Here鈥檚 what it’s like to spend the summer as an intern for Outright Lewiston/Auburn, an organization that creates safe and affirming environments for area youths, 14 to 21, who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or questioning.

Jason DeFelice ’17 of Salem, N.H., an intern with Outright L/A, poses at the Lewiston Public Library prior to leading a Q-and-A with LGBTQ+ youth. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Name: Jason DeFelice ’17

Hometown: Salem, N.H.

Major: Neuroscience

Summer funding: Harward Center for Community Partnerships

1. Why did you pursue this internship?

As a Bonner Leader at 乐播传媒, I feel that it is very important to support local nonprofits that seek to better the Lewiston-Auburn community.

I knew that working with Outright L/A would give me valuable experience in working with minority youth and would be incredibly helpful to an organization that, like so many nonprofits, has had funding struggles.

Additionally, since my parents identify as lesbians, it is very important to me to offer others the kind of supportive environment that I always had growing up.

2. How does the internship reflect your neuroscience major?

My goal is to become a psychiatrist and work with youth, especially transgender youth. Since there is a much higher percentage of mental illness among LGBTQ+ individuals, being able to provide a supportive and affirming environment for youth this summer has reaffirmed that goal.

3. What have you learned?

I have learned a great deal about nonprofit organizations, particularly how difficult it is to find and apply for funding.

I also learned many practical things that aren’t specific to this work but are important skills to have, like how to organize and plan events. I’ve gained insights into the essence of this work: how to provide a safe place where youth feel like they belong.

4. In a given week, what were you responsible for?

Every Monday and Wednesday I was required to attend Q-and-A programming sessions, which included planning and executing educational workshops, art activities, and field trips.

The other days of the week I researched grant opportunities for Outright L/A and prepared a new program, modeled on Big Brothers Big Sisters, partnering Outright L/A youth with 乐播传媒 students.

5. At a recent program at the Lewiston Public Library, Dean of Students Josh McIntosh talked about college aspirations. What was it like to work with him in this community context?

Dean McIntosh was very engaging with the youth during the Q-and-A sessions and really made them feel welcomed and comfortable in the space.

He also asked questions and brought up very important points during our discussion on college aspirations and transgender healthcare workshops. As Dean McIntosh moved to the area just recently, it was great to see him engaging with members of the community outside of 乐播传媒.

6. What did you learn about the Lewiston-Auburn community that you didn鈥檛 know before?

There are so many individuals in the area who are dedicated to serving youth and bettering the community in any way they can. The thing that makes Lewiston-Auburn so great is not the amazing restaurants or the fantastic art walks, but the people who live there.

As geology students did faculty-guided fieldwork in and around the 乐播传媒鈥揗orse Mountain Conservation Area on Aug. 13, 乐播传媒 photographer Josh Kuckens followed along.

And after a long day looking down at sand, marsh, and water, the young researchers, whose work will inform and guide their senior theses, got a chance to look in a different direction 鈥� like up, into the night sky.

9:52 a.m. 鈥� Measuring up

At Popham Beach State Park, Nicole Cueli ’16 of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., sets up an a transit, or autolevel, a device used by scientists, builders, and surveyors to measure distances and elevation changes. In the distance at right is Ian Hillenbrand ’17 of Terrace Park, Ohio.

9:53 a.m. 鈥� Staff support

Hillenbrand ’17 holds a stadia rod, which is used in tandem with an autolevel to measure the elevation change between two points on the beach.

Geology majors Cueli and Hillenbrand have joined 乐播传媒 geologist Mike Retelle’s long-term work to monitor and evaluate how the area’s sandy beach systems respond to changes brought about by storms, seasonal wave climate, and rising sea level.

9:54 a.m. 鈥� Level best at Popham

Cueli uses the autolevel. In her left hand is the geologist鈥檚 trusty companion, a yellow field notebook.

10:20 a.m. 鈥� Sooner or ladder

As Dana Cohen-Kaplan ’16, of Newton Mass., steadies the ladder, Retelle downloads weather data and time-lapse images from a unit mounted on the west bath house at Popham Beach.

11:28 a.m. 鈥� Break time

Back at the 乐播传媒 College Coastal Center at Shortridge, adjacent to 乐播传媒-Morse Mountain and Popham Beach State Park, the 乐播传媒 researchers break for lunch.

Here, Cueli jokes with Retelle, who is reviewing time-lapse images from the beach, and with听 Laura Sewall, who is director of the 乐播传媒-Morse Mountain Conservation Area and Shortridge.

1:24 p.m. 鈥� You can get there from here, but it’ll take awhile

Geology majors Cailene Gunn ’16 (left) of Granby, Conn., and Dana Cohen-Kaplan ’16 of Newton, Mass., secure benches to the top of Gunn’s car before heading out to do fieldwork at Long Marsh in Harpswell.

The distance from Shortridge to Long Marsh is just 10 miles as the crow flies, but it’s 30 miles (and a 45-minute drive) on roads that follow Maine’s infamously zig-zaggy shoreline.

2:22 p.m. 鈥� Waist deep in big muddy

Gunn suddenly finds herself waist deep in Long Marsh. “It happens, but it’s not usually this bad,” she says.

Gunn and Cohen-Kaplan have been working with geology professor Bev Johnson to measure the carbon budget of Maine’s salt marshes.

Specifically, they are measuring the amount of methane released by two different salt marshes, the Sprague River Marsh, part of 乐播传媒-Morse Mountain, and Long Marsh, in Harpswell.

Long Marsh, occupying a long, narrow glacially carved valley at sea level, has experienced restricted tidal flow for decades. As a result, its health has suffered.

3:21 p.m. 鈥� Gassing up

In early 2014 a new and wider culvert was installed beneath a road that crosses the marsh.听 The wider culvert allows sea water to flood the marsh regularly.

The tactic is working, says Gunn, seen here taking a gas sample from the marsh. 鈥淲e can actually see the ecosystem beginning to restore itself.鈥�

Taking gas samples is necessary to measure the amount of methane being released from the marsh. Among other things, better tidal flow throughout Long Marsh should help the marsh retain more methane.

While carbon dioxide is the more prevalent greenhouse gas, methane is much more potent as a heat-trapping gas.

3:37 p.m. 鈥� Wetlands at work

Tidal marshes are paramount to the overall health of coastal ecosystems. They provide nursery habitat for important fisheries, protect against storm surges, filter out pollutants, and serve as carbon sinks.

Unfortunately, most of Maine’s salt marshes have been anthropogenically altered in some way, and many are in need of restoration to function properly.

7:25 p.m. 鈥� Setting the scene

Gunn and Cohen-Kaplan join Adam Auerbach ’16 of Silver Spring, Md., and Nathan Stephansky ’17 of Whitman, Mass., on Hermit Island., about three miles from Shortridge, where they watch the sunset from a spot called the Bath Tub.

The four students, each of whom did fieldwork or related coastal work over the summer, used Shortridge as their home base.

7:43 p.m. 鈥� Getting rooted on the rocks

Gunn does some sunset-inspired yoga.

9:16 p.m. 鈥� Back to Shortridge

Cohen-Kaplan and Cueli finish off their late supper at Shortridge.

Shortridge was donated to 乐播传媒 in the mid-1990s by John and Linda Shortridge, who had built a retirement home on the land. It has facilities for field research while also supporting other 乐播传媒 activities. Each year, some 25 student groups, representing up to 400 students, use the center.

The center sits on 79 acres of woodlands, wetlands, granite escarpments, and a glacially-scoured pond.

10:03 p.m. 鈥� Starry starry night

At night, “the Rock,” an outcropping behind Shortridge that looks out over Meetinghouse Pond, is a dark and spectacular place 鈥� a perfect spot to watch the night sky.

Here鈥檚 what it is like to spend the summer as a funded research assistant in a 乐播传媒 geology lab that, among many other steps, melts chemical mixes in an oven at temperatures up to 1750 degrees Celsius, or 3182 degrees Fahrenheit.

With the drill press in the background that she uses to take cores from slabs of glass, Paige Guevarra ’18 of Brooklyn, N.Y., is shown in Genevieve Robert’s geology lab. (Josh Kuckens/乐播传媒 College)

Name: Paige Guevarra ’18

Hometown: Brooklyn, N.Y.

Major: Undecided, leaning toward the natural sciences

Summer funding: Science Fellows Program Faculty-Student Grant, part of a 乐播传媒 program giving first-year students a solid introduction to STEM research.

1. Tell us more about your research project.

It鈥檚 titled “Synthesis of Mixed-alkali Aluminosilicate Glasses,” and it鈥檚 designed to determine how changes in chemical composition affect the heat capacity and viscosity, or resistance to flowing, of certain types of glass.

I鈥檓 assisting Rebecca Smith [a rising senior from South Freeport, Maine] with her thesis research and Genevieve Robert [Smith鈥檚 adviser, assistant professor of geology, and an authority on factors affecting how molten rock flows].

We’re synthesizing and preparing test samples of glasses with different chemical compositions. And we’re testing the viscosity, density, heat capacity of each sample.

We鈥檙e looking to see more clearly the effect that the ratios of sodium, potassium, and silica have on viscosity, and therefore on the properties of magma within the Earth.

2. What are some of the overarching lessons you’ve taken away from this experience?

In the lab, when we鈥檙e not actively doing something with our hands, there鈥檚 a lot of free time, which I use for reading geology literature about silicate glasses and melts.

“It鈥檚 on me to use my time wisely and be productive.”

I realized this is a great chance to learn more about the experiments we are conducting, and that I should take advantage of this opportunity that I wouldn鈥檛 have had if not for the Science Fellows program.

3. How is this different from coursework?

I don鈥檛 have assignments due, and Genevieve isn鈥檛 saying, “Hey, read this, do this.” It鈥檚 on me to use my time wisely and be productive. What I’ll be able to take away from this experience will reflect the effort I put into being a part of the lab. This knowledge is giving me more motivation and incentive to engage myself in my work, which I hope will carry on through the rest of my years at 乐播传媒 and in life.

Paige Guevarra '18 of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Assistant Professor of Geology Genevieve Robert. (Josh Kuckens/乐播传媒 College)

Paige Guevarra '18 of Brooklyn, N.Y., pours an experimental glass mixture onto a copper sheet to solidify. (Josh Kuckens/乐播传媒 College)

With the drill press that she uses to take cores from slabs of glass in the background, Paige Guevarra '18 of Brooklyn, N.Y., is shown in Genevieve Robert's geology lab. (Josh Kuckens/乐播传媒 College)

The lab work has given relevance to things that I learned throughout high school about the whole scientific process 鈥� having a hypothesis, a purpose, making a clear procedure and documenting everything.

People always laugh, “Do we really have to write everything down?” But you do. When I have to write about this at the end of the summer, or when Rebecca is writing her thesis a year after the first experiments were conducted, we do need to know everything that was done.

4. Genevieve and Becky Smith are serving as mentors to you. How is that going?

Becky is a really good geology mentor, considering that I had very little knowledge of it and she was in the same place not too many years ago. I appreciate her presence as both an older student and friend who is able to offer guidance not only in lab, but also in classes and 乐播传媒 life in general.

Genevieve has guided me through a lot of what we鈥檙e doing and explained concepts in a way that I could understand without extensive background knowledge.

Working with them has also shown me where I could potentially go. In a year at 乐播传媒, Genevieve has created a lab and found students to work in it, and maybe that will be the path I’ll pursue one day.

5. Why would you recommend someone do research over the summer?

It鈥檚 your school, and the relationships you build with professors or other students over the summer 鈥� whether it鈥檚 with people in your lab or in another lab, or other students here in the summer 鈥� could really be beneficial.

I鈥檝e been in contact with other student science researchers on campus, but I wasn’t aware how many students on campus are doing things besides science research, such as economics research, working in our art museum, or working in the Lewiston and Auburn communities.

Here鈥檚 what it is like to spend the summer as a funded Purposeful Work intern for the college鈥檚 B Well at 乐播传媒 fitness and wellness program.

Cormac Walsh 鈥�17, a biochemistry major from Biddeford, Maine, is a Purposeful Work intern for the college鈥檚 B Well at 乐播传媒 fitness and wellness program. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Name: Cormac Walsh 鈥�17

Hometown: Biddeford, Maine

Major: Biochemistry

Internship Sponsor: Purposeful Work Internship Program, newly created in 2015, that offers paid internships specifically designed to build students’ skills, develop their networks, and, afterward, help them reflect on what they鈥檝e learned and how it relates to their future purposeful work.

1. How does this internship reflect what you know about the college鈥檚 Purposeful Work听颈苍颈迟颈补迟颈惫别?

My internship reflects my passion in health and strength training. When you have passion for what you do, you will find yourself constantly trying to improve. In my opinion this is the difference between true success and just getting by. This is what I believe the Purposeful Work initiative is all about.

My internship with the college’s B-Well program has allowed me to share my passion with the 乐播传媒 community and hopefully make a positive impact in the health of those who I have worked with. I have gained specific knowledge and skills that will help me follow my passion and help me succeed in a field that I love.

2. How did you get into powerlifting?

When I was younger I was extremely overweight: I weighed more than 230 pounds when I was 12 years old.

Over the next two years I began losing weight and dedicated myself to a healthier lifestyle. I lost听100 pounds by the time I started high school.

Once I was at a healthy weight I realized that I wanted to get听stronger and build muscle. I looked up Maine state powerlifting records online and began training to break one. It took over a year but I entered a powerlifting meet and succeeded in reaching my goal and breaking the record.

After that I was hooked and I have been competing in powerlifting ever since.

3. Where does your biochemistry major come in?

Biochemistry explains how the body works on a specific level. This ties into听my internship because I am constantly helping people move better and more efficiently without pain, so that they can become healthier. Having an understanding of how the body works is essential for this.

4. What would you tell a younger student about the process of applying for a fellowship like this?

It is an exciting and rewarding experience if you really dedicate yourself to it and find an internship that fits your passions. Find a Purposeful Work internship that you feel will best reflect what you love doing.

The question of harm to the health of people living near “fracking” sites is among the reasons that this fossil fuel-extraction process is so controversial. But could fracking have health benefits, too? Fan Dong ’17 is helping Assistant Professor of Economics Nathan Tefft, an expert in health economics, find out.

Fan Dong ’17, at right, is serving as a research assistant to economics professor Nathan Tefft this summer, helping to assess potential health benefits of fracking. With her is a second Tefft research assistant, Mike Varner ’17, who is studying economic determinants of household expenditures on dietary supplements. (Josh Kuckens/乐播传媒 College)

Name: Fan Dong

Hometown: Beijing

Major: Economics and politics

Research funding: Stangle Family Fund Grant for Research in Economics and Law

1. What is your project?

It’s called “Quantifying Health Benefits of Fracking: The Decline of Coal and Air Quality.” As fracking increases the amount of natural gas we use, it could help decrease the coal we use to generate electricity. In that aspect it should help the environment, because the less coal you burn, the better the air quality.

That’s what we’re trying to study 鈥� the amount of electricity generation fueled by fracking related to air quality and to the birth weights of children, because studies say there is a relationship between infant birth weight and air quality.

I thought it was pretty fascinating the first time Professor Tefft talked to me about it. His research is pretty close to our day-to-day lives.

2. What’s your role in the research?

I’m working with the birth-weight data. First I got raw childbirth data from the National Center for Health Statistics. The NCHS natality dataset is huge, containing all kinds of information, such as mother’s residence county, birth occurrence county, birth month and year, delivery method, etc.

Then I cleaned the data 鈥� picked the variables that are relevant to our study, recoded missing values, deleted birth data from outside the U.S., and so on. I created a new dataset that is neat, contains all the necessary information for our study and is ready for further analysis.

I used data analysis software called Stata to do all the data selection. I also spent some time to learn R, another statistical software 鈥� kind of a programming language 鈥� and used it to make a U.S. county map that contains information about children’s birth weights. Then I sent our dataset, along with other summary statistics and the maps I made, to our co-authors, who have the electricity data.

We are collaborating with researchers at the University of Washington, University of Tennessee, and University of California, Berkeley. They’re more expert in fracking and electricity generation, and Professor Tefft is the expert in health.

3. What have you enjoyed about this work?

After doing all this analysis, I can answer a question with great confidence, because I have all the data and I have controlled the process. So it’s not that I feel that X is correlated with Y, but that I can prove it. That’s the most satisfying part.

Also, if we can find something in this project, it could be a valuable topic for my thesis. Because I come from Beijing, and it is well-known for its air quality [she smiles ruefully]. So maybe for my thesis I can use techniques that I learned from this project to do something relevant for Beijing air quality.

4. What would you tell a younger student about the virtues of doing summer research at 乐播传媒?

I’d recommend it for your freshman or sophomore summer. When you devote yourself to a single project, you’ll learn how to do research in this field and all the methods and procedures. It’s a good way to prepare for an internship and for your 300-level courses, and also for thesis.

Here’s what it is like to spend the summer on a 乐播传媒-funded project to record oral histories of the fishing community on Grand Manan in New Brunswick, Canada.

In the waters off Grand Manan Island, Kate McNally ’17 bands lobsters on the fishing boat “Island Bound”听in this photo taken by boat captain Russell Ingalls.

Name: Kate McNally ’17

Hometown: Deep River, Conn.

Major: Anthropology

Internship Sponsor: Otis Fellowship, providing grants of up to $6,000 for self-designed, innovative, and imaginative summer projects that address a student’s personal concern or interest in the natural world. In the fall, each fellow makes a public presentation to the campus community about the experience.

1. What was your project?

On the island of Grand Manan, in New Brunswick, I recorded oral histories of a fishing community that is in a state of cultural and economic flux.

The recordings of those interviews will contribute to community memory archived in the Grand Manan Museum and will form the basis for my own writing, in which I will reflect upon Grand Manan and its connection with the ocean.

2. Where did you live?

I lived and worked at Swallowtail Lighthouse. I also joined a lobster boat, which meant waking up very early to band lobsters

“On Grand Manan, I was everybody’s student.”

I did lighthouse repair and helped dulsers, people who gather dulse, a kind of seaweed, in the intertidal zone.

3. What have you learned?

First, you can do a lot when you put your mind to it. Second, strangers can be very kind, and quickly are strangers no longer 鈥� two very good things to learn if you hope to be a citizen of the world!

4. How did you use your anthropology major in this project?

In anthropology, you gain understanding of a place and a culture by finding people who can teach you about their lives and their perspectives.

Kate McNally ’17 photographed Bowlin Gaskill, a lifelong resident of the village of North Head on Grand Manan, as he participated in an oral history.

I find it inspiring to have teachers from every conceivable walk of life.

And on Grand Manan, I was everybody’s student.

I’ve also done biology coursework, so I was able to use my knowledge of the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy ecosystem to ask the question as an anthropologist: 鈥淲hat does this mean to the people who live here?

5. During this project, how did you manage your own privilege as someone who can enter and leave this community at will?

I researched the history and culture of Grand Manan before my arrival, but that told me nothing about the lives of people living there now.听I wanted to tell them that I wasn鈥檛 romantic, presumptive, insensitive, or ill-informed 鈥� but I simultaneously feared that all those words described me precisely.

Like many small, beautiful communities, Grand Manan is an incredibly tight year-round community and a tourist destination, too, so I was aware that I was treading an awkward line between the community and the tourists.

“Good things will happen that you didn鈥檛 expect 鈥� let them take you places!”

I dealt with that challenge in two ways. First, in oral history interviews I tried to listen honestly and wholeheartedly. Second, when I share my experience with the wider 乐播传媒 community in the fall, I will emphasize the complexity of this place that tourists so often and simply call 鈥渨himsical.鈥�

I think that these strategies are a reciprocal response to the respect and kindness that was paid to me here.

6. What would you tell a younger 乐播传媒 student about the process of applying for a fellowship like this?

First, plan ahead. I started working getting information about the Otis Fellowship over a year before I applied, and every conversation helped me write my application.

The crew of the fishing boat “Island Bound” go about their work. (Kate McNally ’17)

Talk to members of the committee and previous fellows. Learn about the history and culture of the place you hope to go to, and don鈥檛 be afraid to email strangers!

Be comfortable with changing your plans. My fellowship was ever-evolving, right up until the last week.

Good things will happen that you didn鈥檛 expect 鈥� let them take you places! Frustrating things will happen that you didn鈥檛 expect. Think on them long enough to learn and reflect, but keep going.

听

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, or a physicist for that matter, to see the trend.

Sixteen physics majors graduated last year, and another 17 are declared physics majors in the Class of 2015, numbers that are easily the highest in a decade.

And the pipeline is pretty full, says Professor of Physics Hong Lin, who chairs the department and has been on the faculty since 1991.

In her sophomore- and junior-level courses, she’s seeing some of the largest enrollments in the department’s history. “It’s exciting to see more students interested in physics.”

There’s quality in the quantity, too.

Physics major Ben Lovitz ’15 of Portland, Ore., works with his adviser, assistant professor Nathan Lundblad in his ultra-cold atomic physics lab. Lovitz is one of four senior physics majors who won competitive research fellowships last summer. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Four of the department’s 17 senior majors 鈥斕鼳ndrew Briggs, Emily Clark, Joceylyn Hoye and Benjamin Lovitz 鈥� won highly competitive fellowships last summer that took them to major research institutions across the country. They’re profiled below.

On campus, Ali Hakusui ’15 of Boxford, Mass., and Emily Hayes ’15 of Natick, Mass., won 乐播传媒 grants last summer funded by INBRE, collaborative network of Maine educational and research institutions sponsored by the听National Institutes of Health.

Aliza Khurram ’15 of Rawalpindi, Pakistan, did 乐播传媒-funded summer work with her adviser, Lin, and she’s presenting her research at the Frontiers in Optics annual meeting in Tucson, Ariz., this week. Nathaniel Cash ’15 of Beverly, Mass., was in Nathan Lundblad’s doing work funded by Lundblad’s NASA space station grant.

Seeing the dizzying variety of physics-related careers in action.

For students, summer fellowships and internships complement their rigorous, personalized 乐播传媒 education, says Professor of Physics Mark Semon.

“At 乐播传媒, there’s close interaction between faculty and students 鈥斕齣n classes and labs, during senior theses and when students work with faculty on their research.”

When they head off campus, students get to see the dizzying variety of physics-related careers in action. They learn new skills and become familiar with large-scale research operations.

And they make professional contacts, building relationships and a network that pay off when it comes time to pursue graduate school, a professional program, or other career direction.

“Students often become co-authors on research papers and receive letters of recommendation from their supervisors,” Semon says. “This gives graduate programs and other hiring entities insights into how our student compare with people already in the field.”

Here, Briggs, Clark, Hoye and Lovitz talk about their summer fellowships.

Andrew Briggs
Hometown: York, Maine
Major: Physics and mathematics; philosophy minor
Research Funding: National Institute for Science and Technology’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, a program that selects just 30 percent of applicants
Location: NIST’s Physical Measurements Laboratory, Gaithersburg, Md.

Andrew Briggs ’15 (Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College)

How would you describe your summer fellowship experience to someone who isn鈥檛 a physicist?

At the end of my fellowship experience I delivered a plenary talk titled “Raman and Infrared Studies of Few Layer TaSe₂.” Though that might sound complex, I essentially shot light in many different ways at an atomically thin material and studied the optical properties.

I was also responsible for getting the group鈥檚 Fourier transform infrared spectrometer working, and taking preliminary results. No one in my group had used that particular machine yet, so I had to learn how to run it and write a standard operating procedure for my colleagues.

How does your fellowship connect to your work at 乐播传媒?

NIST was my first large research experience. Over the summer I learned so much about how research should be done. I could not be more thankful to be coming into my thesis knowing how to conduct research in an academic setting.

What was the best or most memorable part of your fellowship?

My responsibilities were so broad that at first I didn鈥檛 think I would be successful in my research. Not only did I perform good research, I even got to give the plenary talk for the Physical Measurements Laboratory at the end of the SURF program.

Emily Clark
Hometown: Readfield, Maine
Major: Physics; mathematics and Latin minors
Research Funding: National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates
Location: Indiana University

Emily Clark ’15 (Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College)

How would you describe your summer fellowship experience to someone who isn鈥檛 a physicist?

My research was on a substance called “nuclear pasta.” This is a state of matter that occurs at extremely high densities, like those found in the inner crusts of neutron stars.

Opposing forces mold the nuclear matter into strange shapes resembling various types of pasta, depending on the conditions of the system 鈥斕齡nocchi at lower densities, spaghetti and lasagna at higher densities.

A visualization of “nuclear pasta” courtesy of the Advanced Visualization Lab and Professor of Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics Charles Horowitz of the University of Indiana.

I wrote a computer code that would calculate the forces on the particles given a relatively small number of nucleons 鈥� about 5,000 鈥� at a certain density, and could develop the system to see what kinds of pasta shapes would be formed.

I also helped figure out how to work the department’s new 3-D printer so that we could print out the pasta shapes.

How does your fellowship connect to your work at 乐播传媒?

My research at IU was completely different from anything I have done at 乐播传媒. It involved relatively simple physics, but we were exploring a completely new state of matter. We could not have done it without computers 鈥� meaning that I had to teach myself some programming before I could do anything.

What was the best or most memorable part of your fellowship?

Probably the best part of the experience was really getting to feel like a physicist doing meaningful research. I got to work alongside physicists who had been doing research for years, and to contribute to their work.

I got to present my work at a at the joint meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Nuclear Physics and the Physical Society of Japan.

It was a great opportunity to network and to hear about other nuclear physics research happening around the world.

Jocelyn Hoye
Hometown: Sturbridge, Mass.
Major: Physics and mathematics with a public health concentration
Research Funding: The American Association of Physicists in Medicine Summer Undergraduate Fellowship Program, granted to 20 percent of applicants
Location: University of California, San Francisco听Medical Center

Jocelyn Hoye ’15 (Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College)

How would you describe your summer fellowship experience to someone who isn鈥檛 a physicist?

I shadowed a medical physicist in the radiation oncology department at UCSFMC. I studied quality assurance for the Gamma Knife Perfexion, a machine that delivers radiation to patients for treatment of brain cancer 鈥� usually smaller tumors, epilepsy, trigeminal neuralgia and arteriovenous malformations.

I also observed surgeries and a variety of radiation treatments for several other conditions including ocular tumors, prostate cancer, cervical cancer and larger brain tumors.

How does your fellowship connect to your work at 乐播传媒?

My fellowship came at the perfect time right after the lab methods course I took last winter with Assistant Professor of Physics Nathan Lundblad. That semester was also my first research experience, working with Assistant Professor of Physics Travis Gould on a biological imaging project that I ended up presenting at the Mount David Summit.

I applied skills I听learned that semester and, of course, skills from all of my other physics courses to my research this summer. This work also ties in with my senior thesis, where I am doing a theoretical analysis of one of the treatments I observed this summer.

What was the best or most memorable part of your fellowship?

The best part was getting to observe the treatment planning process and see how the medical physicists collaborated with physicians, surgeons, nurses and radiation therapists to come up with a treatment plan that would treat the patients’ conditions while minimizing the impact of radiation on healthy tissues.

I was in awe watching all the experts from differing fields come together to solve a problem for each individual patient.

Benjamin Lovitz
Hometown:听Portland, Ore.
Major: Physics
Research Funding:听National Science听Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates and the college’s Linda Erickson Rawlings Fund for Student Research
Location: Clarkson University

Benjamin Lovitz ’15 (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

How would you describe your summer fellowship experience to someone who isn鈥檛 a physicist?

I worked with a group studying听a small part of the theory behind what could in the future store and transmit information in a hypothetical “quantum computer.” In physics jargon, we call these quantum spin systems. Instead of modern day computers, which run on bytes 鈥斕�1s and 0s 鈥斕齛 quantum computer uses the behavior of single particles to store information.

We studied how single particles behave when placed in different graphs. By graphs we don’t mean the x and y graphs you remember from high school. Instead, these graphs consist of vertices, which are just dots in space, and edges connecting those vertices. The vertices are where the particle is allowed to reside. The edges designate the vertices that the particle may travel between.

When a particle is placed at a vertex and released, its location becomes probabilistic. We looked for graphs in which the particle could be released from a vertex and found some time later at another vertex with 100 percent probability.

This research was done largely with pen and paper, using a formula derived from the Schrdinger equation.

How does your fellowship connect to your work at 乐播传媒?

I am doing my thesis in Professor Nathan听Lundblad’s Bose-Einstein condensation听lab.The BEC creates quantum effects on a macroscopic scale by cooling atoms to very low temperatures. These two projects are related by their heavy reliance on quantum physics.

What was the best or most memorable part of your fellowship?

The best part of my experience was working with my summer adviser, Tino Tamon, and my wonderful student colleagues. It was also great being in beautiful upstate New York. The most surprising part was realizing听that there is still new and accessible math and physics research being done with pen and paper!

Evan Cooper ’15 spent summer 2014 helping Pine Tree Legal provide legal aid to those who couldn’t afford it.

Evan Cooper ’15 is shown at Pine Tree Legal in Lewiston, where he worked during summer 2014. (Sarah Crosby/乐播传媒 College)

Name:听Evan Cooper

Hometown:听Farmington, Conn.

Major:听Politics

Internship Sponsor:听Harward Center for Community Partnerships

1. What is听Pine Tree Legal?

Pine Tree Legal is a nonprofit law firm that provides legal aid to low-income Maine community members. They handle a range of issues around the state, but the Lewiston office largely focuses on housing and tenant rights, though other legal issues are also addressed.

2. What are your responsibilities?

One thing I help with is client intake, the first client interview. I get their basic information as well as identify relevant facts about the case and I ask them to provide us their paperwork. I also do client calls 鈥� I return messages and answer questions.

Another responsibility I have is conducting basic casework, working with the paralegal in the office. For example, we explain the small-claims process to clients, so they can settle security deposit disagreements in court. We also give clients educational materials including things like templates for letters they can use to request their security deposit back.

3. Could you walk me through听a small case?

For eviction cases we would first check if they have a lease 鈥� the law differs in how it treats leased tenants and tenants-at-will. A landlord has to give tenants-at-will 30 days of notice before evicting them unless they have not paid their rent, in which case it’s seven days’ notice. After the notice period is up, the landlord can bring a forcible entry and unlawful detainer action against them, which goes to a hearing in District Court.

After asking about the lease we check if they’re current on rent. Late payment’s a common reason for eviction, but sometimes people are evicted despite being current on rent. We have to find out why the tenant is being evicted in order to help defend them in court. The lawyers also carefully review the notice to quit served on them by their landlord to ensure that it adheres to the statutes.

4.听How did you get involved?

I’ve taken constitutional law classes at 乐播传媒 with politics professor Stephen Engel, which really sparked my interest in the court system. And a friend of mine worked with Pine Tree during the fall semester of 2013 and really loved it, so she put me in touch with them.

5. How does this relate to your career plans?

I took those constitutional law courses that focused on case law in the U.S. Supreme Court, so this is drastically different in scale! I’m on the litigating side of much smaller cases. It’s still interesting: The courts are a fascinating aspect of the U.S. political system. I hoped this would help me decide if I wanted to pursue law school, and I think that it has, this is something I want to continue in the future.

7.听Any thoughts on how your liberal arts education impacted your experience?

I believe that a liberal arts education tends to help broaden your understanding of other people and the world. It has fostered my desire to get involved with the Lewiston community and work toward the rights of low-income families in Maine, who often have difficult legal situations with their landlords and other matters relating to their lack of resources. They are held back by aspects of the law that prevent them from having as good a chance as other people.

There are few legal assistance resources available for such people. Pine Tree is one of a small group of organizations in Maine available to people who can’t afford attorneys for civil matters. An attorney is provided for criminal matters when jail time is possible, but the state doesn’t have to assist in civil disputes听鈥� that’s where Pine Tree Legal comes in.

8.听Do you have any concluding thoughts you’d like to share?

The internship has been a great experience so far. It’s broadened my views of the legal field and fostered my enthusiasm for public interest law.

Brenna听Callahan ’15 inspires a love of reading in young Montello School students with Project Story Boost.

Brenna Callahan works with a rising fifth grader at Montello School. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/乐播传媒 College)

Name: Brenna Callahan

Hometown: Milton, Mass.

Major: Interdisciplinary studies, with a focus on education

Internship sponsor: Harward Center Summer Community Work-Study Fellowship.

1. What is听Project Story Boost?

Basically, it’s an early literacy intervention program. We work one-on-one with kindergarteners, first- and second-graders in a comfortable environment. We want to replicate a nighttime reading session with parents, a setting听where the kids can feel relaxed and develop a love of literacy with a 乐播传媒 student听鈥� develop that relationship and read some great books. I started working at Montello in 2013.

2. School’s out, what do you do for the project during the summer?

During the school year, as a Student Volunteer Fellow I recruited and trained 乐播传媒 student volunteers, and worked one-on-one with Montello students. This summer I’ve been working with a summer class unrelated to Project Story Boost, but also looking at Project Story Boost’s evaluation program, redesigning and refining it to make sure we’re getting the information we want.

3. Tell me about that information.

We’re entering the data we collected over the entire school year after every single student session. After a 乐播传媒 student reads with a Montello student, the volunteer fills out a form that tracks the Montello student’s behavior, which book they were reading, how responsive they were and what kinds of questions they asked.

This summer we’re inputting all the data to see if there any trends based on the level of book the pupil read. Then we’re going to take a step back and look at the evaluation forms to see if there are different questions we want to ask to solicit new information.

4. What specific details did you focus on?

We’re trying to see if there are changes over time听鈥� if a child’s behavior is听different at the beginning of a semester than at the end, if they’re understanding more of the story at the end of the semester than at the beginning. We’re looking for concrete changes that show that the program’s making a difference.

5. What do you like about this work?

I love working in the schools, it’s my favorite environment to work with kids. I’m a very structured person, and schools give me that structure. I’ve never worked with such young kids before, that was something new for me 鈥� I love it. I love getting to see Montello students experience the same books that I loved reading as a child.

6. Do they have ?

They do! There are some good ones in there, like .

7. How does Project Story Boost relate to your studies at 乐播传媒 or your career plans?

I know I want to go into education, but I don’t know exactly how I want to do it yet. I don’t know if I want to do curriculum development, if I want to write books, work one-on-one with students or work in the classroom. Getting into the Lewiston schools has been a great opportunity to explore the different career paths I may want to pursue. I’ve gotten to try a variety of things, which has been really eye-opening. I’ve been very lucky to have these opportunities.

8. Any thoughts on how your liberal arts education impacted your experience?

One thing that I’ve loved about my 乐播传媒 experience is that I’m an interdisciplinary major. I’ve been able to combine classes in education, sociology, psychology and politics, see the connections and see how it plays out in the real world.

9. Do you have any concluding thoughts you’d like to share?

Lewiston is the reason I came to 乐播传媒. Through the Harward Center and through Project Story Boost I’ve been able to take advantage of that, to live in this community and be a part of it in a way I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. It’s my favorite part of going to 乐播传媒.

I’m really excited to be here for the summer, and to be a part of the community 12 months out of the year, to work with these kids and develop meaningful relationships. They’ve grown, and that’s really fun to see.