CUSE & The Colleges

April 2015. Issue 3.

CUSE Sorin Scholars Sorin Scholars are intellectual catalysts whose stellar performance both inside and outside the classroom sets them apart from their peers. Sorin Scholars come from all colleges and have diverse goals and passions. They meet regularly for special workshops, seminars, lectures, and events. Sorin Scholars receive support from CUSE in the form of mentorship and funding to help them discern and develop their intellectual interests so that they can excel as transformative leaders in their fields.

Benefits of the Sorin Scholars Program include: 1) One-on-one mentoring and advising from the CUSE fellowship and research teams

2) Intellectually robust programming and events, including Journal Clubs & Research Seminars

3) Opportunities for leadership

4) Funds to support research, creative endeavors, service, and internships

Impact of the Sorin ScholarsImpact of the Sorin ScholarsImpact of the Sorin Scholars

Sorin Scholar Catherine Reidy (‘13, Psychology) was a finalist for the Rhodes

Scholarship her senior year and received the highly competitive Clarendon

scholarship, which awards full tuition, fees, and a stipend to students

pursuing graduate studies at Oxford. Reidy will graduate with an MSc in

African Studies in 2015. During the summer following her first year, she

completed an internship in India, and as a rising junior she conducted an

independent research project in Makeni, Sierra Leone, studying politics and

youth in Makeni. In the fall of her junior year she studied abroad in Dublin. As a rising senior she

returned to Sierra Leone to study the effects of violence and civil war on the future orientations and

goals of the youth. She completed a senior thesis on ethnic tensions between Croatian and Serbian

children in integrated schools in post-conflict Croatia, which was based on fieldwork she conducted

during her senior year.

On her time as a Sorin Scholar, Catherine said, “The Sorin Scholars program allowed me the unique

opportunity to engage with some of the university’s most passionate students, many of whom study

outside my discipline. An intellectual melting pot, Sorin Scholars allowed me to learn and socialize in an

environment where creativity and academic rigor are the norm.”

Luke Hamel, Class of 2017, Environmental Sciences & Psychology

“Through the 1-on-1 mentoring of the Sorin Scholars program, I received

help contacting research professors and organizations in a professional

manner and setting up opportunities with them so that I could learn from

their research. After receiving a CUSE grant thanks to the guidance of the

program, I formed connections with experts in the field of marine biology

and I was able to take part in field research that I otherwise would have

never been exposed to. Equally as important, I found out which aspects

of the work I really didn’t like, and this was crucial in reshaping what was

originally an idealized view about the life of a marine biologist. The Sorin

Scholars program really allowed me to actively pursue my academic

passions by helping me find the right opportunities and by helping to

eliminate any financial barriers in my way."

Lily Kang, Class of 2017, Management Entrepreneurship & Sociology

“The Sorin Scholars Program has provided me multiple opportunities.

My business-focused research has a global slant, taking me first to

Cambodia to complete a case-study on the effectiveness of three

international volunteer organizations. I presented this research at Notre

Dame’s TEDx event the spring of my sophomore year. I then headed to

Switzerland to examine how influential the Swiss apprenticeship

program is on the entrepreneurial culture of Switzerland. I plan to

continue to conduct research and to work to develop more robust and

useful activities on campus for those interested in entrepreneurship.”

Elaine Schmidt, Class of 2017, Program of Liberal Studies

“Sorin Scholars provides me with the amazing opportunity

to meet and engage with students interested in

cross-discipline endeavors. Filled with a diverse group of

young adults, Journal Club has enriched and diversified my

intellectual interests, while the relationships formed offer

me the continual opportunity for academic engagement.

Spanning beyond typical coursework with novel and

interesting articles, Journal Club is one of the best aspects

of my Notre Dame education.”

Avani Agarwal is an Architecture major and Sustainability minor. She is interested in integrating modern design

and ancient building principles to make structures that are long-lasting and sustainable. She believes that studying

the structural and constructional properties of ancient structures, which utilized natural lighting and tectonic

systems, will result in stronger buildings that have a lower environmental impact, reducing the use of energy-

guzzling heating, cooling and lighting systems. She is an active member of GreenND and a tutor with the Notre

Dame Center for Arts and Culture and the Center for Social Concerns.

James English is a Management Consulting and Sociology major. He plans to seek a career in non-profit

administration for an organization whose mission promotes social justice. He is an undergraduate assistant in the

sociology department, and is undertaking research on gender differences in social networks in developed and

underdeveloped countries. James also volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters and Slice of Life.

Pete Freeman is an Economics and Gender Studies major and a Peace Studies minor in the College of Arts

and Letters. Pete is interested in the intersection of gender, education, and economic opportunities

domestically and internationally. He has received a CUSE grant to conduct research on the gender and

economic barriers facing female entrepreneurs in Switzerland, and this spring he received a Nanovic grant

to conduct research on the effects of the Individuele Traject Begelieder on formerly incarcerated Dutch

women. Pete was awarded an Eagan Fellowship to complete a summer internship in Washington, DC with

the Malala Fund, an NGO that works to improve girls’ access to education globally. Pete is on the Men’s

Crew team, active in BridgeND, the Gender Relations Center, and is president of ND’s Gavel Club.

Claire Gaffney is an Electrical Engineering and a Poverty Studies minor in the College of Engineering.

As an engineer she is interested in solving real world problems and finding solutions that will help better

the lives of women in developing countries. She is a member of Engineers without Borders, and the

Society of Women Engineers. She is also a manager for the Notre Dame Football program.

Sara Hobday in an Arts and Letters Pre-Professional and Anthropology major with a minor in Poverty

Studies. Sara has conducted oncology research at the Mayo Clinic developing a technique manipulating

benign measles viruses to attack cancer cells. This summer she will continue her research at the Mayo Clinic.

She is also active in the Center for Social Concerns and volunteers with the South Bend Center for the

Homeless.

Roge Karma is a Peace Studies and Political Science major in the College of Arts and Letters. Roge is

interested in foreign policy, genocide, minority governments, and civil conflict. He is working on a research

project that evaluates the relationship between human rights and the concept of the homeland in the context

of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He is the founder of the Notre Dame chapter of the Roosevelt Institute, a

non-partisan, policy driven political organization. He also has served as a peer mentor teaching financial

literacy to underprivileged high school students in South Bend.

Lauren Ferrara is a Computer Science major in the College of Engineering. Lauren is a member of the

eMotion & eCognition research lab on campus. She has worked on projects using drone simulations to

determine the effects of stress on moral decision making in humans. She has also helped develop a computer

program that analyzes chat transcripts to more easily identify online predators. Her primary research interests

concern the use of technology to facilitate learning, particularly among autistic individuals. She plans to

develop a virtual learning environment, which utilizes features such as eye tracking to measure focus for

autistic students.

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Thomas “Kevin” Best is a Mechanical Engineering major in the College of Engineering. He is interested in

automotive or aviation enineering, especially with thermodynamic systems such as engines or turbines. As an

engineer, he hopes to help find ways to use more of the energy produced by the engines of cars productively and

develop a more efficient automobile. Kevin enjoys swimming.

Nathan Kriha is a Program of Liberal Studies and Psychology major in the College of Arts and Letters.

Nathan is interested in special education law, specifically in his home state of Illinois, which has one of the

largest populations of special education students. Nathan hopes to conduct research on the most effective

programs for special education students, and how best to provide critical services to help them.

Eric Lee is a Science-Business major in the College of Science. Eric has been active in the labs of Drs.

Schafer, Li, and Stack at Notre Dame. He is currently working on a project assessing the protein markers for

liver fibrosis and their correlation with liver lipid content in order to better understand the health implications

of obesity on the liver. Eric’s research has resulted in co-author credit on two peer-reviewed publications. He is

also an accomplished piano player, and was a member of a mock trial team that won the Indiana State

Championship.

Matthew McGoldrick is a Biological Sciences and English major. His research interests include biological

imaging, tumor progression, and cancer treatment. He has worked in Dr. Leevy’s Lab in the Harper Institute

studying multi-material and multi-segmented 3-D printing of biological systems, especially its applications in

the production of medical and educational models. He plans to undertake projects relating to the use of 3-D

printing in producing more accessible models of charting, observing, and explaining tumor progression.

Adam Moeller is an IT Management and History major. Adam is interested in improving the American

education system. After graduation, he hopes to teach and eventually work at an educational non-profit

institution, research group, or government agency to support the educational advancement of all students.

Adam is working on a comparative research project studying various U.S. schools in different phases of

implementing the Common Core history curriculum, and the curriculum’s effectiveness for teaching students

research skills and how to use evidence to make historical arguments.

Dan Olivieri is a Science-Business and Economics major with a minor in International Development Studies.

Dan is passionate about understanding and addressing global economic inequality. This summer, Dan has been

awarded to Kellogg grant to conduct research on Brazil’s Community Health Program. The program employs

community members who serve as liaisons between hospitals and favelas in order to improve preventive and

post-hospitalization care. He also works a research assistant at the Eck Institute and is a member of the Global

Health Brigade.

Harisa Spahic is a Biochemistry major in the College of Science. She is a member of Dr. Jean-Pierre’s

Cancer Control Research, and is working on a study of breast cancer patients and the effects of chemobrain.

She is particularly interested in interdisciplinary research that utilizes insight from the fields of biology,

chemistry, and psychology.

Mimi Teixeira is a Political Science and Economics major in the College of Arts and Letters. Her research

interests center on the effects of post-World War II domestic policy, specifically immigration and tax reform,

on social mobility and economic wellbeing and evaluating their effectiveness and unintended effects. Mimi is

active in BridgeND, which works to bring together Democrats, Republicans, and those in-between to discuss

national public policy.

Tiffany Toni is a Biochemistry major in the College of Science. She has conducted research at the Stanley

Manne Research Institute in Chicago on the regenerative capability of intrinsic bladder smooth muscle

progenitor stem cells (BSMSCs) to restore function to the obstructed bladder. She is also interested in target

therapy cancer research. Tiffany is active in the Chemistry Club, and on the review board of Scientia, the

College of Science’s undergraduate research journal.

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