CONWAY, Ark. (March
18, 2021) — The Hendrix School Committee on Engaged Studying is happy to
announce the recipients of Odyssey grants for the February 2021 cycle.
Since 2005, the
Committee on Engaged Studying has awarded $four,509,959.71 in aggressive Odyssey
grants to help initiatives by Hendrix college students and college. On this cycle, 13
initiatives acquired $60,282 in grants. The Odyssey Workplace is trying ahead to
reviewing funding proposals throughout its April 2 funding cycle. These proposals
embrace summer time internships, in addition to initiatives throughout all classes that can
occur within the fall and winter of this 12 months.
Addie Race and Sophie
Vogle
Archaeological Subject
College in Herefordshire
Class: International Consciousness
Supervisor: Dr. Brett Hill, Sociology and Anthropology
Addie Race and
Sophie Vogle will take part within the Institute for Subject Analysis’s (IFR) Subject
College in Herefordshire, UK. This five-week archaeological discipline program teaches
college students the method of excavating an historic web site and the steps
conservationists have to take with the intention to correctly deal with and preserve
artifacts. Within the 2021 summer time season, archaeologists in will deal with the
megalithic tomb of Arthur’s Stone. Race and Vogle will apply theories and
methodologies discovered of their programs at Hendrix to real-world experiences
whereas being overseas and immersed in a international tradition. In further to
vocational expertise, they are going to find out about Neolithic research and cultural
anthropology.
Aubrey French and Naomi
Brady
Artwork Resistance in New
York Metropolis
Class: Particular Initiatives
Supervisor: Dr. Anne Goldberg, Sociology/Anthropology
Aubrey French and
Naomi Brady will journey to New York Metropolis to analyze how the artwork scene there
has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, a rising motion for social
justice, and a risky presidential election. Observing galleries, reveals,
and road artwork, they are going to report their experiences and relate them to broader
ideas and tendencies within the artwork scene normally. By experiencing a various
grouping of areas, they hope to spotlight the intersectionality between
politics, artwork, and tradition.
Lauren Berry, Marni
Youthful, and Hailey Johnston
The Mountains Are Calling
and I Should Go: Exploring Nature Writing By way of Immersion within the Wilderness
Class: Particular Initiatives
Supervisor: Dr. Peg Falls-Corbitt, Philosophy
Impressed by
nature writers like John Muir, whose tales prompted their readers’ curiosity
in conservation, Lauren Berry, Marni Youthful,
and Hailey Johnston will discover the idea of nature writing. As they
hike the roughly 250 miles of the John Muir path in California, they are going to
spend the 30-days disconnected from know-how and utterly self-sufficient,
carrying all of the meals and provides vital for his or her trek in backpacks. They
plan to write down every day, capturing the distinctive ecological and environmental
qualities of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of their writings. This challenge is
co-sponsored by the Hendrix-Murphy Applications in Literature and Language.
Keane Sammon and Victoria
Horan
Central Arkansas City
Wildlife Undertaking
Class: Undergraduate Analysis
Supervisor: Dr. Maureen McClung, Biology
Working
this summer time as analysis
technicians for the Central Arkansas City Wildlife Undertaking, Keane Sammon and Victoria Horan will arrange
wildlife cameras in city parks round Little Rock to gather knowledge on the
animals that inhabit these areas. This challenge will discover the affect of
urbanization on Arkansas species, the need for “inexperienced” areas to protect
biodiversity, and the astonishing methods wherein human actions overlap with
wild microcosms hidden in plain sight. Sammon and Horan will instantly have interaction
with conservation efforts, discipline analysis, and educated professionals within the
scientific analysis communities of Arkansas. The Central Arkansas City
Wildlife Undertaking is a collaborative challenge between Hendrix School, the
Arkansas Sport and Fish Fee (AGFC), and the City Wildlife Data
Community (UWIN).
Avery Kennedy
Shakespeare Summer time
College: On-line on the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts
Class: Undergraduate Analysis
Supervisor: Prof.
Antonio Horne, Theatre Arts and Dance
The distinguished
Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, UK, is providing a web based Shakespeare
Summer time College this 12 months. This system is a 4 to five-week course designed to
provide an immersive expertise for its college students as they examine Shakespeare
from an actor’s perspective. Theatre main Avery Waid has studied each the
present development towards practical performing strategies and likewise Shakespeare’s stunning
artistry of language, which is international to trendy ears. This summer time college offers
Waid the possibility to analysis how the 2 will be paired collectively.
Jayla King and Jovaun
Williams
Uganda Primate Analysis
Class: Undergraduate Analysis
Supervisor: Dr. Matthew Moran, Biology
For eight weeks
this summer time, Jayla King and Jovaun Williams will work as analysis assistants in
the Budungo Forest, which is situated in western Uganda. They’ll help Dr.
Catherine Hobaiter, a world-renowned primatologist, who research non-vocal
primate communication. Her analysis is increasing with curiosity within the nice
apes (chimps), or different primates (monkeys) within the area. A lot of their work
will contain the every day statement and recording of conduct of habituated
primate teams. Collaborating on this analysis won’t solely enable them to realize
expertise in animal conduct within the discipline setting, however it’ll additionally elevate
their comprehension of how the skilled discipline of analysis works. Dr.
Jennifer Penner will journey with the scholars and function the on-ground
facilitator, and she is going to help with scholar coaching and mentoring and
discover future collaborations.
Greer Ayers
Investigation into Lung
Most cancers Metastasis within the Mind
Class: Undergraduate Analysis
Supervisor: Dr. Jennifer Peszka, Psychology
Neuroscience
main Jessica Ayers will be part of Dr. David Carbone, MD, PhD in his analysis labs
this summer time on the Ohio State College Wexner Medical Heart in Columbus,
Ohio, to do analysis on lung most cancers metastasis within the mind. Ayers will work on
knowledge assortment utilizing varied laboratory methods and knowledge evaluation, and he or she
will take part in writing initiatives that would yield publications. One
approach is exome sequencing on resected mind tumors and matching the exome
sequencing from the lung tumor of the identical affected person. She hopes to find extra
about why lung most cancers metastasizes within the mind and what will be executed to deal with
sufferers who’ve this prognosis.
Megan Pelley
Researching Medication That
Goal the S100A1 Protein
Class: Undergraduate Analysis
Supervisor: Dr. Caitlin Scott, Chemistry
The S100A1
protein modulates muscle contraction, which is vital for cardiac operate.
Megan Pelley will analysis medicine that focus on the S100A1 protein. The primary
portion of her challenge will contain calculating the motion of atoms in a
given time period to see the transition from the inactive to energetic, or
useful type, of the S100A1 protein. The second portion of the analysis will
be discovering how the protein behaves and acts with medicine by way of using
laptop applications, similar to MTIOpen Supply and Section. Pelley hopes to develop a
pharmacophore, an image of how the protein and varied medicine work together,
Emily Pickering
Discovering Novel
Antagonists that bind to the Kappa Opioid Receptor for Future Use in
Antidepressants
Class: Undergraduate Analysis
Supervisor: Dr. Caitlin Scott, Chemistry
Melancholy
impacts 6.eight% of the grownup inhabitants in the US, however the
antidepressants generally used at this time are riddled with points, similar to differing
results amongst sufferers, lengthy incubation intervals, and unpredictable facet
results. Analysis suggests the binding of antagonists will block the exercise
of the protein kappa opioid receptor and thus trigger antidepressant results.
Emily Pickering will proceed the work of earlier Hendrix college students utilizing
laptop software program to create a dependable mannequin of the protein kappa opioid
receptor, and she is going to design medicine to work together with that mannequin and discover
antagonists have the strongest affinity for binding to it. These compounds
may doubtlessly be utilized in future antidepressant drugs that shouldn’t have
the present drawbacks.
Alaina Ivers
Computational screening
of the mu-opioid receptor advanced to establish secure ache treatment
Class: Undergraduate Analysis
Supervisor: Dr. Caitlin Scott, Chemistry
Continual ache
impacts roughly 50 million people within the U.S., and excessive affect
power ache impacts about 20 million adults within the U.S. Opioids, similar to
morphine, are drugs which are generally used to handle ache. Nevertheless, they
aren’t safely monitored or used as prescribed, and they’re extremely addictive
and trigger tolerance. Opioids are agonists, or compounds that activate proteins,
and on this case, the mu-opioid receptor. Alaina Ivers will conduct analysis
this summer time with the objective of figuring out a safer different to opioids by
designing an agonist that stabilizes the mu-opioid receptor when it’s certain to
the Gi protein and the sigma-1 receptor. This would supply ache aid whereas diminishing
the undesirable unintended effects.
Dr. Gabriel Ferrer,
Laptop Science
An empirical comparability
of unsupervised studying algorithms for robotic scene recognition.
Class: Undergraduate Analysis
Dr. Gabe Ferrer
will work with Dmitry Vyakhirev as they apply machine studying algorithms to
real-time robotic imaginative and prescient. On this challenge, Vyakhirev will help in Ferrer’s
ongoing analysis by measuring the impact of various different machine
studying algorithms deployed on a bodily robotic in numerous settings. The important thing
efficiency subject underneath evaluation is figuring out how nicely these completely different
algorithms are in a position to signify, in a summative method, all the locations the
robotic has visited, whereas enabling the robotic to guess its location inside a really
brief time window.
Dr. Rod Miller, Artwork
Senior Artwork Main Journey to
NYC
Class: Particular Initiatives
In conjunction
with their required course, ARTH 430 Practicum: Senior Studio, artwork college students
Anna Bivens, Andy Bootz, Raven Edens, and James Trenthem can have a three-day,
three-night go to to New York Metropolis galleries and museums. This journey offers
college students the possibility to see artworks first-hand and grasp not solely the
distinction between this and seeing them reproduced but in addition an understanding of
how galleries work and show artwork in quite a lot of modern artwork galleries
and trendy/historic artwork museums. What they glean from the journey will contribute
to their written analysis challenge in ARTH 430, their Senior Presentation, and
their very own artwork making and show for the Senior Artwork Present.
Dr. Delphia Shanks,
Politics
Courtroom Watch: Lowering
Legal Justice Debt by way of Skill to Pay Laws
Class: Undergraduate Analysis
America
leads the world in incarcerating its residents, resulting in declines in political
participation, disproportionate illustration of rural areas in legislative
our bodies, disproportionate results on communities of colour and low-income
neighborhoods, and different distortions in social, financial, and democratic
outcomes. Not solely are charges and fines levied for the crime dedicated, they
rapidly balloon because of defendants’ incapability to pay them. This results in
vital debt burdens that may cripple a person’s monetary security
lengthy past any jail sentence. Dr. Delphia Shanks is working with an area
nonprofit, decARcerate, to judge and handle the inequitable software of
monetary penalties within the legal justice system. She is going to work with two
college students to finish a analysis plan that features a literature overview, knowledge
assortment and evaluation, and drafting a proper educational analysis paper for
presentation. As well as, they are going to work collectively to make the outcomes
accessible to the general public by way of a written coverage temporary and public presentation
to coverage advocates, stakeholders, and native nonprofits on the finish of the
summer time.