborative.
Meghan Fuller-Freeman ’24
Official Hendrix Internship:
Temperance Hill Animal Hospital, Hot Springs, AR
Category:
Professional and leadership development
Supervisor:
Jenn Dearolf
Meghan
will learn basic vet-tech skills and support clinic operations while considering
a future as a veterinarian.
Katie Gray ’25
Official Hendrix
Internship: UAMS Stead Scholars Program, Little Rock, AR
Category:
Professional and leadership development
Supervisor:
Jenn Dearolf
Katie
will gain experience in public health science and policy while developing
teamwork and other professional skills.
Julia Hooper ’24
Official Hendrix
Internship: UAMS HEALS Lab, Little Rock, AR
Category:
Professional and leadership development
Supervisor:
Carmen Merrick
With
plans to become a licensed professional counselor, Julia’s experience as a
research assistant in the Health and Legal Systems Lab of the Psychiatric
Research Institute will allow her to engage with clinic psychologists,
contribute to research related to trauma therapy interventions for incarcerated
individuals, and explore the interdisciplinary aspects of mental health
services.
Annie Kannady ’24
Official Hendrix
Internship: Pediatrics Plus, Conway, AR
Category:
Professional and leadership development
Supervisor:
J.D. Gantz
Annie,
who is interested in pursuing a doctorate in pediatric occupational therapy,
will shadow and assist occupational therapy for children with developmental
disorders and support the food lab and gym.
Sierra Lubetkin ’25
Official Hendrix
Internship: UAMS Child and Family Health Promotion Lab, Little Rock, AR
Category:
Professional and leadership development
Supervisor:
Andrew Schurko
As
a research assistant, Sierra will examine the efficacy of behavioral
interventions surrounding tobacco use and related health inequities while
gaining experience with research in a medical setting.
Annabelle Neilson ’24
Official Hendrix
Internship: House Natural Resources Committee, Washington, D.C.
Category:
Professional and leadership development
Supervisor:
Andrew Schurko
Annabelle
will support Committee staff with research and writing memos that will
contribute to policy drafts while exploring a potential career as a legislative
assistant.
Houston Phillips ’24
Official Hendrix
Internship: National Retail Sales (NRS) W/Keurig Dr Pepper, Frisco, TX
Category:
Professional and leadership development
Supervisor:
Lyle Rupert
Houston
will gain experience in strategy and sales in a corporate setting, a career he
plans to pursue post-graduation, and expects to strengthen his communication,
problem-solving, data analysis, and other professional skills.
Sarah Ross ’25
Official Hendrix
Internship: Wesley Foundation, Conway, AR
Category:
Professional and leadership development
Supervisor:
Robert Williamson
Sarah
will lead the worship committee in planning Wednesday night services, lead
services, organize fellowship events, and explore a possible career as a
pastor.
Jonathan Ryan ’24
Professional Field
Experience: MOVE Physical Therapy and Wellness: Administrative Role
Category:
Professional and leadership development
Supervisor:
Jenn Dearolf
Building
on an earlier internship with MOVE, Jonathan will expand his knowledge of the
physical therapy business by learning and contributing to the administrative
operations of the company which will help him to discern whether he might like
to own a PT practice someday.
Ellen Alston
A Civil Rights Journey
Category:
Special Projects
Over
Fall Break, Alston and a group of students will visit sites in Selma,
Montgomery, and Birmingham, Alabama and in Memphis, Tennessee, to gain
background in and reflect on the US Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
Ellen Alston
A Taizé Journey: An
Odyssey Special Project
Category:
Special Projects
In
May of 2024, Alston and a small group of students will spend a week in the
ecumenical monastic community of Taize, France, exploring ideas and practices
around living in community, service, spiritual conversation, contemplative
practice, and vocational discernment.
Sarah Donaghy
Conversations On Being
Category:
Special Projects
Over
the course of the coming academic year, Donaghy and a group of students will
explore what it means to be human, how we want to live, and who we will be to
each other through engagement with and reflection on materials from or
connected to the On Being Project, a two-decades-old multimedia collaboration
founded by Krista Tippett.
Ann Muse
Here There Are
Blueberries Project
Category:
Special Projects
Muse
and a small group of students plan to travel to New York City to attend a
performance of Here There Are Blueberries, visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage,
and participate in a three-hour workshop with two members of the Tectonic
Theatre Project.
Jake Nelson ’25
Archeological Maintenance
and Learning
Category:
Special Projects
Supervisor:
Anne Goldberg
Jake
will perform a variety of maintenance, preservation, and lab tasks at the Plum
Bayou Archaeological State Park in Scott, Arkansas, where he hopes to learn
from professional archaeologists more about the array of responsibilities of
working at a historical site.
Molly Schalk ’26
Creating an Archival
System for Historically Significant Familial Records
Category:
Special Projects
Supervisor:
Ann Muse
Molly
will spend the summer in France accessing and inventorying the Peugeot (French
auto maker) family – her family – archives in an effort to begin documenting
the historical value of these materials.
Lauren Allen ’24
Kinship Connections in
Domestic Violence Shelters
Category:
Undergraduate Research
Supervisor:
Anne Goldberg
Lauren
will research how connections between residents of a domestic violence shelter
may or may not mirror those of a family and how such bonds may impact a
resident’s progress or success within the residential program.
Kennedi Burns ’24
UAMS Summer Undergraduate
Research Program
Category:
Undergraduate Research
Supervisor:
Latorya Hicks
Kennedi
will do an undergraduate research project studying how change in platelet
protein affects the yield of chromosomal instability following radiation for
the Division of Radiation Health and receive mentorship from Dr. Rupak Pathak
from the College of Pharmacy. She expects to grow her skills in responsibly
conducting research and communicating science while increasing her proficiency
in research methods and enhancing her leadership capacity.
Andres Caro
Inhibitory mechanism of
sulforaphane on the mitochondrial electron transport chain
Category:
Undergraduate Research
Caro
will work with two students to evaluate the hypothesis that sulforaphane, a
potential anti-cancer drug, inhibits the mitochondrial electron transport
chain, thus inducing reactive oxygen species that triggers apoptotic cell
death.
Kya Carroll ’24
UAMS Summer Undergraduate
Research Program
Category:
Undergraduate Research
Supervisor:
Jenn Dearolf
Kya
will be paired with and mentored by a faculty member in cardiovascular,
pulmonary, or hematologic research and will have the opportunity to conduct
multiple research projects and observe surgeries, experiences she expects will
enhance her career competencies and propel her toward a career in research.
Erin DeWald ’25
Reclaiming Chalk
Category:
Undergraduate Research
Supervisor:
Todd Tinsley
Over
the course of the coming academic year, Erin will develop a system for turning
chalk nibs from Hendrix classrooms into new chalk sticks in an effort to make
the campus more sustainable.
Anna Eichenberger ’25
The Stead Scholars
Program at UAMS
Category:
Undergraduate Research
Supervisor:
Laura MacDonald
Anna
will gain experience in public health science and policy while developing her
research skills and considering a possible research career.
Hannah Fewell ’24
Exploring Muscle Fiber
Profiles in Spinner Dolphin Calves
Category:
Undergraduate Research
Supervisor:
Jenn Dearolf
Hannah
will examine the fiber-type profiles of juvenile spinner dolphins, whose major
locomotor muscles continue to develop postnatally, to gain insight into the
timeframe for maturation of the muscles and to compare with adult muscles.
Peter Kett
Assessing the Impact of
the Adsorption of Gold Nanoparticles on the Structural Integrity of a Model
Biological Membrane
Category:
Undergraduate Research
Using
a quartz crystal microbalance, Kett and two students will study how gold
nanoparticles of different sizes and surface coatings affect the integrity of
biological cell membranes, using supported lipid bilayers as their model
membrane.
Tyrone Mason ’24
Efficiently Simulating
Card Games
Category:
Undergraduate Research
Supervisor:
Mark Goadrich
Tyrone
will use computer coding to attempt to simulate the card game Hearts more
predictably and more efficiently, which will allow the program to run optimally
and finish games more quickly, an experience he expects will help him hone his
code writing and teamwork skills.
Noah Morris ’24
Abstract Strategic and
Stochastic Software Implementation
Category:
Undergraduate Research
Supervisor:
Mark Goadrich
Noah
will work within programming syntax Ludii and general engine CardStock to learn
the capabilities and limitations of abstracting card games and working with
code.
Eden Robbins ’26
Bacterial Populations in
the Hendrix Creek Preserve’s Water and Sediment
Category:
Undergraduate Research
Supervisor:
Jenn Dearolf
Through
weekly sampling from the Hendrix Creek Preserve, Eden will test the
relationship between bacterial populations in water bodies and its sediment as
an indicator of environmental and health concerns.
Kelsey Sample ’25
Measuring the oxidative
density of locomotor muscles in spinner dolphins
Category:
Undergraduate Research
Supervisor:
Jenn Dearolf
Kelsey
will examine the oxidative capacities of spinner dolphins to learn more about
how the locomotor muscles grow over the lifespan of these mammals.
About
Hendrix College
A
private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas, Hendrix College consistently
earns recognition as one of the country’s leading liberal arts institutions and
is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the
Way You Think About Colleges. Its academic quality and rigor, innovation,
and value have established Hendrix as a fixture in numerous college guides,
lists, and rankings. Founded in 1876, Hendrix has been affiliated with the
United Methodist Church since 1884. To learn more, visit www.hendrix.edu.