Honor Bound Fall/Winter 2022

HONOR BOUND FROM DREXEL UNIVERSITY’S PENNONI HONORS COLLEGE • FALL/WINTER 2022

A Perfectly Engineered Pathway to Poetry: from fear and guilt to ultimate freedom

PLUS: • Painting a Picture of Little Haiti • Sky’s The Limit • Stellar Formation: Looking Back on 20 Years of the STAR Scholars Program

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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Ta’Liyah Thomas, custom-designed major, creative media studies ’24, highlights visual aesthetics through her photography.

She combines artistic disciplines, such as photography and videography, with technology to create compelling visuals.

Ta’Liyah took this photograph for her color photography final. There were no restrictions on what they could present, so she decided to photograph people using light to highlight the subject.

“Natural light and colorful artificial lights can be seen in many portraits I take,” she says. “The brightness of the blue sky makes the golden light from the sun stand out against the man’s face.”

In the future, Ta’Liyah hopes to continue taking portraits, whether for film, theater, or a publication.

Find her on Instagram @TKTCREATIVE

A Letter From The Dean This latest issue of Honor Bound occurs as so much that we’ve been working toward comes to fruition. We are now settled in our new home at Bentley Hall and are back to almost-normal face-to-face interactions. Students love the seminar rooms and the collaboratory space on the second floor, not to mention the living room with its working fireplace. It warms my heart to see a chess game in progress there whenever I walk through. We hosted a few Game Nights in the space, organized by the Dean’s Executive Assistant Karen Sams and her team of student employees. They have also set up a free coffee bar for students opposite the living room.

One exceptional addition to Bentley are two plant walls on either side of the monitor in the second floor Collaboratory. These were designed by former custom-designed major and Udall Fellowship recipient Collin Cavote who began his biowall company, Biome, while in our programs. The plant walls are wonderful examples of living art that remind us of what our students are capable of (See more on page 7). Collin was also the speaker at our custom-designed major graduation in June.

We celebrated the 20th anniversary of our STAR (Students Tackling Undergraduate Research) Scholars program this summer with a series of speakers and gatherings, and have been celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Pennoni Honors College throughout the 2022-23 academic year, starting with the Drexel Board of Trustees dinner this fall.

We also marked the formal opening of the Annette Pennoni Living Room with its beautiful scripted signage at that time.

We invite anyone who has not toured our building to make an appointment with me, the Dean, or one of our staff members to do so. Even better, come to one of our live events, announced in our newsletter and posted on our website. Note that we have shifted “Wednesdays at the Kline” to “Wednesdays at Bentley” (WAB) to take advantage of our space. Everyone is welcome to this monthly event, led by Associate Director of Marketing and Media, Dr. Melinda Lewis. WAB is part of our Center for Civil Discourse; it’s an hour-long conversation in which we discuss an issue in the news from various perspectives. We also encourage you to attend Nerd Night, organized and led by Emily Kashka-Ginsburg, associate director of Undergraduate Research and Enrichment Programs. It’s a wonderful opportunity to hear student presentations on their work and to hone your trivia knowledge.

We can always use your financial help as we continue to build curriculum and programming in the College. If you are interested in contributing, please get in touch with David Unruh, senior vice president of Drexel’s Office of Institutional Advancement.

David Unruh 215-895-2436 dlu23@drexel.edu

For her color photography final, Ta’Liyah Thomas photographed 2022 STAR Scholar and 2022-23 Aspire Scholar Calvin Keeys, environmental science ’25.

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Paula Marantz Cohen Dean, Pennoni Honors College Distinguished Professor of English 215.895.1266 • cohenpm@drexel.edu

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Contents Fall/winter 2022

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In Brief

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Co-Teaching a Thing or Two

BY PAULA MARANTZ COHEN

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Painting a Picture of Little Haiti

BY WILLIAM MICHAEL

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A Perfectly Engineered Pathway to Poetry

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Sky’s the Limit

BY ERICA LEVI ZELINGER

BY LINA GIRGIS

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Stellar Formation: Looking back on 20 years of the STAR Scholars program

A Sound Idea

BY ERICA LEVI ZELINGER

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Alumni News

ON THE COVER

Honor Bound Magazine is published biannually by the Marketing & Media team of Drexel University’s Pennoni Honors College.

Comments? Contact us at pennoni@drexel.edu

Dean: Dr. Paula Marantz Cohen Editorial Staff Editor: Erica Levi Zelinger Copy Editor: Dr. Melinda Lewis Designer: Isabella Akhtarshenas Administration Director, Administration & Finance: Ann Alexander Executive Assistant to the Dean: Karen Sams

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Academic Programs Director: Dr. Kevin D. Egan Associate Director: Dr. Katie Barak Assistant Director, Honors Program: Julia Wisniewski Program Manager: Lauren Davis Academic Advisor, Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry: Charlotte Shreve Marketing & Media Director: Erica Levi Zelinger Associate Director: Dr. Melinda Lewis Assistant Director: Brian Kantorek

Undergraduate Research & Enrichment Programs Director: Jaya Mohan Senior Associate Director: Leah Gates Associate Director: Kelly Weissberger Assistant Director: Emily Kashka-Ginsburg Assistant Director: Cara Fantini Program Manager: Roxane Lovell Program Coordinator: Rachel James

Support the Pennoni Honors College You can make a difference! When you make a gift to the Pennoni Honors College, you support the tradition of an interdisciplinary education. Every gift counts. To learn more about how you can support the Honors College, contact:

David Unruh 215-895-2436 dlu23@drexel.edu

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✴ In brief

Airport Art Traveling out of Philadelphia International Airport’s Terminal F this fall? On your way to your gate, drag that rollaboard on over to check out the work of graphic designer Isabella Akhtarshenas, whose mural Philly’s Favorite Things is on display through December.

The graphic designer of Honor Bound since 2018, Isabella is a multidisciplinary artist who uses color and shape to evoke whimsical and lively forms. Inspired by nature and sustainability, the work of the former co-op for Pennoni’s The Smart Set, focuses on the interactions between humans and nature.

“Something that initially drew me to live in this city was the abundance of public art,” Isabella says on her Instagram. “I had always dreamed of contributing to it. WILD to think that at this very moment some traveler is strolling alongside it, potentially stopping to absorb its many elements.”

Her second mural and largest work to date was executed in Adobe Illustrator and scaled up digitally, then printed on vinyl sticker panels.

Traveling out of Philadelphia sometime soon? Check out Isabella’s work in Terminal F through the remainder of 2022.

Seinfeld and Society

The Perfect Tag Team

Brian Proferes, custom-designed major, quantitative finance and modeling ’22, was the recipient of the 2022 Science, Technology and Society (STS) Prize awarded by Drexel’s Center for STS.

Come 2023, there will be a new area at the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association, a regional offshoot of the national Popular Culture Association. The area was proposed by Pennoni Associate Director of Marketing & Media; and Pop, The Question host, Melinda Lewis. “The Mid-Atlantic has a rich history of wrestling … and Philadelphia, in particular, plays a central part in that history.”

Lewis has already written and talked about professional wrestling in Pennoni’s online arts and culture journal The Smart Set and on the podcast Pop, The Question, and looks forward to sharing and engaging with the critical dialogue guaranteed at the conference next year.

Brian’s project, “The Plastic Bag” was submitted as a final project for SCTS 101, Introduction to Science, Technology, and Society. He wrote a Seinfeld episode script that engaged with STS arguments in both subtle and explicit ways. In one scene, Elaine and a co-worker argue over whether “biopolitics” is a word that can be used in their game of Scrabble, and whether disciplinary power or biopower is better. In another scene, George works with a software engineer at Apple to develop a new mechanism for text messaging that can help mitigate miscommunication. Meanwhile, Kramer proposes to solve climate change by replacing envelopes with plastic bags.

“Brian’s script beautifully weaves STS concepts and contemporary concerns with science, technology, and environment into the characters’ social interactions,” says Dr. Alison Kenner, associate professor in the Center. “A delightful and entertaining read, we can easily imagine the scenes playing out on screen.”

Brian is now a buy side research analyst at Susquehanna International Group.

@isa_ _akh

American Campus Communities received a prestigious industry award for its renovation of Pennoni Honors College’s Bentley Hall.

Student Housing Business magazine gave out 26 Innovator Awards to student housing owners, developers, operators, architectural firms and universities, including American Campus Communities for Best Renovation of Existing University Housing.

Adjunct Award

Continued thanks and appreciation to Greg and Caroline Bentley for their leadership support that facilitated the beautiful renovation and expansion of Bentley, which now includes a home for all of Pennoni Honors College’s staff offices.

Dr. Katie Barak, associate director of Pennoni’s Center for Interdisciplinary Inquiry, was selected by the University as the recipient of the 2022 Adjunct Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence. The award recognizes an adjunct faculty member who exemplifies the highest quality of teaching and mentorship of students. In academic year 2021-22, Dr. Barak taught Introduction to Multi-Disciplinary Methods, Knowledge by Design, and the Capstone Research sequence for custom-designed majors.

Dr. Kevin Egan, one of her nominators, had this to say: “An appreciation for ambiguity is at the heart of her focus on educating students as problem-solvers and global citizens. To grapple with a world marked by complex problems and populated by diverse peoples in need of recognition and inclusion, students must gain experience with uncertainty. They need to struggle with a lack of concrete and definite answers, while taking into account multiple diverse perspectives. Dr. Barak excels at creating learning dynamics in which students must confront these realities of the world.”

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Renovation Recognition

Role Models One of her past students, Cecilia Cirne, shared in her recommendation: “Aside from Dr. Barak’s commitment to her students and the quality of their education, the classes that she leads are always filled with creativity and excitement, which is not always the case within higher education. Class with Dr. Barak was tough work, but it was exhilarating work.”

Tyrone Bullock, animation & visual effects ’22, a 2022 recipient of Pennoni’s Undergraduate Research & Enrichment Programs mini grant and former STAR Scholar Nick Moy, animation & visual effects ’21, contributed to a paper with their STAR Mentor, Dr. Glen Muschio (see more about Dr. Muschio’s STAR Scholar mentorship on page 22), about their work on a digital 3D interactive model of Charles Willson Peale’s early nineteenth century museum of Natural History and Art. The paper was virtually presented at the Architecture Media & Politics Conference at Kent University, UK, in June. It is also pending acceptance to the journal Proceedings.

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✴ In brief

Renewable Energy Project Gains Spark

Happy Anniversary!

Two Pennoni students, Kate Ryan, custom-designed major, actuarial science ’22 and Maggie McCurdy, BS/MS environmental engineering and peace engineering ’22, were part of the senior design team selected by the Senior Design Awards Committee of Drexel’s Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CAEE) from 22 projects for its contributions in the area of sustainability and social impact. The team designed an alternative renewable energy system for the Native American village of Tyonek, Alaska. Tyonek, a remote community 40 air miles south of Anchorage, is an underprivileged Native American community that has been experiencing exorbitantly high energy costs and is unaffordable for the population. The team worked with Dr. Mira Olson and the Community and College Partners Program, a non-profit started by a former Environmental Protection Agency employee, to meet the needs of underserved communities. Particularly interesting is Kate’s involvement in the project as she was the only non-engineering student to be involved. Her teammate Maggie thought it would be useful to have someone on the team focused on finances with the end goal of lowering the community’s energy bills — not to mention the large amount of risk involved in the project.

“The unique setting of the project, the ability to access land without clearing, the off-set cost achieved for residents of a rural community,” says the Design Awards Committee, “and the rigor of engineering design displayed in the structural element of the solar array(s) combined to an outcome that deserves recognition!”

Kate is now an actuarial associate at Venerable. Maggie is member community manager for Contact Center Network Group, an executive assistant for Professional Virtual Solutions and a project engineer for eDesign Dynamics.

Graduated and Flourishing Vy Nguyen, custom-designed major, user experience design and software development ’22, won first place in the Entrepreneurial category for the College of Computing & Informatics for her senior capstone project, Flourish. Flourish also took home a silver this fall at the MUSE Creative Awards, an international competition for creative professionals who inspire others. Flourish is an app that provides care recommendations about houseplants, paired with a sensor that monitors their vitals, including soil moisture, sunlight, temperature and humidity. Push notifications are sent to remind the user to keep the plant’s conditions optimal for their growth. Vy is now a user experience designer at InstaMed, a J.P. Morgan Company.

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Planting a Seed When Collin Cavote first walked into Dr. Kevin Egan’s office in 2011 to discuss the newly minted custom-designed major program, he said he wanted to create a major centering on biomimicry. Silence.

Kevin had no idea what that was. But after Collin laid out his plan, the head of the program said, “Ok, let’s do this.”

And Collin did. By looking at the natural world through a designer’s eye, he explained the process of mimicking the stable and self-healing systems that occur in science without intention. He started his own business, Biome, while at Drexel, which combines intelligent hydroponic ecosystems with environmental engineering. In 2015, Collin graduated with his custom-designed degree in biomimicry.

Pennoni Honors College is now home to two of them. Come up to the second floor of Bentley Hall to see Taiga, Collin’s smart living walls that hang like art in the College’s office, but also cleans our air and infuses it with living probiotics, humidity and oxygen.

Collin introduced the Pennoni staff to his plant systems when he was on site in June to give the keynote speech to the 2022 graduating class of custom-designed majors.

Pennoni Honors College is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2022-23. We do so as we settle into our home at Bentley Hall and mark, alongside, the 20th anniversary of the STAR (Students Tackling Advanced Research) Scholars Program.

We are indebted to Chuck and Annette Pennoni for endowing our College and to Gregory and Caroline Bentley for helping us make the Honors House a reality. We encourage everyone in the Drexel community to visit.

“I’m sure from some uncle or friend, you’ve heard ‘a jack of all trades is a master of none,’” Collin told the crowd in Mandell Theater. “What I hate about that quote is that it is not the whole quote. ‘A jack of all trades is a master of none, but often times better than a master of none.’ It’s so easy for other people’s judgements to stifle your curiosity and your drive, and so you’re going to have to protect that as you leave this harbor. And to do that I think you are going to need a second trait. Courage is showing up for yourself. Courage is doing things when you’re not ready. And if you wait around until you’re not afraid, you will absolutely miss the boat.”

Listening to him give his speech, Kevin says, he was struck by how far Collin has come and how much he has achieved, while still upholding the values and vision that first made him a custom-designed major student.

“I think it was so important for our graduates to see themselves reflected in the person up on the stage giving that speech,” Kevin says. “Collin has lived the uncertainty and trepidation that all of our custom-designed students have faced; he also embodies their conviction, determination and resilience. He was really able to show the graduates that they already have their own blueprints for success — they just need to maintain the courage in following them.”

Championing Civic Education In fall 2021, Pennoni Honors College launched a pilot of its Program for Civic Foundations (PCF), using a planning grant from the Teagle Foundation, which supports and strengthens liberal arts education.

Now the College is expanding PCF to address more students, using a Teagle Implementation Grant for 2022-2025.

The program involves a three-term first-year “core” sequence of courses that covers: 1) Plato’s Republic, 2) the founding documents of our nation alongside readings in Enlightenment philosophy, and 3) texts representing women, Black and indigenous people who have been left out of our historical narrative. Additional courses beyond the first year are being developed to enlarge on this core and support

a purpose-driven education, grounded in a sense of history and civics.

One is a global exchange course between Drexel and Amsterdam University, which explores the many variables which support health and perpetuate injustice. Another course deals with the history of art and medicine in Philadelphia, site of one of the first women’s medical colleges (now Drexel School of Medicine). Here, we hope to link the course to existing medical education and to art history, using Thomas Eakins’ great works, The Gross Clinic and The Agnew Clinic, as touchstones. These paintings, which hang in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, deal with the major shift in the prevention of sepsis in surgery.

Courses on such topics as argumentation and debate, current events and the writing of effective opinion pieces are also being planned.

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Co-Teaching a Thing or Two

A Sound Idea

By dr. Paula Marantz Cohen, Dean, Pennoni Honors College

By Erica Levi Zelinger

W

hen Cherelle Connor first expressed interest in applying for a Fulbright scholarship, she admittedly came to the staff of Undergraduate Research & Enrichment Programs (UREP) with a half-baked idea.

The biomedical engineering master’s student wasn’t passionate about what she was proposing.

But she knew after her two-year program and her time at Drexel that she wanted to live abroad and pursue research.

“The first thing I learned during the fellowships application process was that you really need to be wholeheartedly committed to the research you are proposing or the position you are applying for,” Cherelle admits. “I wasn’t passionate about what I was pitching. I just knew I wanted to try completing the application.”

Working with UREP associate directors Leah Gates and Kelly Weissberger, Cherelle sought out grants that might be more fitting to her needs. And better fits she found: In 2019, Cherelle received the DAAD Rise in Germany to research ways to reduce cybersickness in virtual reality; she also received the ThinkSwiss scholarship to Switzerland, where she developed a rehabilitation exercise game for stroke patients.

“When I saw the DAAD Rise position, I was ecstatic. I truly believed that this position was meant for me and listed every possible reason why in my application. I like to think that my enthusiasm about the position helped my application just as much as my qualifications.”

She’d already written some application essays and asked for recommendations when Leah also suggested she apply to The American-Scandinavian Foundation (AMSCAN) fellowship.

AMSCAN offers fellowships and grants to individuals to pursue research, study or creative arts projects in one or more Scandinavian country for up to one year.

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D Cherelle working on her exercise application for the visually impaired.

It can be a strange, sometimes uncomfortable, feeling to confine yourself to an essay, the Bates College graduate says. Cherelle tended to downplay her abilities so she had to learn how to share her achievements more confidently.

“I learned to take pride in the work I accomplished,” she says. “I wanted to put forth something that was unique and exciting to me and that I knew I would remain passionate about for the duration of my stay and maybe even beyond. However, I thought my proposal was a little out there, so I didn’t have high expectations. So I felt validated when I found out the committee wanted to give me funding to pursue my crazy idea.”

COVID-19 significantly disrupted Cherelle’s academics, says UREP associate director Kelly Weissberger. She spent summer 2020 adapting her proposed thesis for remote research, applying for jobs, and coordinating several interstate moves, and then working full-time while finishing her thesis and applying for PhD programs. “She is so hard-working, but comes across as laidback and unfazed,” says Kelly. “I’m blown away by her ability to accomplish a lot while remaining calm, focused and gracious.”

Growing up on the island of St. Thomas, Cherelle often performed day-to-day tasks such as pruning the trees in her yard, checking them for fruit, setting deterrents for iguanas so they didn’t eat the fruit, and gutting and cleaning freshly caught fish.

“I helped my family complete many of these things without a second thought and I do believe it has made me more resourceful and has slowly strengthened my work ethic overtime,” she says proudly.

Finally, in January 2022, Cherelle left the U.S. to attend Aalborg University in Copenhagen to work with Dr. Stefania Seraphin, who has extensive knowledge in sound and music computing.

Cherelle’s research revolved around the development of an auditory-only exercise application for the visually impaired. The application is intended to be a learning tool, specifically for squat learning and training.

Through the use of movement sonification — or the conversion of human motion into sound — Cherelle hopes to provide useful, meaningful feedback to assist the user in orienting their body in space and performing the squat movement correctly and safely.

Living in a broad range of environments (Cherelle has also spent time in Manhattan, North Carolina and Vermont) has shifted her perspective and research interests. She’s now moving away from device-oriented research and toward her neuro/pysch background as she’s interested in feelings, thoughts and emotional processes.

Her career goals are numerous. She recently began a PhD program in computer science at Virginia Tech, and once complete, it is likely that Cherelle will apply for jobs in Copenhagen or even a post-doctorate position in the lab where she worked.

avid Kaganovsky, information studies ’95 and former head of the Drexel Alumni Association, is a member of the Pennoni Honors College Advisory Board who has more than 25 years as a technology executive in both established companies and start-ups. In the course of talking about our Honors courses, I mentioned the possibility of his teaching for us. He took me up on this, and we ended up teaching a one-credit Great Works class this spring. Afterwards, I asked him about the experience: PAULA MARANTZ COHEN: What made you think of teaching an Honors Program course?

DAVID KAGANOVSKY: Well, first of all, I was asked by you. But really it stems from two things: First, I always thought that my future was to teach. When I retire, teaching seems like a great idea. Second, I come from a family of teachers. My grandfather, Isaac Kaganovsky, was a teacher. My aunt Galina was a teacher. My mother and father were also teachers. So perhaps it’s in the blood.

Why did you decide to co-teach a one-credit Great Works course?

This course felt like a bite-sized way to teach my first class. The commitment by me and by the students was smaller and I felt the chance of success was best.

What work did you choose to teach and why?

We chose Blink by Malcom Gladwell. The book focuses on how we make rash decisions. I felt this aligned well to your work in the Center for Civil Discourse. Blink is an acknowledgement of how we think in stressful situations — it’s more instinctual.

I want to discuss this idea with students and to help them broaden their ways of thinking so they can look beyond simple, one-dimensional ways of viewing others … especially in our politically and culturally divided nation.

What did you find most surprising about your experience teaching?

I loved how engaged and prepared most college students were throughout the process.

How would you characterize the Honors students in the course?

Varied. Not a monolith.

elp h o t t “I wan ok o l s t n e stud le, p m i s d beyon nal o i s n e one-dim ewing vi f o s y a w others.”

What thoughts do you have about the seminar as a unique site of learning?

I think there is no one way to learn. This method is hard because it’s less immersive but ironically best for our students.

We began by team-teaching, but you taught on your own for the final classes.

What made you feel confident to do this?

Smart students. They carried the class and I was there to help them make better decisions and see the works differently. (And I was mostly successful!)

Do you intend to teach more for Honors (I know we would love to have you)? If so, have you some ideas about what you might teach?

I can’t wait. I think my next class has to touch on my professional experience but combine that with a humanities focus to create a very unique and rich class for the students.

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On a tour of Little Haiti with a lifelong resident, students learned this piece of land with shops and businesses was co-opted to cater to tourists.

Painting a Picture of Little Haiti An intensive course abroad about community development taught a custom-designed major in social activism the role art can play in strengthening a community

By William Michael, custom-designed major, social activism ’23

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uring my junior year, I took an Intensive Course Abroad (ICA) about community development and resilience.

Resiliency is often a term used to describe how well people adapt and overcome challenges, and there’s probably no better case study than a country that managed the only successful slave-led liberation movement, ever: Haiti. We studied the history and people of the Caribbean nation, and despite winning their independence in the early 19th century, the country has continued to be a site of both foreign interference and aid. Following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake

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in 2010 that devastated one of the island’s densest cities, hundreds of nongovernmental and humanitarian organizations flew there to engage in critical recovery work with Haiti’s populace.

Our class dove deep into the ethics of care and charity. The instructors from Drexel’s Office of Global Engagement, Ahaji Schreffler and Adam Zahn, pushed us to explore really thoughtful questions about community development. We were working toward a framework of equitable community development that didn’t reinforce existing power structures; in

some cases, we examined long-term charity initiatives that did more harm than good by fostering a toxic dependency within the parties involved. It’s a complex subject, but one that deserves due diligence for anyone who aspires to help others, especially on an international scale.

As an ICA, our class participated in meaningful discussion and garnered insights over a nine-week period. Then we visited the Miami neighborhood of Little Haiti, including a variety of cultural, community and health center centers operating within this large Haitian diaspora — or the dispersion of people from their homeland. Little Haiti, as it is called, retains a strong sense of Haitian culture and community, and is known among Haitian immigrants seeking refuge from political or socio-economic turmoil in their country. The six other Honors Program students and I aimed to listen and learn from senior community leaders who integrate a culturally sensitive and socially responsible ethic of care into their work.

What I didn’t expect to learn over the course of this trip was how art can strengthen a community’s social bonds, and play an integral role in honoring unique cultural

identities. As an artist myself and someone who works in the creative industry, I feel like art never really leaves my mind. It’s a perspective I’m glad to have cultivated over the years. I have always been fascinated by the fact that one person, or a group of people, could bring an idea into the world so poignantly that it would impact thousands of others across the world, if not more. I’m studying social activism within Pennoni’s custom-design major program, so I tend to also think a lot about the way art can be utilized to organize people around ideas or causes we should care about. Throughout past and present social movements, art has been used as a powerful medium to connect with others and move people to respond, amid the doubts and ambiguities of a complex modern existence. Whether it’s a rallying cry for solidarity, or a sage social commentary, I knew art played a special role within communities. But until my trip to Little Haiti, I was still trying to pinpoint why, and to what extent it could really affect change.

us to step through the frame and fall into a new world. There was a series that depicted groups of protestors among the Black Lives Matter movement, their signs demanding our attention in the brief moments we walked by. An entire room held statues and a few three-dimensional installations that looked as if they drew from decades of native craftsmanship.

I found myself contemplating the role

this art played at the Center. My pencil scratched out a question later in the day as I reflected: What if the walls were bare?

It was a startling realization that without art, the Center would lack a sense of collective energy. I imagined blank walls.

Sterile. Uniform. Uninviting. A culturally sensitive approach would not withstand the absence of art.

“We were working toward a framework of equitable community development that didn’t reinforce existing power structures” On our first day, we visited the Center for Haitian Studies, a nonprofit healthcare clinic serving the surrounding community.

The Center offers its services free of charge, and they emphasize a culturally-sensitive approach that takes into consideration the social realities of immigrants and a historically disenfranchised population. As we toured the Center, I couldn’t help but notice the paintings hanging in the hallways. Every few feet, something caught my eye. The collection, we learned, was made up primarily of Haitian artists and curated by a retired doctor of the Center.

Each piece — with its vibrant colors and broad brush strokes — conveyed compelling aspects of a cultural heritage.

Lush landscapes filled with the flora and fauna of a budding ecosystem beckoned

Will Michael’s class being guided through the winding philodendron vines, gumbo limbo trees, rescued pigs, chickens and emus and a vegetable garden at the Earth N Us farm in Little Haiti.

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On the second day of our trip to Miami, we drove to the Design District — once considered a part of Little Haiti — to visit an art exhibition on display for Haitian Heritage Month. The unfortunate truth is that Miami’s Design District is a stark reminder of the city’s historical and ongoing gentrification. At the very least, the gallery was providing space to honor some part of this cultural legacy.

We mingled inside to see the exhibition NOULA, meaning “We are here” in Creole.

Right away, NOULA helped solidify some of my own thoughts around the role of art in social change. Haitian-American artist and art curator Yvena Despagne explained the backbone of the exhibition to be the 10x20-foot wall that met us straight on as we walked in. Spend some dedicated observation time there, she suggested, before embarking our guided tour. Pictures and paragraphs studded the wall, detailing a diverse collection of Haitian contributions to global history. The exhibition introduction reached as far back to highlight the Indigenous Taíno people that inhabited the Caribbean island harmoniously in the 1400s. Among other modern contributions, I learned about Haitian author Antenor Firmin, who wrote a powerful rebuttal to a widespread racist and pseudoscientific essay purporting the inequality of human races. After reading, we glided through the

“Haitian people are often neglected the due diligence they deserve as they’re filtered through Western culture’s mass media.”

installations, pictures, and sculptures that NOULA encompassed.

This wall rooted the framework and our dialogue for the entire rest of the space, and very intentionally so.

With its strong sense of Haitian influence throughout history, NOULA reflected authentic representations and ideas of its people, and served as a confrontational force against narratives that are imposed from the outside in, all too common nowadays.

Our mainstream media isn’t without bias, and Haitian people are often neglected the due diligence they deserve as they’re filtered through Western culture’s mass media. The same goes for many Black and Brown people.

Visual media like news, entertainment and TV can be full of tropes that simplify the lives and culture of others into boxes and stereotypes. As consumers, we must be actively aware of this. This process can be dangerously subtle, but has pervasive effects on all of us. It’s a poor ethic of care, intentional or not.

The simple fact is every individual deserves a voice, and here lies the power of art.

Art provides the space to take back power, to own the unique narrative of one’s culture and experience. This process of authentic representation is not to be un-

At the beginning of each day, the students met outside their hotel to review the day ahead and prepare questions for the leaders and organizations they were meeting with.

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derstated. Although an entire cultural narrative cannot necessarily be simplified to a singular perspective, culturally conscious exhibits like NOULA are excellent platforms to amplify art’s power within a community. The artwork is collectively making a statement. “We Are Here” is a united call for community members to gather around this idea of owning their narrative. While every piece in the exhibition could mean a little something different for anyone who walks through, it doesn’t diminish the value of its unique impact on the individual.

Our world is filled with creativity because of this.

Moments gathered around art are imbued with our innate need as human beings to be seen, to be heard, an essence of profound realization, or equally devastating contemplation. Although to allow this creativity to flourish, a task lies before us.

We have to ingrain a culturally sensitive approach into the routine aspects of our everyday life. We must assume the responsibility, every one of us, to provide space for unique perspectives and cultures to represent themselves thoughtfully, without the weight of our assumptions. This daily practice is just that, something we work on daily, and practice — meaning mistakes will be made. They’re actually necessary to the process of growth, so don’t forget to find the forgiveness in yourself to learn from them and the courage to keep going.

“A culturally sensitive approach would not withstand the absence of art.”

Students and instructors at a Haitian restaurant after exploring the NOULA art exhibit.

Classmate Alyssa Kemp exploring the animals and produce at “Earth N Us” Farm in a residential neighborhood in Little Haiti.

Maybe it’s not an art exhibition, but a song that really resonated with you at one point in your life. Think about it. Maybe it’s the track that your friend sent you as you reeled from an unexpected breakup, alone in your room. Is it coming to mind yet? It’s the one you play on repeat and almost blow out your car speakers because no matter how loud it gets — you just can’t get enough. There it is.

Now, every few months you make the trek to see your favorite artist and scream the lyrics to your favorite song, swaying

alongside a blissful sea of strangers. I always thought it made the bad times at least a little worth it, and to see others around you do the same; there’s something special there. We may not be as alone as we thought. It’s here that we realize our cultures can be different and yet we can still sing our songs side by side. This much is clear to me. The energy that propels itself from the voice of the artist may resonate differently within each of us — yet we scream the lyrics together, nonetheless.

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A Perfectly Engineered Pathway to Poetry from fear and guilt to ultimate freedom

By Lina Girgis, Architectural Engineering ’22

A

fter dedicating pretty much my entire upbringing to preparing for a career in engineering, I woke up one morning of my senior year, two classes left to graduate with my bachelor’s, with a detrimental realization that engineering was never the thing that I wanted to do. Ah! It wasn’t me who wanted to be an engineer, it was my parents that wanted me to be an engineer.

“Because what else would you be?” my dad asks with no consideration of the pressure those words of his put on me. “So, what else is there? Law? Are you considering med school?”

He continues… “No, none of those actually,” I tell him. “Baba, I want to be a writer, and a speaker.”

“I don’t understand,” he says.

He replies to me as if my value, especially as a woman, would not exist unless I am one of those things, as if life doesn’t contain yet undiscoverable magic and beauty that goes beyond a professional occupation which only reads well on a business card.

I sat with myself after this conversation, pondering, questioning: How did I even end up here? A tough position I never imagined to be in, never prepared myself for.

I remember the day in 2018 I chose to apply to Drexel as an architectural engineering major — and I didn’t even think. It was always engineering. Usually, decisions like these are very difficult, but not for me. It took me two seconds to click submit.

Ironically, I initially got deferred from Drexel and the program … it was almost like a sign. But I couldn’t see it. I must fight till the end, that’s what my parents always taught me. They never imparted that I should take the time to pause, think, search for beauty, search for myself outside of societal norms, buck my conservative culture and go after what I wanted, what Lina wanted.

“The idea of success in my parents' eyes is so strongly and unquestionably linked to a professional occupation, the infamous three, doctor, lawyer, and engineer, and that's just that.”

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Foreign parents love to brag about their kids — but, of course, only if it’s like this: “Oh, my son is a doctor, my daughter is a surgeon, making this much or that much money!”

But, like, are they happy? Or miserable? Do they resent you? And foreign parents love coming back as victims: “What did I do wrong?”

Believe me … many things.

It is quite interesting, almost narcissistic, because in their minds, this seems like the only road to success, their road to success. But what they’re doing is imprisoning their children by unintentionally (or intentionally) forcing them to conform to societal norms, that if you seriously sit back and think about, are not even reality. But that is a conversation for another time.

The idea of success in my parents' eyes is so strongly and unquestionably linked to a professional occupation, and, you know, the infamous three — doctor, lawyer and engineer, and that's just that. No other occupation is worthy or qualifiable in society. But what society?

News flash: Things have changed. But this is a huge generational curse that our parents put on us because their parents put on them. Not literally, but you know what I mean … I am here today to tell you I am holding myself and all of you accountable to break that generational

curse, and to do it now because it is about time and it is necessary to equip this world with individuals who truly care for it. Make sure they preserve our planet and have our society and economy prosper in the ways they were always meant to. It is easily debatable to say that our world right now is not even prospering at all but perhaps it is doing the complete opposite.

This is not only about picking an occupation (or not), but also about the mindset and behaviors we then adopt as adults. Choose a non-risky and secure career, but you might just create misery, erase the colors, dim the light of who you are and how you are meant to shine, prosper, grow and truly change this world. All this calls for a true change of mindset thus behavior, and we do this by breaking that generational curse.

I always used to write as a child, but I would do it quickly and hide it or throw it away. What if my parents discovered that I was exploring, creatively deviating from the studies that would lead me to be the most successful engineer I could be?

A quote by Don Miguel Ruiz from The Four Agreements teaches us how to unlearn everything that we unwillingly establish an agreement with, which is usually what we call societal “norms.”

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“I was searching for answers about everything: life, love, purpose, and the only way I could find those things was

through the words I wrote down.”

Lina Girgis, architectural engineering ’22, Honors, works as a project manager in the construction industry, but the published writer is using her voice to encourage others to pursue their passions.

His passage says: “The first step is to become aware of the fog that is in your mind. You must become aware that you are dreaming all the time … to really change your beliefs you need to focus your attention on what it is that you want to change. You have to know which agreements you want to change before you can change them…”.

So, I’ve tried to unlearn. The pandemic and the loss of time over the last two years has shown me the quickness by which life can be taken away. So, I decided to find my lost self: I wrote my first book. This was not about finding my passion, this was about rediscovering my passion, embracing it without fear and guilt. I am not saying I was not scared or did not feel extremely guilty. My parents sacrificed their lives and immigrated to the U.S. from Egypt, but I just could not bear to keep on going with this limited, unfulfilling, and surely secure path that was set out for me.

There is no denying when responsibility and duty calls, one must respond. I graduated in June 2022 and took a full-time job as a construction project manager. Nonetheless, the initial sense of purpose I felt in my professional work dipped drastically. Though I was complete in the prisms of society — a well-educated and corporately employed adult — there was still a void I needed to fill within myself. I was searching for answers about everything: life, love, purpose, and

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the only way I could find those things was through the words I wrote down. Many poems in my self-published book, Her Thoughts Past Midnight, reflect parts of myself that I had not exposed before. They are there for the world to know.

I scratched my wounds to see how deep, how much they can hurt me again but I didn’t feel anything so I scratched again still nothing I was in disbelief did I become numb or did they finally heal Her Thoughts Past Midnight, 188 I was having a hard time connecting with people for a while, but the words I could not say to people became the foundation for my book. This was my true passion, my way of connecting with people and people connecting with me.

My poetry is healing me. It is making me question things inside, equipping me to begin breaking the generational curse in my own family. I share all this to encourage others who seemingly feel or may be stuck or feel trapped by societal ideas of success

shaped by past generations to pull away.

Pursue your own unique idea of success with the absence of fear and guilt.

I had to learn to let go, change the narrative, change the outlook, and make sure I am successful, else I will become a burden, a failure. There is no room for hesitation or doubt and giving up is not an option, or even a thought. Now, I stress the need for change, to demolish this old structure and build something more worthwhile, more whole. I speak of this now as a believer in the power of healing and the power of change.

My book has given me the strength and drive to keep going. In late 2021, I shared the most intimate parts of myself with the world.

Three months later, my book sold out. Now I’ve restocked in larger numbers, and I am writing a second series of the book. I must say I have never been happier.

If experiencing hate and resentment toward the people I loved the most was the only road to lead me to discovering my version of purest forms of love, then I have accepted this tough journey the way that it is.

I can feel it, leading me back to my purpose, to the light I am meant to shine and share with the world.

I am forever grateful for my family.

@LINA3MAD @POETRYBYLINAAA

Her Thoughts Past Midnight

Her Thoughts Past Midnight

KINDLE

PAPERBACK 17

Sky’s The Limit

By Erica Levi Zelinger

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other Earth will always support you wherever you walk. That’s what Sky Harper’s mother and grandparents taught him. Always remember your family and where you come from. And when you’re making mush, always find the balance between your blue cornmeal and juniper ash or the sweetness and starchiness of the cornmeal won’t neutralize the bitterness of the ash.

As a child growing up on the Navajo reservation in Ram Pasture, Arizona, Sky, chemistry ’24, Honors, loved to listen to the lore of his elders and cook with his mother.

He’d wonder while stirring a pot on the stove why the ingredients were reacting the way they were. Sky began to fuse the stories and teachings of his culture, the plaguing issues in his community and modern science with his enthusiasm for chemistry and his devotion to Native American healthcare.

Well into his college career, Sky has seamlessly woven the Indigenous narratives of his ancestors into his research, his thought process and even the applications that recently garnered the College of Arts & Sciences and Pennoni Honors College student both the prestigious Goldwater and Udall Fellowships.

The Goldwater Scholarship recognizes 400 undergraduates in science, math, and engineering fields across the United States, planning to pursue research careers and provides funding for undergraduate study. The Udall is awarded to 50 students committed to careers related to the environment, tribal public policy, or Native American healthcare. Sky is Drexel’s first-ever nominee and recipient in the field of Native American healthcare.

When he was heading into midterms — that long stretch from Week 3 to Week 8 — Sky didn’t have much time to process the significance of this achievement.

“I was in shock — I wasn’t processing it,” he says. “With Drexel’s schedule just going on and on — I didn’t have time to think about

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about the line of questions. From the microphone came an announcement that of the 2,000 students there, Drexel University (he had no idea where Drexel was) eight students were awarded full scholarships for projects matching the University curriculum. “Sky Harbor,” he thought he heard them say, and he wondered what the Phoenix airport had to do with Drexel — until his name flashed on screen.

“I am pretty sure I heard my mom screaming from the back of the convention center,” he says.

Though he could have applied elsewhere, he was floored that Drexel offered him a full ride even before applying. “That was Drexel saying, ‘We are going to fully invest in you as a student. They were the first one to say I was worth it. And I felt like I earned it.”

So, he came to Drexel. But not without doing his research.

He investigated the many programs and initiatives of Pennoni Honors College. He applied and was accepted to the Honors Program.

Same with Undergraduate Research & Enrichment Program’s (UREP) STAR Scholars Program, which allowed him to study the in-situ polymerization of acrylic acid with dielectric barrier discharge-based plasma with Dr. Haifeng Ji. “The best thing I did for myself was become involved on campus immediately,” Sky says. He continued research through UREP, becoming a SuperNova Undergraduate Research Fellow and working on a vertically integrated project with Dr. John Medaglia in the Cognitive Neuroengineering & Wellbeing Laboratory. He participated in UREP’s Aspire Scholars program, to help develop and clarify his career goals. He’s a Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation ambassador, plays volleyball with the chem majors, and with a knack for storytelling, he’s shared his writing on stage at The Moth and with the Philadelphia Theatre Company. He always wants to be an example for his five younger brothers.

“We joke that Sky is a ‘frequent flyer’ at UREP because he’s involved with so many of our programs,” says UREP associate director Leah Gates. “But it means we’ve gotten to support him in a lot of

different modes of growth, which is really satisfying. Our goal is to assist students in developing and integrating the skills of curiosity and reflection, and we’ve really gotten to see that process bear fruit for Sky.” She adds, “We’re always trying to remind Sky that he doesn’t have to do everything, he doesn’t have to always say yes … he sometimes pushes himself too hard, perhaps because he feels such a strong obligation to perform well as a role model for other aspiring Indigenous scientists.”

In fact, when Sky first got to Drexel, he studied DragonLink to see what organizations existed on campus for Indigenous people and when he didn’t find any, he started one. There are less than 10 students on the Drexel campus who self-identify as Native American; Sky is the only one in STEM. “One of my biggest challenges is the expectation of me to represent all Indigenous people, but I can’t fully represent other tribes. We’re all unique — from our traditions to our daily walks of life.”

Among the challenges of the fellowship application process, Sky admits, was switching gears from writing technical lab reports to writing reflective applications, highlighting his culture and his accomplishments.

The process has helped refine his writing skills by reflecting on experiences gained. He’s further developed his goals and has a clearer picture of the route he wants to take to an MD/PhD program.

“I knew what I wanted to do but the steps to get there seemed complicated — I was passionate about research and my community but didn’t know how it would translate to my career.”

As a four-year, one co-op student, Sky wasn’t sure if he should pursue employment in medicine, research or industry for his co-op, but fellowship advising has helped define his path.

“I learned that the National Institutes of Health has an MD/ PhD program at Oxford and Cambridge. But then I learned that NIH prefers you have prior experience at NIH. So now I’m applying for a program at NIH.” And every application builds upon the last.

“One of my biggest challenges is the expectation of me to represent all Indigenous people”

Sky Harper, chemistry ’24, is the recipient of both the prestigious Goldwater and Udall fellowships.

getting these scholarships. I’m a first-generation college student and I’m here to achieve new accomplishments for my family. Not a lot of students get these scholarships. Even fewer receive two of them. I want to show my brothers — ‘you are capable.’”

Because that’s the mantra that has been bestowed upon him by his high school chemistry teacher, Ms. Flores, and professional mentors, Leona Anderson of Boeing, Dr. Daniel Winarski of IBM and Drs. Andrew Gehring, Christopher Clarke and Jenny Allen at the United States Department of Agriculture — Agricultural Research Services, where he’s been employed since graduating high school, conducting research.

But long before Sky ever set foot on the Drexel campus — which, because of COVID, wasn’t actually until his second term — he took this advice from his mother: Learn to speak for yourself and make it happen.

When he was 17 and at the biggest pre-college international science fair in the

world, Sky explained his research detailing the creation of a reactor that synthesized glucose with non-organic compounds — photosynthesis without the plant!

The scientists in white coats surveyed Sky’s poster. They raised their clipboards, fired off questions and jotted down notes.

“Where are you interested in attending college? Would you prefer a city school or suburban campus? Something small, medium-sized or large?”

And then moved onto the next student in the Phoenix convention center hall.

Just days before, his mother had used her entire paycheck from a substitute teaching gig at Sky’s high school, Navajo Preparatory boarding school in New Mexico, to pay to have his poster printed in town for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

At the science fair’s awards ceremony, he sat among other students, chatting it up, only half-listening and no longer thinking

One of the Navajo teachings, Sky says, is to wear a piece of turquoise every day as it is a sacred stone for protection.

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✴ STELLAR FORMATION: Looking back on 20 years of the STAR Scholars program

S TA R S c Here

is the

Y e e a h r t s h g h o l a r s T h ro u

breakdo wn of stude nts in the first cohor

the 20th coho rt ge) versus e l l o c t (by

2 3

2002-03

Total students:

31

19

11 3

17

12

2022-23

Total students:

122

22 11

20

In 2002-03, the STAR Scholars Program did not require an endof-summer presentation; what we now call the STAR Scholars Summer Showcase did not begin until 2007. We now require all STAR Scholars to write an abstract, create a poster, and record a video presentation for the annual STAR Scholars Summer Showcase.

3

43

STAR Alumni reflect on their participation in STAR

By Rachel James, program coordinator, Undergraduate Research & Enrichment Programs

2

5 In 2002-03, the STAR Scholars Program began as a mechanism to recruit high-achieving students to the university — so the only way for a student to get into the program was to be invited when they applied to Drexel. The mid-year student application was created about four years later (2006), after the program had grown in reputation and current students began asking how they could participate. In the 20th year of STAR, we received over 1,200 applications from prospective students, 60 of whom matriculated to Drexel and participated in STAR. The remaining 62 students in the cohort were selected through our current student application, which drew nearly 150 applications from current first-year students.

Constellation Contemplation

✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴

Westphal CoAS CCI Engineering Biomed Goodwin CNHP LeBow

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onfidence, growth and opened doors: these themes come up repeatedly when alumni describe the impact of their STAR experiences. As the STAR Scholars Program celebrates its 20th year, it’s clear the program has had far-reaching effects. From going to grad school to starting a company, many alumni cite their early research experiences in STAR as the step that started them on their current paths.

For many students, STAR is their first time conducting research, or even having a full-time job. Along with gaining technical and communication skills, alumni describe learning how to think creatively and persevere through difficulty. “[T]he biggest takeaway was learning the research mindset,” says Matt Wiese (BS/MS mechanical engineering ’18). “STAR gave me the first glimpse of research; the feeling of excitement, uncertainty and innovation that borders the line between an idea and reality.”

Ashleigh Jugan, environmental science ’18, appreciated the opportunity to work closely with her mentor. “My faculty mentor not only helped me grow as a researcher, but also as person,” she says. “She took the time to show me how the opportunities in research are endless, and how being creative and open-minded is just as important as being organized and thorough.”

Sylvia Herbert, BS/MS mechanical engineering ’14, has come full circle from her first lab experience STAR in 2009: She now runs her own mechanical and aerospace engineering research lab at UC San Diego.

“The STAR program helped spark my love of research,” she says. “I was able to continue in the lab for co-ops and my research experience was key to getting me into a top PhD program at UC Berkeley, and ultimately to becoming a professor myself!”

Both Rachael DiSciullo, biology ’13, and Jakub Zegar, environmental science ’20, describe how STAR ignited their love of field biology. Rachael, who is currently pursuing a PhD in biology at Illinois State University, said “[iSTAR] was my first experience conducting field work, and it was in a foreign country (Costa Rica) which was so exciting for me. I learned how to be a field biologist, studying iguanas, ctenosaurs and sea turtles, and to navigate relationships with graduate students and scientists at the field station. I also learned that this was the career path I wanted to take.”

Jakub, a PhD student in biology at the University of Mississippi, says “When I was admitted into the STAR program and afforded the opportunity to do research with [reptiles and amphibians], I really could not imagine the impact it would have on me. I did not hold my first frog until I was 18 years old, yet here I am pursuing a PhD studying them. Truthfully, there is no reason that I would have fallen in love with the system and the animals that I study other than my STAR experience.”

“The opportunity to go into a graduate-level lab as a freshman was an incredible experience,” says Ryan Measel (BS computer engineering, MS electrical engineering, PhD electrical engineering ’11), who was part of one of the earliest STAR cohorts in 2006.

After completing his PhD in electrical engineering, Ryan co-founded a company with a fellow Drexel alum. “Getting to work on real research projects with budgets, deliverables and timelines sets context early on for how to work in a professional research environment. It put me on the path to feeling confident enough to run my own projects in grad school and ultimately launch a company.” Ryan now works as a VP of engineering developing light-weight electric vehicles at

TIER Mobility, which acquired his company earlier this year.

Other alumni also describe gaining self-confidence through STAR. “Without STAR, I would never have had the world view and confidence needed to apply for and receive external opportunities like the Goldwater Scholarship, the Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship and the Gates Cambridge Scholarship,” says Nicholas Barber, geoscience ’18. Nick recently completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge and began a postdoc as a Wares Earth Sciences Fellow at McGill University in Montreal.

“The independence, confidence and comfort I have in myself and my abilities as a researcher started with STAR.” “I would not be where I am today without the STAR Scholars Program,” said Kristine Loh, BS chemical engineering, MS materials science & engineering '20. Now a chemical engineering PhD student, Kristine is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and a College of Science and Engineering Fellow at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. “As someone who didn't have familial or community connections in STEM, I don't think I would have even been informed of research opportunities without the formal structure of a program like STAR. The independence, confidence and comfort I have in myself and my abilities as a researcher started with STAR.”

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✴ STELLAR FORMATION: Looking back on 20 years of the STAR Scholars program

Written in the STARS: Mentorship Makes the Program

By Erica Levi zelinger

Dr. Glen Muschio has no research laboratory. He has no graduate assistants. And he rarely receives external research funding. But as a mentor for Pennoni’s STAR Scholars Program since its inception in 2002, the founding director of Westphal’s digital media program saw an opportunity in STAR for his students to explore the full potential of his then-burgeoning field.

“As a media producer and an anthropologist,” says Muschio, “I was especially interested in raising student awareness about the cultural opportunities and possibilities of pursuing a professional life of social research and media production.”

The STAR Scholars Program engages first-year students in faculty-mentored undergraduate research, scholarship or creative endeavors during the summer after their freshman year. Now in its 20th year, the Program applauds Muschio and two other faculty mentors, Drs. Richard Cairncross and Margaret Wheatley, who’ve supported students in their research endeavors since the program began.

Muschio’s had a direct, one-on-one mentoring relationship with 32 students — including the three he mentored this summer. Although a majority of STAR students over the past two decades have been in STEM disciplines, Muschio was the first faculty member

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In his 20 years mentoring STAR Scholars, chemical and biological engineering professor Richard Cairncross, has mentored nearly 20 students — but even the first few had lasting impacts as well.

Cory Melick ’07, started his research program on producing biodiesel from waste grease. This eventually became the dominant research topic in Dr. Cairncross’s research program and even led to the creation of a startup company.

Becoming involved in the program, Cairncross says, seemed like a great opportunity to get some enthusiastic students involved in research early on in their academic careers.

The STAR Scholars Program has helped Cairncross evolve the way he runs his lab.

“I have become more organized in how I introduce students to research and how I organize the projects in my lab so that the STAR students can get involved quickly and be more productive.”

Each student interaction, Cairncross says, is unique. “I’ve enjoyed having a single, soft-spoken student work with me on a fairly independent project and see her eventually start asking more questions and taking tentative steps toward independent decision making and planning of experiments,” and he adds, “I have also really enjoyed having a team of students that develops a rapport in the laboratory where they are teasing each other about things but then also highly supporting and working well together.”

When Nicholas Pashos, biomedical engineering ’11, received a coveted spot to present his STAR Scholar research at Posters on the

“I w

o take smart risks, t as alw d e ays encourag lational

and

from the humanities or social sciences to become involved.

“So the first few STARS and I were making it up as we went along,” Muschio quips.

Their digital media research projects have often taken the mentor-mentee pairs off-campus to archives and cultural and archaeological sites around the region. They have pored over historical documents and photographed the grounds of an 18th-century plantation; produced an interactive digital tour of the same New Jersey landmark; scanned archaeological ceramic sherds and artifacts recovered at a building site; produced an interactive learning environment based on a museum; and produced 3D models of a Revolutionary War-era underwater defensive weapon recovered from the Delaware River.

His involvement in STAR led Muschio to be the first Westphal faculty member to be involved in National Science Foundation-funded research; he’s now been immersed in three NSF projects. Former Muschio mentees have gone on to pursue PhDs, work on blockbuster Hollywood animations and oversee virtual production at Netflix.

Their findings have also been presented at community and international conferences and on professional blogs.

With STAR Scholars Samantha Seitz, left, and Emily Mah, right, in 2019 to conduct research at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and at the American Philosophical Society in preparation for producing 3D digital models of the bird dioramas and a pipe organ in Peale’s early 19th century Museum of Natural History and Art.

to always think trans

Mentor Glen Muschio, left, with STAR Scholars Jessie Wu, center, and Zach Stockmal, right, who photographed the SS United States, docked on the Delaware River, in preparation to digitally model sections of the ship as their STAR project.

Hill in Washington, D.C., his mentor, Dr. Margaret Wheatley, drove to Washington, D.C. to support him.

The graduating seniors from Texas stationed next to Nick were amazed that Nicholas had only just completed his freshman year.

“I think that highlights how fabulous the STAR Program is,” says Dr. Wheatley. “It was a pretty big deal, and since then, Nicholas has done great things.”

Nicholas was featured in Drexel Magazine’s 40 Under 40 in 2017, crediting the work he did in Wheatley’s academic lab as the impetus for creating BioAesthetics, a startup regenerative medicine company focused on developing complex grafts for breast reconstruction due to breast cancer.

“I learned how to take an idea and see if it had potential,” Nicholas says. “I was always encouraged to take smart risks, and to always think translationally.”

From the inception of STAR, the Wheatley Lab has employed 30 STAR Scholars. Dr. Kara Spiller, associate professor of biomedical engineering, was one of Dr. Wheatley’s first.

“STAR students learn how to operate independently and manage their own time,” says Dr. Spiller. “Working in the lab taught me how to manage my time effectively. I used that skill going forward in my classes, and clubs and other research. I carried it forward into my career.” Dr. Spiller is now a colleague of Dr. Wheatley’s.

ly.”

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✴ STELLAR FORMATION: Looking back on 20 years of the STAR Scholars program

2022 STAR Scholars Spotify List

From Mentee to Mentor

122 STAR Scholars spent 10 weeks conducting faculty-mentored research, but in their free time, they put together a playlist of the tunes that kept them going this past summer.

By Alyssa Kemp, environmental engineering ’25 In 2021, I was fortunate enough to participate in Pennoni’s STAR Scholars Program.

I conducted research the summer after my freshman year with Dr. Franco Montalto conducting a community-focused analysis of heat mitigation techniques used in the Hunting Park neighborhood of Philadelphia. I was also selected by the Center for Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning Excellence (CASTLE) to be a part of Pennoni’s Velay Fellows program, which supported me as a woman in STEM and included a facilitated book club, workshops and mentorship.

The STAR Scholars and the Velay Fellows programs were my first introduction to programming through UREP. Within a short time, I realized that UREP would be one of my best resources to accomplish the goals I have as a Drexel BS/MS environmental engineering student; I soon became a frequent visitor to Bentley Hall. After Jaya Mohan, director of UREP, and Jennifer Stanford, co-director of CASTLE, approached me before the start of

summer quarter about being a Velay Fellows mentor, I began supporting students in both the STAR and Velay programs. I mentored 11 students as UREP ambassador, as well as 12 students in the Velay Fellows program.

My mentees were all in STEM-related fields, such as materials science and engineering and environmental science. Our group discussions focused on cultivating skills such as resumé building, networking, career discovery and personal development. I strived to create an environment where my mentees were comfortable coming to me with any questions they had regarding their academic, professional or personal lives. I think the biggest issue for a lot of STAR students is understanding how to connect their experience with STAR to greater opportunities. I helped them formulate paths for their steps after STAR, such as continuing research through an independent study or applying for a fellowship.

Collaboration and relationship building are vital to any mentorship, so to that end,

I organized one of my favorite activities in partnership with fellow UREP Ambassador Elizabeth Li. We hosted an event titled, “Sweet STAR Social” where we had desserts and coloring books for the STAR Scholars at Cira Green. I was also able to host academic undergraduate panels for both my mentorship programs where I collaborated with many STAR and Velay Alumni. My experiences as a mentee helped me develop my role as mentor and gave me insight into just how important communication is in a mentorship. I think the biggest transition from being a mentee to becoming a mentor is confidence. Even though it was only a year ago, I have grown in my experiences at Drexel, which have helped me to become more poised and self-reliant! My advice to other STAR or Velay alumni is to pay it forward to the next group of students; you will grow in ways that you did not expect and meet individuals that can impact your own path at Drexel and beyond.

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American Teenager Ethel Cain Cate’s Brother Maisie Peters Favorite Peeps Prateek kuhad June Gloom the like motion sickness phoebe bridgers careless whisper george michael rubberneckers christian lee hutson rasputin majestic, boney m. tomorrow never came lana del rey, sean ono lennon never gonna give you up rick astley part of the band the 1975 i ain’t worried one republic before niki brando lucy dacus

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level up (twice as tall) burna boy, youssou n’dour run to the sun n.e.r.d. mood ring lorde the path lorde solar power lorde free mind tems all i ever asked rachel chinouriri change djo it’s only right wallows Home by now muna august taylor swift zinnias clairo be cool MAGGIE RODGERS

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Spread the News!

Alumni News Girish Balakrishnan, digital media ’12, received The Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers Progress Medal in recognition of his long-term commitment and unwavering pursuit of virtual production capabilities, which has resulted in significant advancement in the field and influenced how feature films and television shows are produced today. A technological pioneer ushering in a new era of film production, Mr. Balakrishnan currently is the director of Virtual Production at Netflix.

Zach Blackwood, entertainment and arts management, Westphal ’14, is the senior specialist for Community Connection & Audience Participation for the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, a new position developed out of the Center's deepening commitment to diversity, equity, access and inclusion.

Matthew Hunter Jamerson, biological sciences ‘95, took command in July of the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory (NSMRL) onboard Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut as a Captain of Medical Service Corps in the United States Navy. NSMRL’s mission focuses on sustaining the readiness and superiority of undersea warriors (submariners and divers) through innovative physical and mental health and human performance research. This is Captain Jamerson’s second command tour and follows the successful completion of his third Executive Officer (second-in-command) tour of duty (the

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Please send your alumni announcements to pennoni@drexel.edu and let us know what you’ve been up to. Include your name, major, graduation year, and share with us your career stories, promotions, marriages, births, etc.

latest of which was at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, California).

Sarah Malik, business and engineering ‘20, MS mechanical engineering ’22, PhD mechanical engineering ’24, was accepted to Stanford University’s Rising Mechanical Engineering Stars Workshop. She is the first student from Drexel University to be selected for this program. The workshop supports women considering careers in academia by providing skills, networking and mentoring opportunities. The Class of 2020 Dean’s Award recipient, former STAR student, Undergraduate Research Leader and SuperNova student credits the Undergraduate Research & Enrichment Programs team for helping her through the application process.

Ken May, business administration ’06, was promoted to partner at Haefele Flanagan, a certified public accounting and advisory firm.

George Papayannis, architectural engineering ’99, joined Acera — the Massachusetts school of science, creativity and leadership — as the Director of Upper School.

David Seok, architecture, ’12, was recognized by The Lighting Practice in their Light Collective Class of 40 Under 40, an international program that identifies the most talented and promising individuals working in the lighting design industry.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Jed Singer, business administration, ’09, is the co-founder of The Marketing Help, an online space for mentorship, training resources and career navigation where people in the marketing industry can connect. The company launched a free student mentorship program and scholarship called TMH+ which gives users access to hundreds of resources in its library, and matches them to a virtual career mentor, weekly office hours and monthly group chat sessions.

Giuseppe Luca Tota, finance ’18, is a client success lead at NASDAQ, the U.S. Stock Market Exchange in New York City. His dayto-day focus and passion is to help clients navigate the ever-evolving ESG (environmental, social and governance) landscape. To survive and thrive in the era of impact, companies must navigate and adapt to regulatory changes and evolving ESG norms and his responsibilities are to make sure that clients are leveraging the right solutions to help drive positive business outcomes. He started at NASDAQ in 2018 in the fixed income business unit, covering real-time, intraday and end-of-day market data instruments such as cash U.S. Treasury securities including bills, notes and bonds.

Later, he briefly moved to the Nasdaq Copenhagen, Denmark NASDAQ office to work on the Nasdaq Sustainable Bond Network, which connects issuers of sustainable bonds with investors, empowering them to evaluate impact and make informed investment decisions on sustainable bonds. He currently splits his time between New York and Philadelphia.

Cover image of Torah Comics by Andrew Galitzer

Honors student Andrew Galitzer, engineering technology and Jewish studies minor ’25, started drawing comics about Judaism in sixth grade. His passion then was art — which outweighed his interest in Judaic studies, but as he matured, he redrew his comics year after year and started a Jewish educational cartooning business, ANDiDREW in 2018. In November 2021, he won first place in Startup Fest from the Close School of Entrepreneurship with an idea for a collection of comics. It had always been his dream to publish a book (He once handcrafted a children’s book in middle school and drew on a fake barcode!). This year, that became a reality: Torah Comics, written and illustrated

by Andrew, was picked up by Gefen Publishing House in Israel. The 64-page book is now available in bookstores around the world. He sold more than 60 copies to teens within one week of receiving them in Israel.

In addition, Andrew teaches cartooning workshops to children in person or over Zoom, including fundraisers for Innovation Africa, a non-profit bringing Israeli tech to African villages for water and electricity. He’s developing a curriculum for schools to use that will incorporate his book. Andrew won the Baiada Institute’s Entrepreneurship fastpitch competition. He continues to draw up his future plans, including comics about Zionism and antisemitism, working with a DC comic artist on a bible comic anthology and impacting education in schools worldwide.

@TorahComics TORAHCOMICS.COM

Andrew Galitzer book signing

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