Supported by the Mellon Foundation and The Eugene M. Lang Foundation, the Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) program aims to foster and support committed scholars dedicated to incorporating civic engagement into the curriculum while empowering students to use their academic knowledge to tackle real-world problems through deliberative dialogue.

Read on the Carleton Grants Office page.

“My Spanish major opened up the world to me, from Morelia, Mexico in 1992 with HH [Humberto Huergo, professor of Spanish] to the Peace Corps in Guinea-Bissau, and then to a Spanish linguistics program in Illinois,” Mancini said. “It has connected me with people from all over — The Basque Country! Colombia! Cuba! Uruguay! — and there’s always something new to learn and a different way to think. Everywhere I go there are good people. What a treasure.”

“My Spanish major has exposed me to literature and films that have expanded my world many times over and introduced me to people who are resisting oppressive systems in an incredible variety of ways,” Snowbeck said. “Spanish has endowed me with a political imagination and challenged me to envision a better world in the tradition of a myriad of scholars and people who have done so before me.”

“The Weitz Fellowship is an exceptional entry-level experience that provides a rotational-type opportunity for Carleton graduates,” Associate Director of the Career Center Chad Ellsworth explained. “Through the one-year fellowship, fellows develop expertise in a variety of functional areas and operational roles in nonprofit organizations, while also contributing in meaningful ways to address critical social issues in the communities of Omaha and Lincoln. All of this takes place within a cohort experience and a supportive alumni network that includes former Weitz Fellows who have made Nebraska their home.” 

Without further ado, meet the soon-to-be graduates selected for the 2025–26 Weitz Fellowships:

Julia Dunn ’25

Dunn is a political science and international relations major with an Africana studies minor from Portmore, Jamaica. She will be spending her fellowship year with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Nebraska, an organization that has worked for more than 50 years to protect the constitutional and individual rights of everyone through their work in courts, communities, and legislatures. With a nationwide network of offices and millions of members and supporters, the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties fights. Dunn will be working within a variety of different spheres, including reproductive justice, racial and Indigenous justice, and immigrant rights. Specifically, she may conduct policy research, assist with the preparations for internal and external meetings, and aid with fundraising efforts.

“I’m excited to get more firsthand experience in community organizing, working to safeguard the civil liberties and human rights of Nebraskans. I also look forward to developing additional skills in nonprofit fundraising and communications, and learning more about the behind-the-scenes operations of advocacy organizations.”

Markus Gunadi ’25

Gunadi is a double major in cinema and media studies (CAMS) and computer science from Palo Alto, California. He will be spending his fellowship year with Film Streams, a nonprofit arts organization dedicated to enhancing the cultural environment of Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa through the presentation and creative discussion of film as an art form. The organization oversees two distinct cinemas: the Ruth Sokolof Theater and the historic Dundee Theater. Gunadi will apply his interest in cinema as an “educational and community-building tool” through event planning, administrative work, educational programming, and even working the popcorn machine! Additionally, he will be organizing his own film series and conducting research on important topics related to the Omaha community. 

“By the end of my Weitz Fellowship, I hope to have a better understanding of how art nonprofits are run and watch a lot of new films!”

Grace Bassekle ’25

Bassekle is a sociology and anthropology major. She will spend her fellowship year with I Be Black Girl (IBBG), a reproductive justice organization that “leads with boldness, innovation, and inspiration, actively creating a radical change-making culture that centers Black women, femmes, and girls.” Inspired by the work of bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and other Black feminists and womanists, IBBG provides transformational change at the intersections of gender and race. The term “I Be,” framed by author bell hooks in her book Be Boy Buzz, inspired IBBG’s founder to fill spaces with what it means to exist as a Black woman, femme, or girl — where they are free to define and own that narrative. During this time, Bassekle will be exposed to how policy is used to drive radical change in the reproductive justice sphere, and how economic inequality and a flawed medical system perpetuate injustice.

Maya Keeney ’25

Keeney is a studio art major with an art history minor from Kansas City, Missouri. She will be spending her fellowship year with the Joslyn Art Museum, which houses a collection of over 12,000 objects spanning over 5,000 years of human creation from the world’s diverse cultures. The Museum was a gift to the people of Omaha from Sarah Joslyn in memory of her husband, George, and has welcomed millions of visitors from around the world since its opening in 1931, with general admission free to all. The campus comprises three distinct, yet connected, buildings surrounded by sculpture gardens. Looking to gain real-world experience within the world of museum curation, Keeney will be working in the Learning and Engagement Department, with opportunities to explore other departments. Within her role, she will be focusing on community projects and exploring new methods for the museum to serve as a community resource.

“While I know I would like to work in the field of museums, I am still unsure how my skill set best contributes to this system. I would love to gain a better insight into all aspects of museum work and use this knowledge as a foundation for my future endeavors.”

Dani Reynoso ’25

Reynoso is an American studies major from Chicago, Illinois. She will be spending her fellowship year with the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest. This advocacy organization focuses on healthcare access, economic justice, child welfare, immigrants, and communities through their civic engagement work and efforts within Nebraska’s legal and policy sectors. Reynoso will engage in relationship-building at all levels, event planning, and coordination, and will participate in creating active legislation alongside a staff of attorneys, policy specialists, and community organizers. She looks forward to “creating meaningful change” as she focuses on projects within the economic justice and healthcare access areas. 

“I have a few hopes for this next year. Most of all, I hope this experience helps guide my future pursuits; more specifically, if I want to continue nonprofit work or if I’ll move into public policy work. I’m excited to deepen my understanding of how advocacy at the community level can take shape on a much larger, political scale. Finally, I’m excited to move to a new city — I’ve never even stepped foot in Nebraska, so that’s scary but so exciting!”

Ashley Rosenberg ’25

Rosenberg is a religion major with a Spanish minor from Chicago, Illinois. She will be spending her fellowship year with the Nebraska Civic Engagement Table, an organization that works with other nonprofits across the state to encourage nonpartisan civic participation, fighting for a multiracial, representative democracy that serves all communities. They do this by providing direct core support, technical tools, and collaborative spaces to member nonprofits to support year-round civic engagement. Rosenberg will have the opportunity to work within all branches of the organization, but is “particularly excited to engage in public policy work, as well as support grassroots organizing efforts across Nebraska.”

“I hope to learn how to make an impact in the nonprofit sphere through movement-building work and grassroots organizing, as well as by engaging with institutional structures. Especially right now, given the current political climate, organizing and forming community networks to help each other is so essential. I believe that I will take away skills that will help me be able to do so effectively, as well as the skills needed to pursue a career in nonprofit work focused on systemic change.”

Will Hassell ’25

Hassell is an English major with minors in educational studies and English creative writing. He will spend his fellowship year with The Rose Theater. For over 75 years, the Omaha Theater Company has served generations of children and families in the Omaha area. Today, adults who once passed through the doors of The Rose as children now bring their own families to share in the experience, creating an ongoing tradition for many. Guided by the mission to enrich the lives of all through live theater and education, The Rose will be a place where Hassell will help children and families in the Omaha area engage with and find joy in theater.

Mia Strubel Iram ’25

Strubel Iram is a political science and international relations major with minors in European studies and Middle East studies from Skokie, Illinois. She will be spending her fellowship year with the Women’s Fund of Omaha, a nonprofit organization focused on research, grants, and advocacy around issues facing women and girls in their communities. The Women’s Fund provides grant funding to service providers, advocates for policy change, and influences dynamic change within the community. Iram is “thankful for the opportunity to learn about Omaha and the political environment” as she contributes to a variety of projects, including research, policy development, communications, and donor and volunteer relations. Research areas include economic conditions, domestic violence, and challenges facing girls.

“As a Weitz Fellow, I hope to gain important professional development skills, specifically within the realm of promoting gender issues. I am grateful for the opportunity to work at the Women’s Fund, where I will be able to gain important skills in advocacy and research and learn more about the community and gender needs in Nebraska.”

To learn more about the Weitz Fellows program, the cohort experience, and the mission and work of this year’s organizations, visit the Career Center website.

2025 marks Russ’s 50th year at Carleton. Originally arriving on campus under a Funds for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) Grant, Russ knew early on that he’d found something special. 

“I didn’t think I would ever leave really. Right when I started, I thought this is going to be what I want to do for as long as I continue working,” Russ recalled, right thumb tracing circles against his other fingers, as if turning over a fond memory. “Yeah, I said this is ideal. This is an ideal position for me.”

Before coming to Carleton, Russ worked for the United Farm Workers’ Union during the Grape Boycott in Montreal, Canada, and served as a Peace Corps math teacher in Moshi, Tanzania. Prior to that, he was a math major with a physics minor at St. Olaf. He started college thinking he’d become a ceramics engineer, but as he kept taking math classes, Russ got hooked on logic. 

Explaining why he chose math over physics, Russ said, “I backed into it because I was curious to know where the formulas in physics came from and how we derived those formulas.”

This pursuit of deep understanding is also what Russ hopes to instill in students. 

“The reward I get, you know, is when somebody realizes how to do that problem,” he said. “That person walks away smiling, saying, ‘Oh, now I can do another problem just like that.’” 

This, he emphasized, is what he loves about tutoring: “It’s the feeling that you’ve helped somebody. Every time you work with someone, it’s a different experience.”

Scattered around the lab are puzzles and curious objects that Russ has collected from garage sales over the years. He laughed when asked about them, saying he likes to challenge students. Russ loves his job not just because it lets him do math, but also because it lets him share math with others. In his patient voice, he reflected: “It’s more about the person. Yeah. It’s all about the person.”

Russ is not only the soul of the Math Skills Center; he’s also a legend in the physical education, athletics, and recreation (PEAR) department. Since 1989, besides teaching bright-eyed students how to integrate, he’s also been instructing aerobics. 

“I cannot keep up with him,” is what 20-year-olds have been telling each other for decades after an evening of doing step aerobics with Russ. His aerobics classes have even been used in official College marketing materials — just check out a series of four promo videos he did when Carleton adopted the OneCard 14 years ago! Going Places with the OneCard, Get Your OneCard, Control Your Schillers, and Russ Returns: Dining Dollars vs. Schillers were obviously smash hits on YouTube.

When asked if he sees a connection between this sport and math, Russ just laughed and shook his head. 

“With math, I’m getting intellectual stimulation, and then during my aerobics class, I’m getting physical activity,” he said. 

If Russ likes math for its logic, he likes aerobics for its synchrony. 

“It’s like dancing!” Russ exclaimed. “I’m getting the best of both worlds here, you know.”

Fifty years is a long time, but whenever Russ talks about math or tutoring, his blue eyes still light up, sharp with enthusiasm. 

“I love what I do,” he said. “You know, it gives me fulfillment. It gives me satisfaction.” 

Smiling as always, Russ says there are three things he thinks every Carl should know: “Learn math. Come to the Math Skills Center. Everyone can do it.”

In her opening address, President Alison Byerly spoke of Carleton students with immense pride in the face of grave times for higher education.

“What these students share is what makes Carleton special: intellectual curiosity, energetic engagement, and commitment to the hard work of learning at a time when support for higher education, for academic research, and for the kind of diverse and vibrant community we build at Carleton are in jeopardy,” she said. “It is especially valuable to have the opportunity to honor students who have excelled in a wide variety of fields, who have undertaken research or creative projects, and who have made our community stronger through their leadership and service. You represent the true promise of higher education, and the reason it’s worthy of support.”

In his salutatory address, College Chaplain Schuyler Vogel ’07 also celebrated Carls’ actions in the face of challenges.

“Despite all of this, we gather today in joy and hope,” he said. “We cheer on our classmates, whose achievements give hope to the world — what a gift you are. We cheer on the endeavor that we are all committed to at Carleton: celebrating the truth of learning and freedom and curiosity and wisdom and justice that this place represents. The world needs that now more than ever.”

In a further celebration of Carleton talent, this year’s Honors Convo featured two musical performances by senior students — the Carleton String Quartet (Kyle Machalec ’25, violin; Kara Achilles ’25, violin; Finley Sebert ’25, viola; and Rachel Gregg ’25, cello) performed a Shostakovich movement, and Carleton’s concerto competition winner Prompt Eua-anant ’25 performed a Chopin étude. 

Carleton students were the recipients of more than 80 prizes, fellowships, honor society inductions, and awards in 2025. Due to the scale of achievement, this piece will only highlight some awards; the full list of honorees is available on the Honors Convo website. 

This year, three Carleton seniors were awarded Thomas J. Watson Fellowships to engage in a year of independent study abroad. Mitch Porter ’25, Jonah Docter-Loeb ’25, and Victoria Semmelhack ’25 will spend their fellowships, respectively, investigating ecological memory in places of environmental loss, delving into the complexities of beaver–human dynamics, and engaging in maternal healthcare policy and Indigenous childbirth knowledge. 

Narjis Nusaibah ’26 received this year’s Projects for Peace grant, awarded to students who have designed their own grassroots projects for peace around the globe. Nusaibah’s project is dedicated to facilitating breast cancer screenings and awareness programs in Bangladesh.

Anna Ursin ’25 was awarded the Rotary Foundation Global Grant Fellowship to pursue a Master’s of Philosophy in the Population Health Sciences program at the University of Cambridge, continuing her pursuit of public health studies and medicine. 

Due to ongoing circumstances in international affairs and higher education, this year’s Fulbright awards are still waiting for final confirmation; however, Carleton proudly celebrated all 25 Fulbright semi-finalists at Honors Convo. This year’s semi-finalists are: Amelia Asfaw ’25, Jens Bartel ’25, Max Borden ’25, Aurora Davis ’25, Sadie DiCarlo ’25, Loren Friedman ’25, Akash Ganguly ’25, Markus Gunadi ’25, Malachy Guzman ’25, Kaori Hirano ’25, Olivia Ho ’25, Ellis Kondrashov ’25, Oliver Licht ’25, Caroline Loescher ’25, Katie O’Leary ’25, Mitch Porter ’25, Ashley Rosenberg ’25, Melina Sasaki-Uemura ’25, Victoria Semmelhack ’25, Charlie Solomon ’25, Henry Stier ’25, Sammie Ulicny ’25, Kate Ulrich ’25, Anna Ursin ’25, and Aaron Zivsak ’25. This year’s Fulbright Canada-MITACS Globalink internships — prestigious opportunities for students to participate in research at Canadian universities — were awarded to Aroma Chanda ’27 and Arielle Szycher ’26. 

Carleton also celebrated the induction of 46 members into the Mortar Board national honor society, and 87 to the Phi Beta Kappa national honorary scholastic fraternity.

Carleton Student Association (CSA) President Vivian Agugo ’26 celebrated the accomplishments of Carleton students past and present in her remarks on the nature of Carleton students. After highlighting Carleton’s 2010 world record for “the largest group spoon” (check out the time lapse from Nate Ryan ’10), she centered the hard work, ingenuity, and tenacity of Carleton students. 

“You are not just students,” she said, “you are artists, researchers, organizers, dreamers, and doers. You’ve pushed boundaries, redefined excellence, and yes, survived ten weeks that move faster than time itself!”

Faculty Curricular Planning Committee Grants

• Sarah Anthony (French and Francophone studies) and Vera Coleman (Spanish): to support the development of a training program for language TAs in French and Spanish, with the goal of improving student learning and promoting inclusion in French and Spanish language courses.
• Lin Deng and Shaohua Guo (Asian languages and literatures): to develop online placement testing and update language learning tools for beginning and intermediate Chinese language courses.
• Steven Drew (chemistry): to develop a laboratory course on the chemistry of renewable energy.
• Jade Hoyer ’07 and Conor McGrann (art and art history) and Rachel Horness (chemistry): to support the project, “The Chemistry of Lithography: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Printmaking Art.”
• Jake Morton (classics) and Caroline Turnage-Butterbaugh (mathematics and statistics): to design the interdisciplinary course, Mathematics and the Ancient Mediterranean World.
• Anna Rafferty (computer science): to support collaborative work with computer science faculty on reenvisioning peer instruction in introductory computer science.
• Kaz Skubi ’11 and Chris Calderone (chemistry): to support collaborative work on designing a greener organic chemistry teaching lab.
• Christina Farhart (political science and international relations) and Ethan Struby (economics): to support the development of a new interdisciplinary course on political and economic beliefs.

Ethical Inquiry Grants

• Chielo Eze (Africana studies): to design a new syllabus as part of ongoing revision of the Africana studies program curriculum.
• Chumie Juni (religion): to develop the new course, Religion and Food.

Created in 2020, the Paglia Post-Baccalaureate Research Fellowship is made possible by Carleton alum Cathy James Paglia ’74 and her husband, Louis Paglia.

Introducing the Class of 2025 Paglia Post-Baccalaureate Research Fellows:

Aiden Lesneski ’25

Lesneski, a chemistry major with a biochemistry minor who has also served as a grader and teaching assistant at Carleton, will join the E. James Petersson group at the University of Pennsylvania. Under Petersson’s mentorship, Lesneski will study neurodegenerative processes associated with several diseases and potential enzyme-based therapeutic interventions. Lesneski’s previous summer experience at the University of Utah School of Medicine, along with his Carleton coursework, excited his interest in research and developed his confidence; two years at the University of Pennsylvania as a Paglia Fellow will prepare him well for entry into a top PhD program in chemistry.

“As a Paglia Fellow in the Petersson Lab at Penn, I’ll be in a collaborative research environment that will provide me with invaluable opportunities for networking and mentorship from scientists across disciplines — from chemistry and biophysics to radiology and surgery. I’ll gain hands-on experience in bioorganic and chemical biology techniques I’ve learned about in the classroom, but most importantly, I’ll participate in research that aims to directly improve the lives of humans.”

Audrey Parrott ’25

Parrott, a chemistry major who has also served as a tutor and the health officer for Carleton’s D-I Syzygy Ultimate team, will join the Filippo Mancia group at Columbia University. Under Mancia’s mentorship, Parrott will study the role of membrane proteins in drug resistance, with particular reference to antimalarials. Parrott’s previous research at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, and work with chemistry professor Deborah Gross at Carleton, have prepared her to enter Mancia’s dynamic group, where she will gain deeper exposure to the entire research process. Two years at Columbia University as a Paglia Fellow will enable Parrott to understand which subfield of biochemistry interests her and gain admission to a top PhD program.

“I am super excited to learn and apply more biochemical lab techniques to real-world problems. I am also eager to take advantage of all of the opportunities the Columbia and New York City scientific communities have to offer, such as seminars and conferences.”

Elias Tannira ’25

Tannira, a double major in physics and mathematics, will join the Luis M.A. Bettencourt group at the University of Chicago. Bettencourt’s specialization in ecology and evolution makes his group the ideal place for Tannira to explore his interest in applying techniques from his two majors to biological and social phenomena. At Carleton, Tannira has engaged in research with physics professors Marty Baylor and Arjendu Pattanayak, alongside his role as a teaching assistant in mathematics. A three-week research experience in Bettencourt’s group during Winter Break 2024 introduced Tannira to the variety of topics available to him for more extensive engagement as a Paglia Fellow. Two years at the University of Chicago will help him clarify his disciplinary direction and gain admission to a top PhD program in his field of choice. 

“Due to the theoretical nature of my research, I will spend a lot of time learning theories in biophysics and theoretical ecology that synthesize and build on the courses I took during my time at Carleton. I’m excited to conduct the necessary readings to build up this knowledge and put it to use by working on unanswered questions. I am also looking forward to attending seminars and lectures on current research and working amongst dedicated and passionate investigators.”

The James-Paglia family has a long history of supporting Carleton initiatives, including construction of Carleton’s integrated science facility, Evelyn M. Anderson Hall. Cathy, Louis, and the Robert and Ardis James Foundation established a $20 million matching fund to make the project possible.

Mitch Porter ’25

Porter will travel to places experiencing ecological loss to investigate environmental memory and the response of communities to ecological change. Each of his planned destinations face a unique environmental challenge, from flooding in the coastal neighborhoods of Jakarta, to deforestation in the rainforests of Borneo, to the rewilding of brown bears in central Italy and deglaciation in Greenland. 

An environmental studies and Latin American studies double major, Porter was inspired to apply for the fellowship when he heard Associate Professor of Anthropology Constanza Ocampo-Raeder, who was also a recipient of the fellowship, describe it as a formative experience. Porter has researched medicinal plant species in Mexico with Ocampo-Raeder. He also studied abroad in Argentina, an experience that developed into his senior comps project on the creation of marine protected areas in the region. 

“I really wanted to keep asking the questions that I’ve been asking,” said Porter. “What is climate change and what is environmental change, but also how do people respond and what does it actually mean for them? What does it mean to live in a world that’s constantly changing?”

Porter is excited to spend a year in “some of the most vulnerable but also most beautiful places on Earth,” and experience places where he doesn’t speak the language.

“It’s an insane privilege to get to do in the first place,” he said. “One of my biggest realizations at Carleton has been that most of the knowledge about big issues is already out there. I hope to learn from other people who are living these sorts of experiences and think about these things on a daily basis.”

Jonah Docter-Loeb ’25

Docter-Loeb will also use the fellowship to explore environmental issues, but through the lens of a creature he’s become familiar with during his time at Carleton: beavers.

Docter-Loeb will explore people’s relationships with beavers in Norway, Britain, Canada, Chile, and Argentina. He’ll explore topics such as how people work with beavers, work against beavers, and how beavers connect with conservation goals and landscape change.

“Each of these countries has unique social, historical, economic, and ecological landscapes that shape how beavers are managed and what role they play in conservation,” he said. That ranges from places where beavers are abundant, to places where they are being reintroduced after extirpation, to places where invasive beavers are reshaping landscapes unused to them.

“In every case, beavers find a way to lodge themselves into the center of complex environmental conversations,” Docter-Loeb said. The fellowship will allow him to chew on the global impacts of beavers (pun intended).

“Beavers are unique in how they challenge people’s visions for landscapes,” Docter-Loeb explained. “They’re a catalyst for these larger conversations about what we want our relationships to landscapes to look like in this increasingly changing world.” 

Docter-Loeb became passionate about beavers during his sophomore year after getting to know local trapper Mike Smith, who was hired by Carleton to kill beavers in Lyman Lakes (it’s illegal to relocate live beavers in the state of Minnesota, so trapping has become one of the only available options).

“His kindness and openness to sharing his craft inspired me to dive deeper into this issue and keep an open mind to people who commune with the natural world in ways unfamiliar to an urbanite like myself,” Docter-Loeb said. 

Docter-Loeb has since conducted an independent study on beaver management and environmental ethics; initiated and organized Beaver Fest, a now-annual Carleton tradition celebrating and educating about beavers on campus; and traveled to Washington state to speak with people involved in beaver restoration.

During his Watson Fellowship, Docter-Loeb plans to wrestle with the big questions that beavers pose about humans’ relationships to the land and each other. He’s also excited to watch beavers and build relationships with the people and landscapes he encounters.

Victoria Semmelhack ’25

Semmelhack will travel to Ghana, India, Australia, and Norway to explore childbirth knowledge and maternal healthcare policy. 

“My content is structured around two main themes,” she said. “The first is looking at how Indigenous childbirth knowledge and the more westernized hospital-based system interact. All four countries have a long history of colonization and I’m really intrigued by how that manifests itself in their actual birth practices.” 

“Another component is the rural aspect of it,” she added. “A lot of these populations are located in really rural locations, and these countries have a difficult time getting adequate maternal healthcare to them. I’m looking at how these countries provide that and the challenges in these rural areas.”

Semmelhack has had a long-running interest in birth. 

“It’s this fascinating intersection of a variety of different aspects of society,” she said. As a double major in history and sociology and anthropology, she challenged herself to end every term with a final project related to birth. 

“I was able to study the topic of birth across a variety of time periods, cultures, and societies,” she said. “The Watson Fellowship just felt like a really natural extension of that personal challenge of mine; and a really fun one at that, because I love traveling and seeing new things.”

While researching birth experiences in southern Appalachia for her senior comps project, Semmelhack discovered the value of talking with people about the topic and immersing herself in the field.

“The experience made me really excited for the Watson, where the whole year is just talking to people and meeting people,” she said. “There’s no better way to learn about this topic.”

Semmelhack said her ultimate goal is to affect maternal healthcare policy in the United States, and she plans to pursue a PhD in public health or sociology.

“This is an experience that will definitely show me whether or not this is the path that I should pursue, and I don’t think it will show me otherwise,” she said. “I’m excited to bolster my excitement for pursuing higher education and policy work.”

Learn more about the Watson Fellowship and how to apply on Carleton’s Student Fellowships website.

The 10 fellows in this second-ever leadership cohort were selected from 14 of ACM’s partner colleges for their demonstrated leadership capabilities, commitment to diversity and inclusive equity, and the potential for a transformative impact at their institution. Each fellow will lead a set of responsibilities as outlined by their college’s senior leadership, in addition to participating in leadership development workshops and convenings with their cohort.

At Carleton, Brückmann’s ultimate goals for her leadership projects include strengthening the humanities, expanding collaborative work among interdisciplinary programs that study various facets of intersectionality, and supporting Carleton’s Community Plan for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity. 

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion are crucial aspects of knowledge production and of social discourse; it will thus be one of my central goals to enhance the visibility of these interdisciplinary programs and their expertise,” Brückmann said. “Closely connected is a second project that aims at further improving the retention and recruitment of historically underrepresented faculty and fostering a sense of community.”

She will work directly with Carleton faculty — “especially faculty who contribute so importantly to our interdisciplinary programs that study racialization, ethnicity, and intersectionality,” Brückmann said — along with the Office of the Provost, including associate provost Yansi Pérez; the Division of Inclusion, Equity, and Community; and various campus affinity groups at Carleton.

Brückmann is most looking forward to working with colleagues across multiple departments, programs, and divisions, as well as conversations with other leadership fellows and opportunities to directly engage with important topics.

“Especially during a time in which ‘DEI’ has become remarkably controversial,” Brückmann said, “I am delighted to take more responsibility for topics that are not only of importance to me but to academia — and society writ large — more broadly.”

As an ACM Academic Leadership Fellow, Brückmann will enter into dialogue with other emerging leaders not only at ACM and its member schools, but also the Associated Colleges of the South and the New York Six. She is excited about the work that the ACM fellowship will allow her to do. 

“I am honored to be part of this fellowship, and I am very appreciative to have the time, space, and support to really delve into these projects,” Brückmann said.

Read more on the CCCE website.

While teaching BIOL 210: Global Change Biology as a visiting instructor at Carleton this past winter, Torstenson focused on exposing her students to environmental issues and ideas, but also on helping connect those issues to their own lives. In her words, “What do you care about and how can you use biology to understand it more and respond?”

While science is often focused on objectivity, “people don’t just accidentally end up being ecologists,” Torstenson said. “People get into doing this work because they care. I wanted to show that you can integrate your identity and background with biology.”

Returning to Carleton to teach Global Change Biology was a full-circle moment for Torstenson; one that recalls her own process of finding her place in ecology. A math major at Carleton, she took the course herself as a student after attending a lecture on mathematical ecology while studying abroad at the University of Oslo in Norway.

“I was like, ‘That exists? That’s so crazy!’ I care so much about the environment, and I like doing math, so this is where I should be,” she said.

Once she returned to Carleton after studying abroad, Torstenson took Global Change Biology with Daniel Hernández, professor of biology.

“I learned so much, and then I spent the rest of my time at Carleton taking as many ecology classes as I could and getting involved in research experiences,” she said. 

After graduating, Torstenson remained immersed in the field of global change. She spent a year teaching math at the Conserve School, a high school program focused on conservation, and then traveled to Norway to research arctic climate change for a Fulbright fellowship. 

Torstenson is currently in the fifth year of her PhD program at the University of Minnesota. She uses mathematical models to study how animal migration affects responses to climate change and how migration shapes pathogen evolution.

“When the opportunity to teach Global Change Biology [at Carleton] came up, it was really exciting,” she said, “because the course was so formative in my academic development, by being exposed to these major environmental issues and getting some insight into the [classic college senior question], ‘Where can I put myself?’”

Torstenson has integrated some of the perspectives gained from her research into the course, such as the importance of models in ecology and how to think in systems. 

“People don’t often imagine ecology as a mathematical discipline, but mathematical models are a useful way to understand complex systems and processes,” she said, “so practicing thinking that way is a lot of what we do.”

Given the magnitude of many current environmental problems, facing those issues every day can be emotionally challenging, something Torstenson often thinks about and discussed with her students during class. 

“You can learn these topics and just be sad or anxious about the world, and some days in my research, that’s how I feel,” she said. “One of my approaches is just to get it out there that that’s a normal response to this. I also try to emphasize points where all kinds of people, through their actions, have made a difference.” 

“I presented this Robin Wall Kimmerer quote, where she talks about choosing joy and choosing reciprocity,” she added. “A wounded world is still feeding us and a wounded world is still bringing joy every day. So to be joyful is just returning the gift… You can be sad and you can be anxious, but you should try to not be alone in that, and think, ‘What can I do to help?’”

For Torstenson, teaching is a powerful way to make an impact. 

“Teaching here and now, I get to engage with parts of global change biology that aren’t in my research and think more broadly,” she said. “It’s also great to watch learning happen and see people put pieces together.”

While Torstenson has had her own process of connecting her passions with her environmental concerns and finding a place in her field, teaching continues to inspire her. 

“There are so many Carleton students that go out and do cool things in the world and are just smart, interesting, engaged people that care,” she said. “What is the knowledge that I can give them to facilitate that awesomeness?”

Joanne Chung ’26 has been accepted into the 2025 Public Policy International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. She will be the first Carleton student to participate in this program, and sat down with me to speak about the process and what she hopes to get out of the experience. She is double-majoring in political science/international relations and economics at Carleton, with an interest in learning more about public policy.

Chung found PPIA while searching for opportunities on Carleton’s Office of Student Fellowships website, and thought it would be a good fit for her current interests in addition to helping her think about her path after Carleton.

“As a first-generation student,” she said, “I’m unclear what public policy might look like in higher education, so I think that the PPIA program would be a good way to test that out and think about graduate school.” 

Chung is most excited about the exploratory aspect of this fellowship, explaining that she is interested in many different types of domestic policy right now and isn’t sure yet where she wants to focus. 

“I want to narrow down to a specific field, but I still need to do that narrowing down,” she said. “[This fellowship] will permit me to have the time to explore a topic more in-depth than I would on my own time as an undergraduate.” 

The six-week PPIA program features graduate-level coursework in statistics, economics, and policy, all pertaining to public policy. After its conclusion, Chung will receive an evaluation and a stipend, which she can use for a master’s in public policy if attending one of the 60+ institutions connected with the PPIA program. The consortium includes Princeton University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Michigan.

A significant part of what drew Chung to public policy came from experiences she had in Carleton classrooms. She explained the importance she places on discourse during class discussions, and how she wants to continue to be in spaces that allow her to contribute to that. She identified two courses that stood out to her — AMST 225: Beauty and Race in America and POSC 265: Public Policy and Global Capitalism. 

Beauty and Race in America was Chung’s first course that employed “discourse-based teaching,” which she really enjoyed; it made her want to take more discussion-centered courses. 

“It was so refreshing to take, because I had primarily done STEM and introductory language courses previously,” she said. 

Public Policy and Global Capitalism had a similar effect, but narrowed her focus to the realm of policy, enabling her to “develop a larger understanding of the frameworks in which policy is developed and understood.” 

“A lot of the conversations I’ve had with peers inside and outside the classroom… [have] turned into bigger conversations about systems and institutions,” she said. “That’s what attracted me to public policy. Finding the roots in systemic issues and trying to address them, whether through policy research or legislative enactments, is what I’m most interested in. This fellowship fits perfectly with that.”

Working at the intersection of science, healthcare, and entrepreneurship, the multidisciplinary team of four Carleton students spent four months tackling a challenging biomedical tech transfer project focused on a novel technology for simple and rapid generation of recombinant adenoviruses for in vivo gene delivery.

Carleton’s 2024–25 Innovation Scholars team is comprised of Theodore Bester ’26, economics major; Selina Chen ’26, biology major with a minor in neuroscience; Benjamin Szeto ’26, economics major with minors in statistics and data science and public policy; and Allison Tran ’26, economics major with a minor in statistics and data science. Campus mentors include Matt Rand, professor of biology; Ethan Struby, assistant professor of economics; Debby Walser-Kuntz, Herman and Gertrude Mosier Stark Professor of Biology and the Natural Sciences; and Bruce Dalgaard, visiting scholar in economics. The team is led by Augsburg University MBA student Amanda Xiong.

Innovation Scholars is a nationally recognized experiential learning program that engages teams of liberal arts students in the complex processes of translational medicine, taking an idea “from the bench to the bedside.” Project partners include Mayo Clinic, early-stage companies affiliated with Medical Alley, and NASA.

“It transformed my view of health and medicine,” she said. “In exploring the belief systems, institutions, and stakeholders of healthcare, I gained an appreciation for the social and community factors that shape disease prevalence, treatment, and outcomes. At my first taste of population health, I was captivated.”

This spring, Ursin will graduate with an interdisciplinary special major in Public Health Studies, the first in Carleton’s history and the result of a year of applications and petitioning. When she talked to Marynel Ryan Van Zee, director of student fellowships and lecturer in history, about next steps, they came to the same conclusion: Ursin should apply for the Rotary Foundation Global Grant Fellowship to fund a year of further education abroad before returning to the U.S. for medical school. 

The Rotary Foundation Global Grant Fellowship gives recipients the freedom to choose what and where they want to study, as long as they align with one of the Rotary Foundation’s areas of focus: Promoting peace; Fighting disease; Providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene; saving mothers and children; Supporting education; Growing local economies; and Protecting the environment.

In her search for programs that would fit the fellowship, Ursin discovered that multiple schools in the UK offered one-year intensive master’s programs tailored to recent undergrads. The University of Cambridge, with its Population Health Sciences program, soon emerged as her top choice, offering a “rigorous academic environment with world-class faculty and unparalleled resources.”

Ursin was awarded the Rotary Foundation Global Grant Fellowship to study at Cambridge, where she will earn a Master’s of Philosophy (MPhil) in Population Health Sciences with a concentration in Global Health, which she says is a natural progression of her studies at Carleton.

“Carleton’s liberal arts curriculum was the catalyst for my passion for public health,” Ursin said. “I explored diverse disciplines, particularly sociology and anthropology, which revealed the interconnectedness of health, society, and culture — an insight I would never have gleaned from STEM coursework alone.”

The College’s trimester system has also been essential, Ursin says, as the six-week winter break allowed her to travel to Ethiopia to study the intersection of cooking practices and chronic lung disease; she even returned to Addis Ababa the following year as a Larson Fellow to research paternalism in the treatment of women’s pelvic pain care for her senior COMPs project. Most recently, she participated in a Carleton-sponsored externship in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador, contributing to public health development in the Indigenous Kichwa community. 

“Carleton’s rich alumni network also opened doors to valuable and relevant research opportunities,” Ursin said. “Currently, I’m analyzing interviews on attitudes toward cancer treatment in Uganda in collaboration with an alum at Harvard Medical School.”

The Carleton alumni network also introduced Ursin to Partners in Global Surgery, a Mayo Clinic coalition that runs otolaryngology surgical training programs in sub-Saharan Africa. As part of the group, Ursin contributes to research on the sustainability of global surgery partnerships in low-income countries.

“The supportive Carleton community has been instrumental in my growth,” Ursin said. “I am deeply grateful for the experiences that challenged me to think critically across disciplines, embrace academic rigor, and ultimately create a specialized major to pursue my passions with depth and purpose.”

The University of Cambridge’s interdisciplinary focus on translational research will be a great fit for Ursin after her experience at Carleton. Her master’s program will prepare her to craft research proposals, evaluate population-level risks, and mobilize research for creative interventions — all invaluable skills as she prepares for a career in global surgery.

“I envision a career that combines clinical practice and surgical innovation at an academic medical center. Semiannually, I hope to travel to underserved regions to lead short-term training programs for local healthcare providers,” Ursin said. “In parallel, I aim to oversee longitudinal outcomes research to evaluate the long-term impact and sustainability of these surgical partnerships.”

Before she pursues those ultimate goals, however, Ursin is very much looking forward to her time at Cambridge, where she’s eager to immerse herself in such a cerebral environment.

“Pursuing a degree abroad promises a transformative experience, pushing me beyond my comfort zone and fostering personal growth,” Ursin said. “Coming to Carleton from a rural, homogeneous town, I was inspired by the diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences of my peers. I believe I will replicate — and even expand on — that experience at Cambridge, a truly global community that attracts students from around the world.”

While Ursin is sad to say goodbye to Carleton’s beloved traditions when she graduates, she is equally excited to embrace new ones at Cambridge, where she has been placed at Trinity College – the most prestigious of the university’s 31 colleges.

“Come October, I will be punting along the River Cam in wooden boats, participating in secret societies, and attending Formal Halls, the weekly black-tie dinners held in each college’s grand dining hall,” Ursin said. “I hope to take full advantage of Europe’s accessible train and flight networks to explore new countries with new comrades during weekends and academic breaks.”

Ursin is also interested in connecting with the Rotary Club of Cambridge during her time abroad, and staying involved with the organization beyond her education. 

“As a global health student, my passions align with Rotary’s mission to improve health equity and foster sustainable development,” Ursin said. “It is meaningful to me that my education is supported by an organization committed to creating a healthier, more equitable world. I am honored to join Rotary’s global network.”

Throughout her application process, Ursin worked closely with Gary Campbell and Chris Weber from the Rotary Club of Northfield, who provided “invaluable feedback” and guided her through each step.

“I am also indebted to Marynel [Ryan Van Zee], who tirelessly supported me through seven different fellowship applications this past fall,” Ursin said. “I’m also profoundly grateful to those who advised me throughout this process, including Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg, Annette Nierobisz, Deborah Gross, Erica Zweifel, and Baird Jarman, whose unwavering support and thoughtful letters made this journey possible.”

Ursin has three pieces of advice for current Carls applying for fellowships. First, and perhaps most importantly, she says, connect with Marynel Ryan Van Zee.

“She is an incredible resource and excels at helping students find the fellowship or program that aligns with their goals,” Ursin said. “Her guidance truly makes all the difference.”

Second, she says, be authentic.

“Follow your curiosity and apply for fellowships that genuinely excite you,” Ursin said. “In your applications, craft a cohesive and bona fide narrative that ties together your past experiences, current passions, and future aspirations. As Carleton students, we are fortunate to explore our intellectual interests freely — the fellowship office encourages you to lean into that same spirit.”

Finally, Ursin says, embrace the process. 

“Applying for fellowships is not solely about the end goal,” Ursin said. “It is an opportunity to reflect, refine your goals, and navigate uncertainty. Trust in your experiences, and remember that meaningful growth often comes from stepping beyond the familiar.”

Erica Helgerud ’20 is the news and social media manager for Carleton College.

Before Martha-Elizabeth Baylor went to Kenyon College in Ohio, she was planning to study paleontology. When she got there, though, that major wasn’t an option. “I identify as first generation, and I didn’t know anything about college,” she says. During high school, she had done an internship at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center—not, she says, because she was interested in the program but because “my mom was like, ‘It’s a paid summer opportunity, you are going to do this.’” When Baylor had to pick a new major, she turned to physics.

After she graduated in 1998, Baylor spent a few years teaching middle and high school physics and working at NASA Goddard. She then went on to earn a physics PhD in 2007 from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Now a physics professor at Carleton College in Minnesota, Baylor teaches and does research on optical signal processing and photopolymers. Over the past few years, she has developed what she calls the Practicing Professionalism Framework, through which she weaves skills and confidence-building into her courses to benefit students in their working lives. One aim is to change students’ perceptions so that they see physics as a cooperative, communal space where people have multiple interests. The approach, she says, can be adapted to different curricula and teaching styles.

Read the full piece.

As an undergraduate, Kelling majored in statistics, but wanted to explore other interests simultaneously as she “immediately saw applications [of statistics] in other fields.” Consequently, she became involved in advocacy work in gender-based violence, helping organize Take Back the Night events and minoring in women’s and gender studies.

“This was really energizing and important work for me,” she said.

Kelling was able to further explore the intersection between statistics and policy in graduate school, largely in criminal justice and policing. As she transitioned into life in Northfield and Minnesota, Kelling began to focus on community-based work, rather than mostly institutional or theoretical statistics research, explaining that it was important to her to “invest more in the local community.”

At Carleton, Kelling is continuing to conduct research in the areas of policy and policing through her three current projects. The first is titled, “Exploring the Role of Proximity and Points of Interest in Studying Urban Intimate Partner Violence,” which seeks to understand how to quantify social and spatial closeness. She is working with student research assistants Maggie Votruba ’25, Mia Wang ’26, recent alum Noorah Aldaghlas ’24, and Rachel Kim ’27 on this project.

“If two neighborhoods share a border, they’re [physically] close,” Kelling explained, “but we’re trying to think if there are ways ties are broken because of social dynamics… If two communities have vastly different racial compositions, are ties between them broken? Should they not be considered truly neighbors?”

She is planning to submit the article she wrote for this project to a peer-reviewed journal in the coming weeks.

Kelling’s second project, “Investigation of the Effects of Geocoding and Spatial Jittering on Point Process Inference,” focuses on the confidentiality of personal data and seeks to balance the spatial privacy of data sources with maintaining statistical quality. She is assisted by Collin Eldridge ’25; Sammi Sheridan ’24, current educational associate for the Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE); and Christie Song ’25.

Her third project is titled, “Ward 9 Policing Pulse: Interactive Force Map.” This project most clearly embodies Kelling’s desire to do statistical research that is meaningful and accessible to the public. The Carleton CCCE is heavily involved in this project as well, connecting Kelling with her community partner in Minneapolis, an organization called Confluence Studio. She is also working with Kai Zhang ’25 and Cynthia Leng ’25 on this project.

Using existing policing data, Kelling and her team are constructing a website that maps the use of police force in the Ward 9 neighborhood of Minneapolis. Her goal with the website is to create an avenue for the community living in Ward 9 to “analyze data [that the] police publish about policing in their neighborhood in a more accessible way, so they can learn more about how their community is being policed or drive conversation about the Third Precinct.”

The Third Precinct, which contains the police station that was burned down in May 2020 during the protests following the police murder of George Floyd, is located in Ward 9. Conversations about how to approach the relationship between the neighborhood and police are still ongoing.

“Let’s be cognizant of how this community is still being policed today despite discussions of reform in the police department,” Kelling said.

Not only is Kelling’s interdisciplinary lens prominent in the focus of her research, it also has greatly shaped the way she views statistics in academia. There are many areas for improvement with methodology in statistical research that she wants to highlight, and she is trying to make space in the field for work like hers that engages with communities directly. Not many statisticians are trained or supported to be involved in similar types of work, and it is important to her that more people be brought into the conversation.

“If you’re going to do applied statistics, don’t let [the application] be an afterthought,” she said. “The methodology being developed should be fundamentally motivated by its application.”

Kelling advocates for a participatory process, as evident in her own projects, as opposed to “helicopter” or merely consultatory research. In addition to intentionally keeping these principles in her research, Kelling served as chair of the Organizing Committee for the Ingram Olkin Forum last fall, a conference sponsored by the National Institute of Statistical Sciences dedicated to addressing societal issues with a focus on statistics. The topics discussed at this forum were disseminated in data science journal CHANCE, and Kelling has co-authored three of them about spatial statistics, standardization of data, and introducing statistical analysis of police use of force. 

As a professor on the tenure track for Carleton’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Kelling continues to bring her values into her classroom. She also has organized a writing group for new faculty members to facilitate connections between departments, in collaboration with Jade Hoyer ’07, assistant professor of art, and Rebecca Brueckmann, associate professor of history. Kelling is also a faculty adviser for the student group GeMMS (Gender Minorities in Math and Statistics), which is a significant part of her role within the department. Her research group is also much larger than is typical of a department team.

Kelling’s research is “personally rewarding and professionally important,” she said. “I think most real-world problems involve interdisciplinary work.”

This story is part of a series of interviews with Carleton faculty about their research and engagements with the Carleton community. The Academics at Work series allows Carleton professors to talk about the changes they have observed and help lead in their own academic communities, as well as provide further insight into the work they do at Carleton.

“Really what I study is how environmental factors mechanistically influence the aging process,” said Watowich. “People don’t age in exactly the same way or at similar rates. This has led me to ask, ‘What are the reasons underlying why people age differently?’”

Aging might seem like something completely internal and individual, caused by predetermined genetic factors. The environment also has an influence, however; something researchers didn’t begin to understand until recently. 

“For example, following major natural disasters, we see a higher rate of hospitalizations for some cardiovascular diseases,” said Watowich. “Mechanistically, we really don’t understand why that is.” 

Watowich was motivated to study environmental influences on health outcomes not just out of academic interest, but also personal experience. Growing up in Houston, Texas, Watowich frequently experienced hurricanes. Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017, right before Watowich started graduate school at the University of Washington, causing her to delay her move to Seattle to help clean up damage. 

“I was very personally motivated to understand if there were any detectable effects on the immune system from these natural disasters,” said Watowich. 

She took on this question directly in graduate school, researching how natural disasters affected aging of the immune system in rhesus macaques. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico as a category four storm, also in 2017, it created an opportunity to study its effects on a population of rhesus macaques that had been studied continuously on a nearby island.

Watowich and her collaborators found that the biological age of the macaques was accelerated by two years after the hurricane, which corresponds to seven to eight years in a human lifespan. 

This work led Watowich to her current postdoctoral research in the Lea Lab at Vanderbilt University. She’s continued to study environmental determinants of aging, but this time in humans. Watowich and the lab have teamed up with long-term studies of subsistence-level populations in Malaysia, Kenya, and Bolivia to understand the influence of environmental changes like urbanization on health outcomes. 

“These are populations that generally practice a traditional lifestyle, either traditional pastoralism or traditional hunting and gathering, but — due to a myriad of forces — are increasingly experiencing industrialization and integration into the market economy. That is causing a ton of changes to their environment,” said Watowich. “We can then study the aging process across this gradient of people who live a traditional lifestyle to people who live in these highly urban settings to see what differences there are at the molecular level. Within-population studies are more powerful in many ways than comparing subsistence-level groups to places like the U.S.” 

A major component of that work is actively coordinating with and giving back to their Indigenous community partners. 

“We’re aware of the history of how many Indigenous or subsistence-level communities have been taken advantage of,” said Watowich. “These are long-term collaborations where our science is informed by the community interests and we’re working to provide people with some tangible outcome.” That includes free health care and addressing research questions guided by the desires of the community.

The day-to-day work of Watowich’s research includes computational work, data analysis, writing papers and grants, meeting with collaborators, mentoring students, and occasional field and wet lab work.

Given Watowich’s clear passion for her work, her route to get there was surprisingly non-linear. She studied biology at Carleton, but didn’t do much research during her time on campus. “I was much more into playing Frisbee and wilderness education,” she said.

After graduation, Watowich worked as a fisheries observer on crab fishing boats in the Bering Sea. 

“I had a lot of questions about the biology of these systems that I was observing,” Watowich said. “I saw very quickly that I wasn’t going to be able to direct the scientific questions, so I decided to pivot and go to grad school, where I would be able to guide the science I was performing.”

Once in graduate school, Watowich planned on studying “hard-core ecology,” but her path shifted again as she discovered an interest in genomics and found her place in the field of molecular ecology, using genomics as a tool to study ecology.

Watowich says the twisting path to her research is something she wouldn’t change. 

“The odd jobs I did between graduation and going to grad school, I wouldn’t trade for anything. I mean, I’m never going to live on a fishing boat in the Bering Sea again,” she said. “I see students all the time worried about not going into grad school immediately, but I think there’s so much to be gained by taking a few years.”

“The accumulation of one’s experiences can and will inform your unique interests and position to do research,” she added. “Those experiences will lead you somewhere. Some of the most creative scientists I know took a non-classical path.”

Watowich is keeping that open-mindedness as she looks to the future, considering faculty positions but also excited about biotech companies that are looking at the molecular basis of aging. “Anything that allows me the creativity to investigate biology,” she said.

What Watowich loves most about her work is the freedom of exploration, so it makes sense that this would bleed into her everyday life.

“I never run out of questions about biology that are fascinating,” she said, “and having those moments of discovery — that’s really fun.”

Gomez-Palmer spent last summer studying Egyptian Vultures in Tarifa, Spain as part of an internship with the nonprofit Fundación Migres and Boise State University’s Raptor Research Center. In addition to conducting field work such as seabird counts, songbird banding, and raptor trapping, Gomez-Palmer researched the behavioral ecology of Egyptian Vultures, an endangered species that suffer high mortality from the many wind turbines along the Strait of Gibraltar in southern Spain. 

“Scientists have put up feeding sites further inland to try to lure them away from the turbines to reduce mortality,” explained Gomez-Palmer. “They have cameras set up at the two feeding sites and they asked me if I would be interested in analyzing the camera footage. And I was like, ‘Absolutely!’” 

This led to a mixture of field work and statistical analysis of more than 50,000 trail camera photos as Gomez-Palmer studied the behaviors of the vultures at the feeding sites and their interactions with other species that visit. 

“I created a giant spreadsheet of detailed observations, it was probably over a thousand rows,” she said.

Although Gomez-Palmer hadn’t heard of Egyptian Vultures before the project, her interest in birds was not new. She founded Carleton Birders, Carleton’s only birding club, in the spring of her freshman year. She now leads bird walks, hosts ornithologists on campus, and helps engage students in anything and everything bird-related. 

Her love of birds drove her search for an internship the summer after her sophomore year. 

“I googled ‘Spain bird internship’ because I have family in Spain and I love birds, and this was the first thing that popped up,” she said. Although the deadline to apply was two days after she found the position, she managed to pull together letters of recommendation and submit an application just in time. 

Gomez-Palmer had done some research with anole lizards in Professor of Biology Matt Rand’s lab, monitored snakes in the Anderson basement, and took Behavioral Ecology with Senior Lecturer in Biology Annie Bosacker, which she said “got her hooked.” But she had never researched birds before. She was also interested in experiencing how research abroad differed from the U.S. 

“There were many stark contrasts,” she said. “Even the common names of all the animals are completely different.” 

She also noticed differences in the style of her mentors. 

“The way they share information is more like a story instead of a lecture,” she said. “They are deeply passionate about their work and really great mentors.”

After returning from Spain, Gomez-Palmer presented her findings at a conference held by the Raptor Research Foundation in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her work provided insight into interactions between Egyptian Vultures and Griffon Vultures, a larger and more hierarchically dominant species, and the timing of Egyptian Vulture visits to feeding sites. This could help inform efforts to maximize conservation using the feeding sites. 

Gomez-Palmer said it was daunting to present her work exclusively to people with PhDs in ornithology and ecology. However, this allowed her to engage in conversations at a more advanced level and meet people established in the field, such as the past president of the Raptor Research Foundation. 

“The way fellow researchers at the conference spoke with me, it was like we were immediate friends,” she said. “Everyone in the raptor and ornithology world is just so friendly. They were all in field pants and hiking boots and it was very homey.”

Gomez-Palmer recommends that anyone interested in similar research opportunities makes sure that they’re comfortable with difficult and tedious field work. 

“You need to be comfortable waking up at five in the morning sometimes to be in the muck,” she said. “And sometimes you have to be really patient. A lot of people underestimate how hard that can be.” 

But even rather hard or gruesome moments — like tying a cow to a truck, taking it up a mountain, and feeding it to vultures — can be unexpectedly inspiring. Gomez-Palmer talked about that experience with a sort of awe. 

“They ripped open a hole in the cow and their long necks were going inside, eating the stomach and all the organs,” she said. “I wasn’t really that grossed out, I just thought it was incredible. It was such an honor to be able to see that kind of behavior.” 

Gomez-Palmer said she would love to return to the feeding sites to continue her research, and she’s already thinking ahead to doing her senior comps on Egyptian Vultures.  

“As I was analyzing the footage and running it through statistical software, there were some things that I showed to the ornithologist and the scientists there, and they were like, ‘we have never seen that before,’” she said. “It just felt so cool to be able to contribute to that.”

Read on the CCCE website.

Meet the newly promoted faculty members:

Sonja Anderson, assistant professor of religion

Professor Anderson arrived at Carleton in 2016 as a visiting professor and then began a tenure track position as assistant professor in 2017. She earned her BA in religious studies from University of California–Los Angeles, her MA in religious studies from University of Notre Dame, and her PhD in religious studies from Yale University. Prior to arriving at Carleton, she taught Greek at the Yale Divinity School and Yale College, and was a McDougall Teaching Fellow at the Yale Center for Teaching and Learning. Her teaching includes courses in early Christianity and ancient Judaism, as well as courses on medicine and healing, gender and the Catholic Church, mysticism and monasticism, and apocalyptic movements. Her classes center student discussion, and she builds an inclusive classroom through carefully designed pedagogy and lively conversation. Anderson studies early Christianity. Her book, Idol Talk: False Worship in the Early Christian World, will be published by Edinburgh University Press in 2025. Noting her facility with a wide array of languages, including Greek (both classical and Byzantine), Latin, Hebrew, and Syriac, external reviewers praise her ability to make connections between ancient and contemporary entanglements of religion and politics. She has served on Carleton’s College Council and on the Education and Curriculum Committee, and has shown great dedication to her work advising students. She has been a mentor for the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship and regularly attends TRIO events supporting first generation and low-income students.

Summer Forester, assistant professor of political science

Professor Forester joined the Carleton faculty in 2019. She earned her BS in hospitality and tourism management from the University of West Florida, her MA in government and justice studies from Appalachian State University, and her PhD in political science from Purdue University, where she studied security threats in the Middle East with a focus on women’s rights. Forester has taught an array of courses across the political science curriculum at Carleton, from an introductory course on international relations and world politics, to an advanced course on Middle East politics, to an upper-level seminar on global gender politics. She uses the everyday as a critical site of inquiry to examine how international security politics inform lived experience. She is intentional about creating educational spaces that reinforce Carleton’s mission of cultivating responsible global citizens. Forester’s research explores three complementary avenues of inquiry: feminist security studies and women’s movements in the Middle East and North Africa; tracking feminist mobilization through the creation of a database of domestic and transnational feminist activism; and whether and how state-based structures called gender equality machines (GEMs) function as vectors of democratic advancement in authoritarian contexts. She is at the forefront of research in this area and her next project focuses on GEMs in Jordan. Forester is an elected member of the Faculty Affairs Committee at Carleton and continues to serve as the political science department career advisor.

Andrea Mazzariello, assistant professor of music

Professor Mazzariello joined Carleton’s music department first as a visiting assistant professor from 2015 to 2018, and then as a tenure track assistant professor. He earned his BA in music and English, magna cum laude, from Williams College in 2000; his MM in composition from the University of Michigan in 2002; and his MFA in 2008 and PhD in 2011, both in composition, from Princeton University. Mazzariello teaches a wide range of courses at Carleton, including Electronic Music Composition, Computer Music and Sound, Materials of Music, Composition Studio, and Introduction to Music Technology, while also teaching private lessons in composition. His musical and pedagogical versatility are also evident in his comps advising, which oversees student projects in a range of musical forms. Mazzariello’s research and artistic work are in the fields of contemporary music, with a focus on percussion, minimalist aesthetics, live electronic sound, live video, popular music, and improvisation. He has been commissioned by leading contemporary music ensembles to compose numerous pieces for percussion, voice, electronics, organ, clarinet, and more, and regularly produces and performs in commercial recordings and albums, on keyboard, drum set, voice, and electronics. At Carleton, Mazzariello has served as chair of the Junior Faculty Affairs Committee, a member of the Academic Freedom Task Force, and is currently on College Council. In the music department, he oversees the music-related hardware and software for labs and classrooms, and has brought major composers, musicians, and ensembles to campus through his role as coordinator of the Light Lectureship.

Meredith McCoy, assistant professor of American studies and history

Professor McCoy joined Carleton’s faculty in 2019, teaching courses across history and American studies. She earned BAs in anthropology and music with a minor in Native American studies from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill in 2010. She then completed an MEd in teaching, learning and leading from Lipscomb University in 2011, while she taught in tuition-free, public charter schools in Nashville and Atlanta that were part of the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) network. In addition to being a public school teacher, McCoy was an American Indian studies specialist and program instructor at Duke University as part of the John Hope Franklin Young Scholars Program (2014–2017), a policy assistant at the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education (2015), and an instructor at Turtle Mountain Community College (2018) and Freedom University (2019). In 2019, she earned her PhD in American studies from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. In Carleton’s history department, McCoy teaches introductory and advanced courses in Indigenous histories. In American studies, she teaches courses about Indigenous research methods. In all her courses, she emphasizes a pedagogical practice that foregrounds care and aligns with the “4 R’s” of respect, responsibility, relationships, and redistribution. As an interdisciplinary scholar, McCoy’s research bridges history, American studies, Indigenous studies, and education studies. Her work narrates complex histories of education funding and policy that center Indigenous creativity and strategy, with much of it categorized as public scholarship. McCoy serves on the Carleton Arboretum Committee and the Indigenous Peoples Advisor Committee, while supporting Carleton’s Indigenous students as an informal mentor to the Indigenous Peoples Alliance.

Jacob Morton, assistant professor of classics

Professor Morton arrived at Carleton in 2018. He earned his BA in Latin from the University of Montana, his MA from the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Colorado, and his PhD from the Department of Ancient History at the University of Pennsylvania. Morton teaches a wide array of courses at Carleton, including Greek and Latin language courses, Greek and Roman history courses, and various thematic courses such as Experimental Archaeology and Experiential History. Morton conducts research in three distinct fields: ancient Greek religion, experimental archaeology, and Roman history. In an article published in the American Journal of Archaeology, he and his collaborators argue that the Linear B tablets describe items used in a ritual sacrifice, in contrast to previously held beliefs. Other work by Morton includes several articles published in the EXARC Journal, including one stemming from his Experimental Archaeology course at Carleton, and another where he recreates food dishes from over 2,000 years ago, which was widely praised. At Carleton, Morton has demonstrated a strong commitment to service at the College and beyond. He served as president of the Junior Faculty Affairs Committee and has worked closely with a number of junior faculty at the College in that role.

Arielle Szycher ’26, a biology major and neuroscience minor, will be studying the mechanisms of vision recovery at the University of Montreal. Szycher will use microscopy to examine the activity of a neurotransmitter involved in age-related vision degeneration. 

“I have an interest in sensation and perception in neuroscience,” said Szycher. “I just learned about vision in my Foundations of Neuroscience course [at Carleton], so I was like ‘all right, I can now apply this knowledge to an internship. That seems pretty neat.’” 

Szycher has prior experience in neuroscience research; last summer, she interned at the University of Minnesota and studied intersections between mild traumatic head injuries and Alzheimer’s disease. She’s now excited to explore a new facet of neuroscience, work in a lab at a large research university, and explore Canada for the first time. 

“It will be my first time really on my own, so getting to explore a city on my own terms will be pretty cool,” she said. 

The Fulbright Canada-MITACS program offers a unique opportunity for students to be matched with faculty and research projects across diverse topics, which Szycher said was a big draw for her. 

“I thought it would be a really good way to narrow down my summer search, because there are a million REUs [Research Experiences for Undergraduates] and a million things you could do, and it’s all pretty overwhelming,” she said. “To have a program that narrows it down for you and picks out really well established labs, I thought seemed really helpful.” 

Aroma Chanda ’27, a prospective biology major, will be headed to the Université Laval in Québec City for her internship. Chanda will be researching the role of zinc finger proteins in the development of cancer. 

“In high school, I took an anatomy and physiology class, and my teacher had us read an article about zinc finger proteins [before having] us design one on this 3D modeling interface,” said Chanda. “So I was like, ‘Wait, I remember learning a little about this.’ It was super coincidental.” 

Chanda is interested in exploring more about cancer pathways and cancer research in general, and expects the internship will help her figure out her interests.

“The long term goal is to be in the medical field,” she said. “I think cancer research is super interesting. This is really my first time doing that kind of research, so I think after this summer I’ll know if that’s something I really want to do.”

She’s also looking forward to diving deeply into a project and hopes to see the research process from beginning to end.

“Last summer, I learned how to work in a research lab, and I think that was super useful, but I want to build on that,” she said. “I learned all these really cool things, but I didn’t really stick to one project. So I hope in this lab I’m able to stick to a project so I can follow it through from the beginning. Whatever experience I get, I’m super thankful for, but that’s the hope.”  

Chanda is also excited to spend the summer in Quebéc. 

“I’ve heard a lot about Quebéc, and I’ve seen that it’s really pretty. I know they speak a lot of French there, which is a little bit daunting because I don’t know any French, but it would be cool if I could pick up on some,” she said. “It’s a little bit scary because I’ll be on my own, but I’m excited to see what kind of new experiences that brings.” 

Chanda recommends that anyone interested in the program gives it a shot when applications open in August. 

“You never know, so it’s good to apply and make use of your resources,” she said. “Marynel [Ryan Van Zee, director of student fellowships] definitely helped me so much. Don’t be afraid to ask people for help.” 

Students interested in applying to the Fulbright Canada-MITACS Globalink research program should contact Carleton’s Office of Student Fellowships for support and assistance.

At the heart of the research is a question that has both academic and real-world implications: How does conflict influence feminist movements? 

“We’re looking at how feminist mobilization is impacted by the post-conflict setting in Kosovo,” said Strubel Iram, who is majoring in political science and international relations, with minors in European studies and Middle East studies. “We’ve been speaking to different women involved in non-governmental organizations (NGOs), independent organizations, the U.S. Aid program, and even the Kosovo government.”

The inspiration for this project came from a feminist security studies course Strubel Iram took with Forester, as well as her own interest in Kosovo’s nationalistic history, which she encountered through her Carleton off-campus study program, (Beyond) Nationalism and Xenophobia in Eastern and Central Europe, led by Mihaela Czobor-Lupp, associate professor of political science. This academic background, combined with Strubel Iram’s curiosity and commitment to understanding the nuances of feminist movements in post-conflict settings, made Kosovo an ideal case study.

For Forester, this research is a natural extension of her broader work on how conflict impacts feminist organizations and movements.

“There’s a messy relationship between conflict and feminism,” Forester said. “Sometimes conflict can open up opportunities, but there’s also a dark side. Women are often uniquely targeted in war, particularly through sexual violence. We want to refine our understanding of how conflict influences feminist groups and whether it creates dangerous conditions for them.”

This research project represents a unique collaboration between a faculty member and a student, with Strubel Iram taking on the role of field researcher. Together, Strubel Iram and Forester aim to co-author a paper and present it at the Midwest Political Science Association conference in April 2025. Working together has been a rewarding experience for both.

“Mia doesn’t come to the table with the set ideas that my colleagues and I might have, which makes her questions fresh and exciting,” said Forester. “She brings a deep curiosity to this project, which has been deeply rewarding for me as a mentor. Her perspective has pushed us to think in new ways.”

For Strubel Iram, the guidance of an experienced mentor like Forester has been invaluable.

“I wouldn’t have been able to approach this project without Summer’s expertise,” said Strubel Iram. “She’s taught me everything about the research process — from navigating the Institutional Review Board (IRB) process to learning how to conduct interviews and work with a translator. It’s been an awesome learning experience.”

Strubel Iram’s fieldwork in Kosovo has been a key component of the project. With the help of Qika, a local NGO, and an internship with Isla Internships Abroad, Strubel Iram was able to secure interviews with a variety of women’s rights practitioners, activists, and organizations. These interviews provided valuable insights into the state of the feminist movement in Kosovo.

“There were definitely moments where I got really excited about the work,” Strubel Iram said. “Hearing interviewees reflect on the future of feminism in Kosovo and the challenges they still face was incredibly inspiring.”

Strubel Iram’s interviews revealed both optimism and frustration within Kosovo’s feminist movement. While some activists emphasized the progress Kosovo has made — especially in creating a modern constitution that includes protections for women’s rights — others highlighted ongoing challenges, such as gender-based violence and labor laws that still disadvantage women.

As Strubel Iram and Forester prepare to co-author their paper, they are reflecting on the broader implications of their research. The preliminary findings suggest that post-conflict environments like Kosovo can foster stronger feminist movements, but they also highlight the ongoing challenges women face in such contexts — particularly around issues of trauma, compensation, and the enduring legacies of traditional gender norms.

For both Strubel Iram and Forester, this research represents a step forward in understanding the complexities of feminist movements in post-conflict environments. It is also a testament to the power of mentorship and collaboration, showing how Carleton students and faculty can work together to create new knowledge and contribute to important conversations in political science.

Ottaway’s research initiatives stem from her long-term set of projects on institutions of social welfare, including hospitals and workhouses, which she has been working on for the last decade. An earlier Student Research Partnership (SRP) resulted in a publication on the history of institutions for the blind, co-authored with Adam Smart ‘22 and Michael Schultz ‘22. Prior to this past summer’s research, Ottaway worked on a joint publication with two colleagues in England, Samantha Williams (Cambridge University) and Alannah Tomkins (University of Keele), who approach workhouses from the perspective of nursing and childcare. The project’s ultimate goal is to produce a comprehensive book that fills a significant gap in the existing literature on workhouses. As Ottaway explains, the history of workhouses is “seriously understudied,” and this book aims to synthesize scattered pieces of information into a cohesive narrative. The research done by the SRPs will add significantly to Ottaway’s contributions to the book.

The Carleton group examined workhouses in England during the “long eighteenth century,” which extends from 1660 to 1830. These institutions, designed to assist the poor, housed individuals who were facing a range of social and economic challenges, including homelessness, unemployment, and physical disabilities. Ottaway’s project explores the intersection of disability history and social welfare, revealing how workhouses functioned as early welfare institutions. Through this lens, the research sheds light on the origins of modern social welfare systems and the ways in which these institutions provided care for vulnerable populations.

One of the most exciting moments of the project, according to Brown, was traveling to London to work in the city’s archives, where she handled centuries-old books. The project offered a unique opportunity to engage in hands-on historical research. 

“Research for history is not as commonly thought about; it’s not at the forefront of what people think history majors do,” Brown said. “I was eager to gain experience as a history major interested in seeing the types of research I can do with my major.”

Brown’s work involved meticulously combing through committee meeting minute books from workhouses, transcribing, and categorizing notes on topics such as medicine and construction. Despite the challenges of reading eighteenth-century handwriting and dealing with difficult-to-read microfilms, Brown found the experience rewarding, particularly as she began to recognize recurring names and stories within the minute books.

“It was a super interesting opportunity to see the things that people had written as their everyday mundane duties and use it now for research,” said Brown. “It was an awesome experience to physically handle such old books — books that are older than the United States.”

Petersen brought her interest in social welfare to the project. Her work focused on Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping to create maps from parliamentary returns from 1815. Petersen analyzed data from workhouse records, including detailed indexes of workhouse residents. Like Brown, Petersen found the archival research both challenging and illuminating. She was particularly struck by how early workhouses, despite their flaws, offered a form of social welfare that was, in some ways, “more progressive than today.”

“Reading through records made me more aware of how this is relevant to us now,” said Petersen.

Both students emphasized the collaborative nature of the project. They worked closely with their Carleton peers and with Ottaway, sharing insights and supporting each other through the challenges of archival research. The sense of community among the researchers was particularly strong during their time in London, where they navigated the archives together and engaged in discussions about their findings.

Carleton resources helped prepare the students to effectively take advantage of their time in London. The Libe was a great resource for the team, as Special Collections taught them how to handle old books through a dedicated workshop. Wei-Hsin Fu, GIS specialist in environmental studies, was particularly helpful in assisting the team with navigating the technical aspects of GIS mapping. 

“We learned how to do archival research by meeting with Carleton librarians who showed us how to handle old materials,” said Petersen. “During the trip, we learned how to collaborate with other people in a situation without a solid goal, which was different in a lot of ways from group projects in class. While we had a goal, it was flexible in that our goal was evolving as we discovered more. This reflected a more real-world scenario than guided, in-class work does.”

For Ottaway, the project is fueled by a passion for this subject that she has had for years. Her interest in the history of aging and disability began during her undergraduate studies at Carleton, when she volunteered in a nursing home and questioned why society often places older adults in such institutions. This curiosity has driven her research ever since, leading her to explore the cultural and historical roots of social welfare practices.

The involvement of student researchers is crucial to the project’s success. As Ottaway noted, their questions and insights have been “tremendously generative,” pushing the research in new directions and ensuring that the final book will be accessible to undergraduate students and the general public. 

“The questions from the students have surprised me in their perceptiveness. [The students’] questions and conversations will continue to shape the way I approach the topic,” said Ottaway. “Their work is going to be important and powerful in the book.”

From this experience, Brown and the other Carls have gained many skills to further their future studies.

“As a history major, this [has been] a really good opportunity to do some historical research,” Brown said. “I can now apply for a capstone project to work with primary sources and glean information from them. I’m now more interested in eighteenth-century England, and I’m more familiar with their handwriting. I understand better how archives work, and what the process is like of going to an archive, ordering materials, and handling them. This has been a good opportunity to write up a research report, where I take disjointed information and put it together, identifying patterns and synthesizing information.”

The group is very grateful to Eric Egge ’94, associate provost and professor of mathematics, who helped identify several areas of support for the project, as well as their funders, including the Office of Student Fellowships, the History Department, and the Provost’s Office.

Learn more about applying for a Student Research Partnership on the Humanities Center website.

Supported by the Humanities Center’s Trustee Humanities Endowed Student Research Fund, the research aims to produce high-quality handmade paper using unconventional fibers. The project represents a convergence of artistic practice and ecological awareness, with hopes to produce an exhibition that will coincide with the Arb’s upcoming 150th anniversary celebrations.

The Prairie Paper project involves taking plant fibers and transforming them into paper through a labor-intensive process of harvesting, cooking, and beating the fibers. Hoyer, an artist in her own right who has long incorporated papermaking into her practice, describes the effort as an exploration of the potential for locally available plant materials to serve as suitable paper pulp.

Last summer, Hoyer and her team zeroed in on cattails, an abundant local species in southeastern Minnesota. Experimenting with different methods to prepare the cattail fibers, the team learned how to balance the cooking time and fiber preparation to achieve the best possible results.

“We had to figure out how long to cook the fibers, and how much physical preparation, such as chopping or beating the fibers, is necessary for making pulp,” Hoyer said.

The first batch of cattail pulp, she recounted, was undercooked and didn’t break down properly. However, through trial and error — cutting the fibers into smaller pieces, adjusting the cooking process, and testing different pulp combinations — the team eventually produced a successful batch.

“We’re talking about 25+ hours of labor from three individuals just to see if an experiment works, and that’s with plants that we already harvested and dried,” said Hoyer.

One of the most exciting moments for Hoyer came when Chodera, after many long hours working with the cattail fibers, texted her with the good news: the fibers were working.

“That was a big moment,” Hoyer said, “because we weren’t sure it would work, and it’s such a labor-intensive process.”

Hoyer is also enthusiastic about the collaborative nature of the project. For the first time at Carleton, she had two student researchers assisting her, which proved invaluable not only in sharing the physical labor but also in sparking new ideas and methods. For example, Chodera introduced the use of a paper cutter instead of hand-ripping paper into small squares, which Hoyer said was a game changer for efficiency.

Francis, who has a background in pen and ink as well as watercolor, introduced new insights into how the paper could be modified to suit various artistic media. By experimenting with different sizing agents — substances added to paper to reduce its absorbency — the team produced paper more suited to mixed media work.

“Miah’s background directly impacted the quality of the paper we made,” Hoyer said.

Having two student researchers has not only lightened the workload for Hoyer but also fostered a sense of community and shared purpose. Hoyer described how Chodera and Francis took shifts boiling cattail fibers during the hottest weeks of the summer, ensuring that the laborious process didn’t overwhelm either student.

The mutual learning between Hoyer and her student assistants was one of the most rewarding aspects of the project for her.

“To see how we collectively landed on exciting discoveries that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve by myself — it’s really invigorating for my studio practice,” Hoyer said.

Hoyer is quick to acknowledge the many resources the Carleton community has provided to make Prairie Paper a reality. From funding provided by the Humanities Center to the equipment and materials made available by the Department of Art and Art History, the project has benefited from the College’s robust support system. Furthermore, the expertise of Nancy Braker ’81, Puzak Family Director of the Cowling Arboretum and senior lecturer in biology, was instrumental in helping the team identify plants that might be suitable for future papermaking experiments at Carleton.