Hendrix Odyssey Program
Project Funding
February 2024
The Committee on Engaged Learning is pleased to announce $84,428.06 in Odyssey funding to 14 projects. These
projects involve a range of academic, professional, and personal explorations from tying fishing flies and joining
archeological digs to researching PFAS interactions with microplastics and establishing a sustainability garden on
campus, and more. Since 2005, the Committee on Engaged Learning has awarded more than five million dollars - $
5,172,335.57 to be exact – in competitive Odyssey grants to support 1,561 projects by Hendrix students, faculty, and
staff.
Artistic Creativity Projects
Oliver Naumann 2026
The Art of Fly Tying
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 2026
Official Hendrix Internship: Dental Assisting for Pre-Dentistry
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 2025
Official Hendrix Internship: Strength and Conditioning at Mayflower High School
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 2026, Jessie Doyle 2026, Annalee Wesson 2026
Sustainability Garden
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 2025, Annie West 2026
Roman Archaeology in Portugal
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 2026, Kathryn Tucker 2025
American Sociological Association Presentation: Mashrou' Leila's Musical Affective Politics: Queer
Resistance in the Egyptian Social and Political Uprising
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 2025 Colin Phillips 2026, Katherine Reid 2025
Research and Development of the Disco Language for Teaching Discrete Mathematics
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.
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 2027
Controlling Chaos in a Piecewise Linear Map
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 2025, Katie McClure 2026*
Costa Rica Conservation
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 and Ty Tillman 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.
*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 and Ty Tillman 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.
*co-funded by the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation
Elise Remerscheid 2027
Characterizing the Spectroscopic Impact of Perfluorinated Alkanes Systems (PFAS) with Microplastics from
All-Atom Molecular Dynamics Simulations
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 2026, Lathan Smalley 2026
Fractal Dimension in Boundaries of Newton’s Method
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.