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Collegium Communiqué THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY HONORS & SCHOLARS CENTER INSIDE THIS ISSUE: VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 AUTUMN 2008 Program Updates 2-3 Letter from the Director, Collegium activities and initiatives Student Scholars 4-5 Students present their research at conferences and in publications Summer Stories 6-11 Collegium students’ summer endeavors Alumnus Profile 12 Taylor Nelms describes his experience at Cambridge Deb Van Camp, Tyler Miller, Doug Schaefer, Amanda Hays, David and Amy Tomasko and Kathleen Nemer take time out of representing Ohio State at an international symposium in São Paulo, Brazil, in order to greet friends at home. From teaching in Ahmedabad to studying Russian at Tomsk State University, Collegium students spent the summer of 2008 challenging and developing their minds through enriching educational pursuits. Students who volunteer in international development programs or conduct linguistics research with faculty are able to gain valuable experience in their field of study. Students who study abroad develop language skills while fostering their cultural knowledge through global experiences. The Collegium provides guidance and support for these talented students, helping them find the right research program or country to develop their interest and helping them apply for funding for their experience. As these students take the first steps towards their futures, the Honors Collegium assists them along the way. Discovering, Learning, Changing: Collegium Student Summers at Home and Abroad
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Autumn 2008 Newsletter

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Page 1: Autumn 2008 Newsletter

Collegium CommuniquéTHE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY HONORS & SCHOLARS CENTER

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1

AUTUMN 2008

Program Updates 2-3Letter from the Director,Collegium activities and initiatives

Student Scholars 4-5Students present their research at conferences and in publications

Summer Stories 6-11Collegium students’ summer endeavors

Alumnus Profile 12Taylor Nelms describes his experience at Cambridge

Deb Van Camp, Tyler Miller, Doug Schaefer, Amanda Hays, David and Amy Tomasko and Kathleen Nemer take time out of representing Ohio State at an international symposium in São Paulo, Brazil, in order to greet friends at home.

From teaching in Ahmedabad to studying Russian at Tomsk State University, Collegium students spent the summer of 2008 challenging and developing their minds through enriching educational pursuits. Students who volunteer in international development programs or conduct linguistics research with faculty are able to gain valuable experience in their field of study. Students who study abroad develop language skills while fostering their cultural knowledge through global experiences. The Collegium provides guidance and support for these talented students, helping them find the right research program or country to develop their interest and helping them apply for funding for their experience. As these students take the first steps towards their futures, the Honors Collegium assists them along the way.

Discovering, Learning, Changing: Collegium Student Summers at Home

and Abroad

Page 2: Autumn 2008 Newsletter

From the DirectorDear Friends,

This has been another exciting year for the Collegium, highlighted by forwarding 27 applications for Fulbright Fellowships to the national screening committee. We welcomed an excellent class of incoming Presidential Scholars and newly recruited freshmen and sophomores. As you will read in this issue, we also welcomed back students from their travels abroad to Russia, Switzerland, Costa Rica, and Tanzania to name a few. Check out Kate Clonan-Roy’s story of her visit to Chiapas, Mexico to meet and interview women in the Zapatista rebel movement. Collegium students are crafting unique academic experiences that will enable them to make a mark in the world.

We welcome a new program assistant, Cate Sacchi, who takes over for Erin Odor for the coming year. You can read about Cate’s background below. Congratulations to Dana Vredeveld who received a promotion to Program Manager this year in recognition of her exemplary work coordinating scholarship and fellowship opportunities for undergraduates across the entire campus. We had the opportunity to present the Collegium to the Women & Philanthropy group in The Ohio State

University Foundation. This group of dynamic women invests in the people of Ohio State and the work that they do. It was a wonderful event for us and I want to publicly thank the students who presented their stories: Kate Clonan-Roy, Doug Schaefer, Dusty Koenig, Adrienne

Strong, Deb Van Camp, Brittany O’Neill, Katie Watt, and Robert Bonacci. We hope to report additional outcomes from this event in the spring.

In closing, it is with some sorrow that I announce my departure as Director of the Collegium. I have been asked to serve as the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Services in the College of Engineering and will be starting that position in January 2009. The new Director, Professor Brian Winer from Physics, has advised the research of several Collegium students and will provide outstanding leadership. Personally, I have been transformed by my time in the Collegium and I want to thank Rebecca, Dana, Kyle, Jen, Erin, Cate, and Meghan as well as all my colleagues in Honors & Scholars for creating such a wonderful environment in which to promote the University and its students. Best wishes to all for continued success.

The Collegium bids farewell to Program Assistant Erin Odor. An honors graduate of Ohio State in 2006, Erin is currently pursuing a master’s degree in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Ohio State. She was one of only sixty students nationally awarded a Phi Kappa Phi graduate fellowship for this year.

Stepping in for Erin is Cate Sacchi. Cate earned a master’s degree in June 2008 from Ohio State’s

Department of English, specializing in rhetoric, composition, and literacy studies. She will begin doctoral coursework in the same department in Autumn 2009. She is delighted to join the Honors Collegium staff.

Joining Kyle Fannin as a Collegium student assistant is undergraduate student, Meghan Gannon. Meghan is a sophomore political science major who worked on two election campaigns this fall. She is a member of the Mount Scholars program.

Staff Farewell and Welcome

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PAGE 2 VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1

David Tomasko

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Collegium Introduces New Member Seminar

Autumn quarter 2008 marks the debut of the Honors Collegium New Member Seminar. The seminar was developed to assist our newest students in making their goals concrete and achievable. Students met weekly with the Collegium Director and staff and were assigned tasks and projects that pushed many of them into uncharted territory. Assignments included creating a personal vision map, identifying and communicating with potential faculty mentors, and identifying internships, research, and post-graduate programs. Students were required to create and update their resumes and learned how to identify the best study abroad programs to meet their goals. Weekly writing assignments helped students begin to master the delicate task of writing

about themselves and their accomplishments. In addition, students practiced oral presentation skills and discussed current events with their classmates each week. The skills developed will become crucial when the students apply for competitive internships, national fellowships, and graduate and professional schools.

“The seminar helped me to define my educational and career goals,” explains freshman Presidential Scholar Justin Schulze, “Lectures, information sessions, and introspective activities challenged me to focus my interests and ambitions into a personal mission that extends beyond the undergraduate experience. Also, I now have the information and tools I will need to pursue my mission, and the confidence that I will need to succeed in my pursuit.”

Weekly seminar meetings have provided many opportunities for our newest members to connect with each other, as well develop relationships with the Collegium staff. We look forward to working with our newest Collegium members in this capacity every fall.

Collegium Students Inspire Young ScientistsThis summer, Doug Schaefer and Liana Bonanno facilitated the first annual Girls Reaching for Achievement in Sports and Physics (GRASP), a camp created by Jessica Hanzlik, Collegium alumna and Rhodes Scholar, to motivate 6th through 8th grade girls to pursue a future in science. This is an ideal age to reinforce the idea that science can be fun. Through the camp, Doug and Liana worked to reduce the number of girls who lose interest in science.

Doug, a two-time junior world champion flying rubber-band airplanes, constructed ultra-light glider kits for the girls and taught them the fundamentals of flight. The campers built bottle rockets, played with superconductors, and tested a bed of nails. They also played basketball, swam, and skated, each activity related to a special physics lesson. Liana, a physics major and the starting goaltender for the OSU women’s ice hockey team, led the skating instruction. Doug is helping organize the 2nd GRASP camp next summer.

Liana, on the far right in blue, teaches skating

Doug and two campers build gliders

COLLEGIUM COMMUNIQUÉ PAGE 3

Collegium students discuss their writing with staff and peers

Page 4: Autumn 2008 Newsletter

Collegium Students Present and Publish ResearchThe Honors Collegium expects its members to distinguish themselves beyond the baccalaureate degree. In keeping with this mission, Collegium students have published their research and traveled widely to present their findings at conferences. Students received funding for their trips from a vari-ety of sources, including the Honors Collegium.

Tyler MillerLocation: San Antonio, TexasField: Biomedical ScienceGraduation Year: 2010

John PateLocation: Miami, FloridaField: LinguisticsGraduation Year: 2009

I had the opportunity to publish my work on October 31st, 2008, in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, where I am listed as first author. The article, “MicroRNA-221/222 Confers Tamoxifen Resistance in Breast Cancer by Targeting p27Kip1,” was selected as “Paper of the Week,” a distinction granted to the top 1% of papers published in the journal. I also won the award for best project/presentation in the Undergraduate category at the OSU Medical Center Research Day on April 10th, 2008. The award was a travel grant for any national conference or research meeting that I chose to attend during the 2008 year. I am using this grant to attend the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium December 10-14, where I will present my work at a poster session.

I presented a poster on November 10th at the 156th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Miami, Florida. The title of the poster is “Effects of Talker and Token Variability of Perceptual Learning of Dialect Categories.” The field of research is sociophonetics (how social categories interact with how people produce speech). The study deals with dialect classification on the basis of a single word: subjects hear “bad” and “bed,” and have to classify the talker as being either from Cleveland or from Cincinnati. In our study, we trained our subjects with feedback and find that only about 20 minutes of feedback is necessary to obtain a statistically significant improvement over no feedback, if the items used in training are variable enough. Specifically, we increase the number of talkers and the number of different recordings of the same word (and we also increase the number of exposures). This study helps us understand how perceptual learning works. It might seem counterintuitive that listening to different recordings would be more helpful than listening to the same one over and over. By increasing the variability of our training items, the cues that are really useful for diagnosing dialect are consistent, while the cues which are not useful for diagnosing dialect are more likely to be paired with both answers. After three years working on this project, my efforts have finally come to fruition!

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Tyler presents at the 2008 Denman forum

Page 5: Autumn 2008 Newsletter

Ehsan SadeghipourLocation: Seattle, WashingtonField: Mechanical EngineeringGraduation Year: 2009

Erica HaugtvedtLocation: Columbus, OhioField: Ethnic LiteratureGraduation Year: 2009

This past June, I attended the 2008 American Controls Conference in Seattle, Washington. This is the premier conference focusing on advances in the theory and practice of automatic control. Here, I presented my research “Painting Green: Design and Analysis of an Environmentally and Energetically Conscious Paint Booth HVAC Control System,” which was also published in the conference proceedings. These were the results from a project I completed the previous summer with Dr. Eric Westervelt and Honda of America Manufacturing at their plant in Marysville, Ohio. The project improved the efficiency of the automotive plant’s paint booth HVAC system by analyzing its psychometric controls. My accomplishments with this project contributed to me being named a 2008 Goldwater Scholar.

Last March, I presented at the 2008 MELUS conference. That paper was titled “Vesterheim and Lake Wobegon: Comparing O.E. Rølvaag and Garrison Keillor’s Representations of Norwegian Americans in Concerning Our Heritage and News from Lake Wobegon.”

This fall MELUS, the journal of the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature in the United States, published my thesis in volume 33, issue 3. The article is titled “Abandoned in America: Identity Dissonance and Ethnic Preservationism in Giants in the Earth.” In my article, I looked at O.E. Rølvaag’s character Beret and her bouts of insanity on the prairie through the lens of Patrick Colm Hogan’s model of identity presented in Empire and Poetic Voice, informed by Werner Sollor’s Beyond Ethnicity: Consent and Descent in American Culture.

OSU-Brazil Research Exchange ProgramSponsored by the University Honors & Scholars Center, the program allows OSU students to travel to São Paulo, Brazil, to present their research in an international forum. This year, Collegium students Tyler Miller and Doug Schaefer participated in the program. Doug Schaefer describes his research:

My work is under the direction of Dr. Brian Winer and Dr. Richard Hughes in Ohio State’s experimental high-energy physics research lab. I use Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to search for the Higgs boson, the last undiscovered particle of physics’ Standard Model. ANNs mimic the brain’s ability to detect patterns and help us identify where the Higgs boson may be hiding. This project gave me a thorough grounding in the techniques and procedures of particle physics research, an experience that I will continue to build on in physics graduate school.

COLLEGIUM COMMUNIQUÉ PAGE 5C

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Ehsan works in the lab

David Tomasko, Tyler Miller, Doug Schaefer, Deb Van Camp, Amanda Hays, and Kathleen Nemer

Erica Haugtvedt

Page 6: Autumn 2008 Newsletter

Adrienne StrongI spent four weeks in rural Singida, Tanzania, working in the region’s only government run hospital, along with five other students from three other universities. We were able to shadow doctors and nurses and participate in daily activities of the hospital. We spent a great

deal of time in the labor and delivery ward, as well as in the family planning clinic. We were able to sit in on surgeries, view an autopsy, perform birth control procedures such as Norplant implants and Depo-Provera injections, and administer vaccines to newborns and children.

I enjoyed doing ultrasounds for pregnant mothers to measure gestational age and assure everything was going well in the pregnancy. This opportunity is offered through the organization Outreach Africa and enabled me to work with other groups within the country such as Faraja HIV/AIDS Counseling

Center and the Gunda Secondary School. Exposure to another country’s healthcare system inspired me to pursue classes and a new research project in medical anthropology.

TanzaniaWhat: Medical VolunteerArea of Study: Biomedical Sciences, FrenchGraduation Year: 2010

Surili ShethI volunteered for a month at an NGO named Manav Sadhna (“Service to Mankind”) in Ahmedabad, India. My main project was to teach basic English vocabulary to 40 fifth through ninth graders who resided in the slums of Ahmedabad by translating between English and

Gujarati, their native language. We played games like Simon Says (which reinforced body-parts vocabulary) and Duck Duck Goose.

The children participated in the Card Project, an after school program that allowed them to earn money in a positive manner. Monday to Saturday, they made cards that matched premade samples at Manav Sadhna. The money they earned was used to support their families. The Card Project provided an alternative to dropping out of school and becoming a shoe polisher or a beggar on the street, which many of the children did before they were invited to join the project.

An article about my experiences will be published in the Gujarat Times, as well as in reports for local service organizations in Ahmedabad.

IndiaWhat: Volunteer English TutorArea of Study: Economics, PhilosophyGraduation Year: 2011

Adrienne vaccinates an infant in Tanzania

Surili dances with her students in Ahmedabad

Adrienne speaks with patients

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Children make cards at Manav Sadhna

Page 7: Autumn 2008 Newsletter

Kate Clonan-RoyI received a fellowship to continue research for my senior honors thesis, which analyzes the activism of indigenous women in Chiapas, Mexico. These women struggle for equality in political participation, the right to educate girls, women’s land rights, health services, and protection from domestic and sexual violence. My research studies indigenous women in the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), an army of indigenous Chiapan peasants who view women’s rights as crucial to democracy, and indigenous Chiapan women who are not Zapatistas.

In August 2008 I traveled to San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico, for two weeks to conduct field research. The first week I conducted observational

research in Zapatista communities to examine gender relations and women’s community roles and leadership positions. The second week I interviewed visiting scholars, Mexican academics, and leaders of women’s social activist organizations to find out about indigenous non-Zapatista women’s forms of activism, ideas about feminism, and progress towards women’s rights. I gained a better idea of what I will pursue in my graduate work, and met many inspiring women which have intensified my academic and activist ambition. It was the most meaningful experience of my undergraduate career, but it was also tragic to be surrounded by such poverty.

MexicoWhat: Research FellowshipArea of Study: Women’s Studies, SpanishGraduation Year: 2009

Ravi Gupta

I traveled to Switzerland this past summer as an intern for the Summer Research Scholar Program at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. For nine weeks, I worked as a research assistant in the Global Health Institute on a project focused on the development of drugs for tuberculosis. As a member of this program, I had the rare opportunity to engage with students from all over the world, and learned as much from the friendships I made as I did from the research itself. As a junior majoring in Molecular Genetics and Political Science, I hope to continue to travel and work in my area of interest, as living abroad for an extended period of time has allowed me to more fully develop my capabilities and to gain a better understanding of the world.

SwitzerlandWhat: Research InternshipArea of Study: Molecular Genetics, Political ScienceGraduation Year: 2010

Collegium Senior Gina Aloisio, Zapatista Rebels, and Kate Clonan-Roy

Ravi at the United Nations in Switzerland

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Page 8: Autumn 2008 Newsletter

Robert Bonacci

I am studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, until the beginning of December. I have been studying at the Universidad de Belgrano in the capital, where

my program of study includes classes in advanced Spanish language and Latin American history, culture, literature, and art. I am immersed in new classroom experiences, cultural exchanges, and sightseeing, all in a country with a history and culture distinctly different from what I’ve known in the US. The experience has been wonderful for improving my Spanish speaking and writing. My gracious host family opened their home to me and in doing so, have provided me an intimate view into Argentine

society, instantly providing a sense of belonging. Most importantly, it has confirmed my wishes to work in this region as an infectious- disease doctor. With the tools and experiences I am acquiring here, I will be uniquely equipped to work in this region in the future.

ArgentinaWhat: Studying Language and CultureArea of Study: Microbiology, SpanishGraduation Year: 2010

Leanna PackardAfter completing my study abroad program at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, I began archival work for my senior honors thesis, “The Scottish Revolution

in its International Context, 1639-1642.” I traveled to the Scottish National Archives in Edinburgh, Scotland, for three days to do preliminary work and gain practical experience in a smaller archive. I then traveled to London where I did research at the National Archives in Kew Gardens. I stayed for three weeks, looking at primary documents from the seventeenth century, including ambassador correspondence and other political documents relating to Scotland, England, and France.

National Archives, London

United KingdomWhat: Archival ResearchArea of Study: HistoryGraduation Year: 2009

National Archives, Scotland

Leanna relaxes in London

Robert experiences summer in the Andes

Justin SchulzeI participated in a volunteer trip to San Jose, Costa Rica, with six other Ohio State students. We traveled to a children’s health clinic run by the Foundation for the International Medical Relief of Children. At the clinic, we managed the wait-ing room, shadowed the doctor, and prepared prescriptions for patients. We also planned and performed health program skits at the nearby soup kitchen and daycare. As a Development Studies major, I was especially impressed by the employ-ees of FIMRC who work at the clinic every day, and I can only hope to show the same passion and devotion in my work.

Collegium Junior Brittany O’Neill, Justin Schulze, and Costa Rican children pose for a picture

Costa RicaWhat: Medical VolunteerArea of Study: International Studies and DevelopmentGraduation Year: 2012

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Page 9: Autumn 2008 Newsletter

Amy EakinsThis summer I traveled to Panama for a field school in primatology, a subfield of physical anthropology. I spent one month at a field station, going out into the jungle every day to study mantled howler monkeys and to learn about the secondary rainforest in which they lived. Each day, I would get up before dawn and go out to the forest because as soon as the sun would rise, the monkeys would wake up and begin to howl. These howls could be heard well over a mile away, and arriving at the forest before the howling started made it easy to find the monkey troop in the dense jungle. Once I found the troop, I would follow them for the rest of the day and record data about their behavior, specifically tree use as it related to various subgroups of animals.

It was hard work, and the field station wasn’t exactly a five-star hotel, but the experience of seeing these animals in the wild and studying their natural behavior was one of the most incredible of my life. I saw unique plants and animals including several endangered specimens that future generations will never see if we don’t work to protect them. I will never forget the experience, and I can’t wait to go into the field next summer as well.

Amy (in green) and other researchers rest 100 feet above the ground

Amy observes monkeys

PanamaWhat: Field SchoolArea of Study: Zoology, Anthropological ScienceGraduation Year: 2010

Jeffrey DunifonI spent my summer studying Russian language in the Tomsk Intensive Russian Language and Culture program. My trip included a week-long stay in the Altai Mountain region of Russia, about ten days in Moscow, and six weeks studying language at Tomsk State University in Siberia. During my studies at Tomsk State I was able to complete a year’s worth of language credit in six weeks. I lived with a host family and spent time outside of class in both structured and independent excursions involving Russian culture and history. In addition to my academics, I had the opportunity to white-water raft, hike in the Altai Mountains, and experience Moscow on Russia Day. This trip helped confirm my interest in Russia and exposed me to the country in an in-depth and unique way. Russia

What: Language StudyArea of Study: International Studies, RussianGraduation Year: 2011

COLLEGIUM COMMUNIQUÉ PAGE 9

Jeffrey stands in front of the Kremlin in Moscow

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Page 10: Autumn 2008 Newsletter

Hudson McFannThis summer, through a research fellowship with the Department of Geography, I conducted preliminary research in southeast Ohio, studying the region’s transition from extractive industry to forest re-growth and the role of people in this process. I examined southeast Ohio’s history of labor and land-use struggles and the ways in which they have influenced the region’s identity and led to the formation of different alliances and antagonisms among private landowners, government, and environmental groups. My methods included document analysis, physical landscape analysis, and one-on-one interviews. This preliminary research will contribute to my senior honors thesis.

Hudson camps in southeast Ohio

Appalachia OhioWhat: Research FellowshipArea of Study: GeographyGraduation Year: 2010

Kelly Ramos

This summer I did research us-ing protein microarrays at the Nanotech West Laboratory at Ohio State. I worked with Dr. Michael Paulaitis, a chemical engineering professor, and Chao-fang Yue, a PhD candidate. My project was to use iron nanopar-ticles to bind human leukemia cells to microar-rays and optimize the conditions for capturing the cells. I compared this method to a similar method in which nanoparticles were eliminated and the cells were bound directly to the printed antibodies and compiled my results. One of the best parts of my summer experience was the fact that I was able to interact with chemical engineering gradu-ate students. I also gained insight into the nature of research. I learned that it is a slow process in which one is constantly dealing with setbacks and problems. However, once an experiment is complete, it is truly rewarding. While I enjoyed academic research, next summer I hope to have an internship in the chemical engineering indus-try so that I can compare the two career paths and choose the best fit for my future goals.

Chanelle MaysI spent the summer participating in the Summer Research Opportunities Program at OSU. SROP is a program that brings minority students together to research with faculty mentors at Big 10 institutions. I had a wonderful time staying busy in the lab and meeting students from other schools, especially at the mid-summer conference at Michigan State University.

I researched in Dr. Mary Beckman’s Phonetics Lab. My project was an acoustic study of a group of complex speech sounds called affricates in the Songyuan dialect of Mandarin Chinese. I analyzed adults’ affricate productions in order to compare them with children’s productions and find out how children acquire the sounds. Whether I decide to become a linguistics professor or a forensic phonetician, the experience I’ve had working in the lab alongside graduate students and professors will undoubtedly be influential.

Columbus, OhioWhat: Research FellowshipArea of Study: Chemical EngineeringGraduation Year: 2011

Columbus, OhioWhat: Summer Research Opportunities ProgramArea of Study: LinguisticsGraduation Year: 2010

Chanelle Mays

Kelly Ramos

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Page 11: Autumn 2008 Newsletter

Samy SekarI spent ten weeks in Richland, Washington, as an intern with the U.S. Department of Energy. I worked in the Environmental Compliance division at the Hanford Office of River Protection. I revised and organized air, water, dangerous waste, and research and development permits for the nuclear waste treatment plant and the nuclear waste tank farms. I also participated in two surveillances of the high-level waste treatment plant and tank farms, andlearned about nuclear waste treatment and containment processes. I became

well acquainted with government regulations in regards to nuclear waste cleanup. I also visited the Nez Perce Native American reservation as an ambassador of my internship program.

Richland, WashingtonWhat: Department of Energy InternshipArea of Study: Environmental ScienceGraduation Year: 2012

Christine ZgrabikI worked at Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems in Woburn, Massachusetts (just outside of Boston), at their Missile Defense Center on the System Discrimination Architecture program on algorithm maturation. Investigating sensor fusion using feature analysis, our goal was to integrate radar data from various sensors for better overall discrimination. The idea is that two or three sensors are better than one. I was able to use my programming skills, knowledge of physics and electrical signals, and analytical thinking skills to help solve this problem.

Woburn, MassachusettsWhat: Industry ExperienceArea of Study: Engineering Physics, SpanishGraduation Year: 2009Christine Zgrabik

Ehsan SadeghipourFor twelve weeks this summer, I worked as a product supply engineer at Procter & Gamble in the Baby Care division. My team developed a new test material, which, after meeting product specifications, was implemented into the diapers that would be sold on the market. I led the effort to produce diapers at two of our North American plants using this material, and developed a website for a component of the

raw material acceptance procedure. I also unified our material engineers’ methods for tracking our suppliers’ performance.

Finally, I worked on a special project with other interns to make more environmentally friendly laundry detergent packaging, making the product less environmentally damaging. This position involved technical knowledge and developed my project management skills.

Cincinnati, OhioWhat: Industry ExperienceArea of Study: Mechanical EngineeringGraduation Year: 2009

Ehsan Sadeghipour

Samy Sekar

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Page 12: Autumn 2008 Newsletter

Collegium Alumnus ProfileTaylor Nelms is a 2006 graduate of the Honors Collegium. A McCoy Presidential Scholar, he obtained his B.S. in Comparative Studies and Anthropology before beginning graduate work at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar. After completing his PhD, he plans to become a professor of social anthropology. In 2007, a year after I graduated from Ohio State, I traveled to Cambridge, England, on a Gates Cambridge Scholarship to study Social Anthropology at one of the oldest and most celebrated anthropological institutions in the world. On these historical grounds, I studied kinship, love, and race in urban Ecuador, yet still found time to play on the university’s ultimate Frisbee team, winning second in the nation! My master’s thesis on the modes of family formation in Ecuador’s capital was infused by sensations of history that circulate in a place like Cambridge, which embodies its past in the very stones of its buildings and roads. Cambridge is a wonderful place to study: small, fairly quiet, a bit provincial, but filled with incredibly sharp, incredibly bright and accomplished people. The place lends itself to that lone scholar type; if you romanticize dark corners in libraries and the smell of old books, Cambridge is for you. It’s a wonderful community of students and scholars, and very exciting work is being done in every corner.

This past September I followed my research back to the “New World” to pursue a PhD in Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. This personal history begins, of course, at Ohio State and with the Collegium, where I first learned of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship and later refined my application. At Ohio State I majored in Anthropology and Comparative Cultural Studies, with a minor in Environmental Economics; my interests there—on economic exchange within the family, on narrative and form in ethnographic writing—set the stage for my time at Cambridge. The community of scholars at Ohio State and my foundational experiences there remain as traces in my present work and life and will no doubt find new ways to shape my future within and outside of anthropology.

The Honors Collegium301 Enarson Hall

154 West 12th AvenueColumbus, Ohio 43210Phone: (614) 688-5805

Fax: (614) [email protected]

http://www.honors-scholars.ohio-state.edu/hcHome.aspx

Taylor Nelms relaxes in the orchard

VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1

Editor: Cate Sacchi