CONWAY, Ark. (November 17, 2021) – The
Committee on Engaged Learning is pleased to announce $50,357 in Odyssey funding
to 12 projects which will allow Hendrix College students to study topics
ranging from cowboy culture in the American southwest to cemeteries in New York
City, participate in a conference for women in physics and a contest in
mathematical modeling, explore vocational development opportunities from
gubernatorial campaigns to international medicine, and more! Since 2005, the
Committee on Engaged Learning has awarded $4,616,297.71 in competitive Odyssey
grants to support 1,446 projects by Hendrix students and faculty.
Global Awareness Projects:
Grace Bryant
The Exploration of Different Cultures and
Medicine in Merida, Spain
Supervised by J.D. Gantz
Through an Atlantis pre-med shadowing
study abroad program, Grace Bryant will spend two weeks in Spain immersing
herself in Spanish medicine, language, and culture. Grace is particularly
interested in observing the impact of Spain’s universal healthcare system on
health disparities compared to the private healthcare systems in the United
States.
Emilie Cassar & Kyle Bounds
Exploring Cultural and Environmental
Differences in Emergency Medicine in Costa Rica
Supervised by Irmina Fabricio
Emilie Cassar and Kyle Bounds will explore
the intersection of culture and medicine through a course on Emergency Medicine
and Wilderness in Costa Rica. Emilie and Kyle, who are both involved in
emergency medicine in the US, will learn about how the environment influences
emergency medical intervention and how cultural differences influence patient
interactions.
Sophie O’Reilly & Ben Blankenship
Writing Under the Mother Tree: Creative
Writing, Ecology, and Scotland
Supervised by Anne Goldberg
Sophie O’Reilly and Ben Blankenship will
participate in workshops led by renowned folklore and writing specialists,
receive individual writing critiques, and attend storytelling sessions as part
of the Badenoch: Storylands Sessions in Edinburgh, Scotland. As scientists,
Sophie and Ben will study the ways their given disciplines interact and
influence Scottish folklore and use the skills and knowledge gleaned from the
trip to write a collection of creative work that captures both the natural and
supernatural landscape of Scotland to be submitted for private publication.
Elise Ormonde & Rachel McGhee
Ecuador: Buen Vivir
Supervised by Lilian Contreras-Silva
Elise Ormonde and Rachel McGhee will
investigate the Ecuadorian ideology of Buen Vivir, the interconnected wellbeing
of people and their environment. A value so important that it is
constitutionally recognized, Elise and Rachel will explore the concept from
cultural, economic, and environmental standpoints.
Katie Pratt, Tristan Becker Hoerschelmann,
& Shelby Burrow
Tenderfootin’ Out West: Exploring Cowboy
Cultures Past and Present in the American Southwest
Supervised by Anne Goldberg
Katie Pratt, Tristan Becker Hoerschelmann,
and Shelby Burrow will immerse themselves in Western Black, Indigenous, and
cowboy cultures in a journey through five states in the American Southwest. By
visiting museums, parks, nature preserves, monuments, and historic cities, the
group will investigate what it means to be a cowboy—both today and historically—and
how a diversity of racial and ethnic groups fit into cowboy culture.
Professional & Leadership Development
Project:
Jayla King
Intern: Campaign Fellow for Dr. Chris
Jones, Arkansas Gubernatorial Race
Supervised by Delphia Shanks & Tricia
Burris
Through the spring of 2022, Jayla King
will serve as a Campaign Fellow for Dr. Chris Jones, a candidate in the
Arkansas 2022 Gubernatorial Race. In this role, Jayla will gain a deeper
understanding of how campaigns work and improve team communication skills as
she helps with implementing all aspects of the campaign strategy, including
events, press and voter outreach, social media, and campaign research.
Service to the World Projects:
Mohannad Al-Hindi & Joseph Lara
Impact of Natural Disasters on Ecotourism
in Puerto Rico
Supervised by J.D. Gantz
Mohannad Al-Hindi and Joseph Lara will
dedicate one week to exploring the impact of natural disasters on the
ecotourism economy in Puerto Rico. Mohannad and Joseph will interview community
members, talk to hurricane relief and ecotourism experts, visit ecotourism
sites, and volunteer with hurricane relief organizations.
Ellen Alston
Building Bridges through Service-Learning:
A Service to the World Project in Puerto Rico
On this Miller Center Service-Learning
Trip, participants will work alongside community members to assist with
rebuilding homes destroyed by Hurricane Maria in 2017. In addition to a greater
understanding of the complexities of disaster recovery, group members will gain
an appreciation of the rich culture and heritage of Puerto Rico and develop a
deeper sense of their own vocational journey.
Maxine Payne
Transforming the current art complex
garden into a beneficial, native pollinating garden
This project will transform a small garden
in the Art Complex yard into a beneficial pollinating garden featuring native
plants. The garden effort will foster a sense of community with the natural
environment on campus, raise public awareness of native plants and the benefits
of pollinators, and address the issue of climate change on a small, local, and
feasible scale while offering the campus community a beautiful, natural space
to learn, rest, and reflect.
Special Projects:
Robin Salinger
An Exploration of the American Cemetery
Supervised by Alex Veselka-Bush
Through visits to nine cemeteries in New
York City, Robin Salinger will further their interdisciplinary research on
death culture in the U.S. In this project, Robin aims to learn more about
symbolism and aesthetics in American death culture, to learn how perceptions of
death have shifted within America over time, and to gain a more holistic view
of the history of death in America.
Mark Goadrich
Solving Real-world Problems with Tools
from Mathematics and Computer Science: The COMAP International Contest in
Mathematical Modeling
Three teams of three Hendrix students each
will participate in a remote contest to tackle real-world mathematical modeling
problems. Each team will spend 96 hours over the course of a weekend
researching, developing, and evaluating mathematical and computational models
culminating in the submission of a final report which is typically around ten
pages and includes the technical details of the team’s proposed solution,
supporting figures, diagrams, and equations, and a layperson explanation in the
form of a news article or stakeholder report which is then evaluated by contest
judges who are academicians and industry professionals.
Ann Wright
2022 Conference for Undergraduate Women in
Physics
Dr. Ann Wright and six physics students
will attend the 2022 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) in
January 2022 at Tulane University. The goal of the conference is to encourage
undergraduate women to pursue careers in physics by giving them the experience
of a professional conference, information about graduate school and professions
in physics, and access to women in physics of all ages with whom they can share
experiences, advice, and ideas.
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.