Saint Mary’s students pursuing STEM-related degrees presented their summer research and internship projects Friday afternoon inside of the Saint Mary’s Science Hall. The projects were done within the College alongside faculty and outside Saint Mary’s with other mentors.
Junior Cadence Groen, a psychology major, presented cross-disciplinary summer research she worked on with the neuroscience department under Teresa Aubele-Futch, associate professor of psychology. Her study consisted of observing changes in hormone levels on female rats.
“The project is about testing whether or not female rats, which are underrepresented, can perform a divided attention task and if their ovarian hormones can affect that,” Groen said.
Senior Rachel Hensley, a physics major, worked on a research project titled, “Measuring Distances to Type la Supernovae With Vera C. Rubin Observatory,” with Christina Peters, assistant professor of physics, alongside sophomore Jules Hollis and senior Aubrey Harper. She completed this project with the help of the College’s Marjorie Neuhoff Summer Science Research program, a grant for STEM students to pursue summer research. Hensley studied absolute and apparent magnitudes of supernovae.
Hensley discussed what made her interested in pursuing this type of summer research. “Last semester, I took astrophysics here at Saint Mary's as my physics elective and I really loved it and I was fascinated. I thought supernovae were so cool because a star’s exploding. Then I also really liked the practicality of finding a distance, which is something that I can actually grasp the importance of [as] that's something we work with every day,” Hensley said.
Hensley is planning to use this summer project as part of her senior comprehensive, creating an additional paper, project and presentation on her research.
Charlotte Marran, a senior chemistry major, pursued a summer experience with the U.S. Green Building Council in Libertyville, Illinois, to promote sustainability in corporate environments, specifically with customers creating projects to obtain sustainability documentation.
Marran shared that the experience solidified her goals to pursue research rather than working in the corporate world, but she appreciated the opportunities the experience presented.
Junior Ava Linn, a biology major on the pre-vet track, discussed why she chose a 12-week summer opportunity in the South Bend community.
“I was looking for something to do over the summer related to my interests and hopefully [my] future career. As a pre-vet student, I was looking for opportunities to be involved with animals and with veterinarians. So I found the Potawatomi Zoo Animal Care Internship, which mostly involved shadowing the zookeepers, but I was also able to shadow the veterinarian at the zoo,” Lin said.
Junior Ava Linn presents about her summer internship on working at the Potawatomi Zoo and how it helps her as a pre-vet major. She mentions how it has inspired her in pursuing her future career.
Additionally, Sheccid Gutierrez and Maria Coman shared their work with the Sustainable Farm this summer, where they worked with farmer Matthew Insley, sustainability coordinator Maria Gonzalez-Diaz and Christopher Cobb, associate professor of English literature and environmental studies, on a weekly pop-up shop providing free cultivated vegetables to the South Bend community with pastor Carrie Badertscher.
Gutierrez explained that experiences like these help her to grow outside of her major.
“Honestly, it did really inspire me to pursue that sustainability aspect and maybe even go to another country and help them with sustainability in their in their community. Honestly, this has been incredible because I’ve learned the steps needed to farm, different processes [on] what different farms need and different vegetables needed. So, it really has been an amazing experience, an amazing summer and I have met so many amazing people through it,” Gutierrez said.
