CONWAY, Ark. (May
12, 2021) – The Hendrix Odyssey Program
has awarded 16 projects a total of $55,981 in grants for the April 2021 funding
cycle. Hendrix College students will benefit from this funding by exploring
potential career paths, developing their research skills and interests, and
sharing what they have learned through presenting their research in various
public settings. Since 2005, the Committee on Engaged Learning at Hendrix
College has awarded $4,565,940.71 in competitive Odyssey grants to support
1,434 projects by students and faculty.
The recipients of awards in the April 2021
funding cycle are:
Gaëlle Agahozo
Assistant Teacher and project manager
Category: Professional and Leadership
Development
Supervisor: Dr. Gabriel Ferrer, Math and
Computer Science
This summer, Gaëlle Agahozo will work with
Zetalight Company, a tech company based in Rwanda. Zetalight helps students get
hands-on experience in building software. Agahozo will spend 12 weeks learning
programming and writing software, building on the experience she gained last
year as a member of the first cohort of Zetalight students. Additionally,
Agahozo will develop her leadership skills as she mentors new students who have
joined the team.
Becca Biggin
Nutrition and Healthcare Education in Indonesia
Category: Service to the World
Supervisor: Dr. J.D. Gantz, Biology
This summer, Becca Biggin
will volunteer in the city of Ubud in Bali. Despite Indonesia’s status as a
middle-income country, the children face the double burden of malnutrition
where under- and over-nutrition coexist—two million children under the age of
five suffer from severe acute malnutrition and 20 percent of primary
school-aged children face obesity. Biggin will be working with a
well-established local organization, Green Lion Bali, that provides
health-related education and free healthcare services. The goal of this program
is to prevent the spread of easily communicable diseases prevalent in Bali and
to combat health issues that could be easily avoided through a well-balanced
diet. Biggin will assist with the education aspect of this program by
implementing classes in various communities and schools around Ubud about the
importance of nutrition and healthy eating.
Dave Camp
Faulkner County Museum internship
Category: Professional and Leadership
Development
Supervisor: Dr. Deborah Skok, History
As a history major, Dave
Camp has become concerned with a growing amount of historical illiteracy in
American society, including local and national history. Although he can’t
change historical literacy on a national level, Camp realized that he could
improve his local community. He will work with the Faulkner County Museum to
sort, archive and catalog a massive backlog of artifacts that have been donated
to the museum. Eventually, these items will go on display as part of the
museum’s collection.
Phineas Chapman
Internship with Chief Education Officer of
Little Rock
Category: Professional and Leadership
Development
Supervisor: Dr. Delphia Shanks, Politics
A community school is a
relatively new model of public school in the United States that offers services
ranging from classes for parents and members of the community in topics like
health and nutrition or financial literacy, to after-school or weekend programs
for students. Little Rock has been a part of this growing movement, and
currently has four community schools. This summer, Phineas Chapman will intern
with Dr. Jay Barth, who is the Chief Education Officer for the city. He will
focus on the four existing community schools to help develop future
after-school programs. He will analyze survey information from community school
families, communicate with parents and students to understand what areas of
interest exist, design programs in line with those interests, secure funding
through grant writing or other means, and plan for implementation.
Anna Claire Franklin
Pastoral Care Internship at Methodist Family
Health in Little Rock
Category: Professional and Leadership
Development
Supervisor: Dr. Jennifer Penner, Psychology
Anna Claire Franklin will
explore the intersection between spirituality and mental health maintenance as
an intern in the pastoral care office at Methodist Family Health (MFH). The
facility provides care for aspects of mental health rehabilitation and
maintenance from acute psychiatric care to outpatient counseling. MFH treats
clients using the teaching-family model, a trauma-informed framework centered
around building clients’ independence, individualized treatment interventions,
and empirically verified behavioral modification techniques. Because the
facility has a diverse client base, Franklin will have the opportunity to
explore the marriage between faith and mental health. She will also consider
the ways in which she feels called to serve others, helping her foster her own
unique style of interacting with clients in a spiritual context.
Grace Holmquest
Primate Care Internship at The Lincoln Children’s
Zoo
Category: Professional and Leadership
Development
Supervisor: Dr. Maureen McClung, Biology
The Lincoln Children’s Zoo is an Association of
Zoos & Aquariums-accredited facility and participates in the association’s
Species Survival Plan. The Species Survival Plan oversees the management of
select species with the mission of enhancing conservation in the wild. Animals
in the program include the cotton-top tamarin, spider monkey, and ring-tailed
lemur; all of which are New World monkeys in the Lincoln Children’s Zoo primate
department. This summer, Grace Holmquest will be a primate intern in the Animal
Department at the zoo. She will gain valuable knowledge and practical skills
while working firsthand with animals and their professional caretakers. This
internship will allow Holmquest to contribute to conservation efforts as well
as explore animal husbandry as a future career.
Sophia Isely
Medical Spanish in Ecuador
Category: Professional and Leadership
Development
Supervisor: Dr. José Vilahomat, Languages
This summer, Sophia Isely will combine her
interests in the Spanish language, medicine, and inclusive healthcare. She will
participate in the Cacha Medical Spanish Institute’s (Cachamsi) Medical Spanish
Program in Riobamba, Ecuador. During the experience, she will spend 30 hours a
week directly shadowing physicians while also attending a daily Medical Spanish
course provided and taught by Cachamsi. Isely notes that approximately 13% of
Americans are native Spanish speakers, and she believes that this community
deserves inclusive and communicative healthcare. She intends to be part of a
new generation of physicians with a direct goal of catering to these
populations.
Raven Johnson
Hot Springs Urban Planning Internship
Category: Professional and Leadership
Development
Supervisor: Dr. Delphia Shanks, Politics
Raven Johnson will lead the way as the first
intern in the Planning and Economic Development Department of Hot Springs. The
city is currently working on a complex economic development program called
Forward Hot Springs. The plan is comprehensive and provides many avenues for
community engagement in the development of the city. Because Johnson hopes to
become a city planner, this internship will introduce her to a wide variety of
new ideas, tools, and information. She will learn critical skills that will be
applicable in any city planning career that she takes on in the future—and
especially for any city in Arkansas—because they all use similar platforms and
programs.
Kenzie MacNicol
Summer Lab Experience Opportunity
Category: Professional and Leadership
Development
Supervisor: Dr. Julie Gunderson, Physics
This summer, Kenzie MacNicol will work with Dr.
Angela Odle and her lab in the Department of Neurobiology and Developmental
Sciences at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). Dr. Odle
recently received a pilot grant from UAMS to study the role of leptin in the
maturation of the reproductive system, especially with regard to the effect of
obesity on fertility rates (as both are on the rise in the United States). The
hypothalamus in the brain, the pituitary glands, and the gonadal glands often
act together in the development and regulation reproductive and immune systems,
so they are consequently grouped together as the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal
(HPG) axis. Leptin is a small protein hormone that stimulates cells in all
three levels of the HPG axis when circulating at normal, non-obese
concentrations. More specifically, one function of leptin in balanced amounts
is to signal surge-level gonadotropin secretion, which enables fertility in
mammals. Another is to regulate the expression of GnRH in gonadotrophs, cells
in the pituitary gland of the brain that secrete hormones relating to the
gonads and other reproductive elements. MacNicol will work on calcium imaging
of the pituitaries and digital reconstruction of the structure, using MATLAB
and imaging and bioinformatic programs. In addition to learning specialized
techniques, this project will allow MacNicol to develop his professional
research and communication skills as well as give him a chance to evaluate
institutional research as a prospective career.
Verity Miller
Summer Internship at the Go Store
Category: Professional and Leadership Development
Supervisor: Dr. Toni Jaudon, English
Service is important for Verity Miller, and in her summer
internship she will explore how service and commerce can blend together. Miller
will work at the Go Store in Conway, which is a mission-based thrift store that
helps to raise funds for Samaritan’s Purse. She hopes to learn how a
mission-based store is run, promoted, and organized compared to a traditional
store. Miller is interested in a future career helping others, and she sees
this as an opportunity to gain experience and explore whether the combination
of mission and commerce is a viable career path.
Gaston Niyitegeka
Business Classes Outside Hendrix Walls
Category: Professional and Leadership
Development
Supervisor: Dr. Megan Leonard, Economics and
Business
This fall, Gaston
Niyitegeka will use skills he learned in his Corporate Finance and
Macroeconomics classes in an internship with Phronesis Group Consulting. The
organization is committed to helping people, businesses, and communities by
providing solutions to their business needs and financial planning services.
His work will involve consulting, advising, and creating programs to fill the
gaps between actual situations and desired ones in the business world. He hopes
to raise the company’s customer base and market segment through his time at
Phronesis Group Consulting. Exposure to financial projection, market research
analysis, community development, and business development will give him a
well-rounded understanding of business operations, scalability, and management.
Kashti Shah
NO Reduction by the Bacterial Enzyme, YtfE
Category: Undergraduate Research
Supervisor: Dr. Bill Gunderson, Chemistry
Kashti Shah will work
closely with Dr. Bill Gunderson over the course of the summer on a project
studying the mechanism and structure of the bacterial enzyme YtfE. YtfE serves
two functions: 1) protect bacteria from damage and 2) repair damage to the
cell. Shah will learn lab techniques required for the project, master the
process of collecting and interpreting background research, communicate
important information regarding the project and background information, and
collaborate with researchers at University of Alabama and the University of
Arkansas for Medical Sciences to obtain necessary data. After obtaining this
data, she will analyze the data and determine the significance of it. Results
obtained from these studies will further understanding of how the bacterial
enzyme functions.
Dustin Williams
Scales of Justice
Category: Professional and Leadership
Development
Supervisor: Dr. Kim Maslin, Politics
Dustin Williams, who plans to attend law school
after graduation, will have a chance to see the inner workings of the City
Attorney’s Office in Conway. The City Attorney’s Office deals with the
local criminal court, but it also has a close relationship with the mayor and
other important organizations that make important and high-level decisions.
From working on land and property law for the city of Conway to dealing with
child custody cases, Williams will be immersed in many different fields for his
future legal career, and he will use skills on reading cases and writing about
them from his classwork at Hendrix.
Dr. Julie Gunderson
Arkansas Department of Agriculture Data
Analytics Internship
Category: Professional and Leadership
Development
Sammy Gaskins will work
remotely as an intern at the Arkansas Department of Agriculture during the
summer of 2021 in this project coordinated by Dr. Julie Gunderson. Gaskins will
develop both data analytics skills and digital literacy skills through the
development and publication of Weekly, Monthly, and Annual Market Reports and a
Food and Agribusiness Webinar Series. For these projects, the student will be
involved in the development and management of hardware and software as well as
the online marketing of these products. He will work directly under Dr. Robert
Coats, Economist at the Arkansas Department of Agriculture. Gaskins will manage
the editing, rendering, and posting of webinars to YouTube as well as the
Arkansas Department of Agriculture’s website.
Dr. Latorya D. Hicks
Synthesis of Chalcones with N-substituted
Sulfonamide Moieties and their Biological Properties
Category: Undergraduate Research
Chalcones are plant-derived compounds with a
wide range of biological activities. The laboratory of Dr. Latorya D.
Hicks is utilizing organic chemistry to synthesize novel compounds which
harness the anti-microbial and anti-diabetic properties of
chalcones. This fall, under the tutelage of Dr. Hicks, Dane Richards
will begin a research project synthesizing chalcones with sulfonamide moieties
aimed to develop new drugs for treatment of microbial infections or
diabetes.
Dr. Lindsay Kennedy and Dr. Jennifer Peszka
Research Assistantship: Analyzing the
Relationship Between Sleep, Dreams, Media Consumption, and Well-Being During
COVID-19
Category: Professional and Leadership
Development
This summer, students Mary Dann Betbeze, Maddie
Franke, Cassandra McLaughlan, and Noura Musallam will work with professors from
Hendrix and UCA to code and analyze data from a COVID-related research project,
collected in the spring of 2020. They hope to explore the interrelationships between
sleep, dream content, media consumption, and well-being during the early stages
of COVID-related social distancing. The students will content-code dream
journals, conduct in-depth literature reviews, and learn and perform advanced
statistical analyses on the data. Students will then contribute to the writing
of multiple manuscripts summarizing the findings that will be submitted for
publication.
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.