UD College of Arts & Sciences

Congratulations to Kaylea Patterson, who placed first in the Collegiate Public Speaking Division at the National Educators Rising competition earlier this month! She is the first collegiate student from UD and the state of Delaware to win in this division. CEHD hosted the Delaware competition in February: https://lnkd.in/ekkUBbXz

🔬 Students in CAS have the flexibility to do their research from home, the library or labs around the world, while others choose to research in labs right on the University of Delaware campus, which brings us to our next student highlight. 👁 Meet Arjun Parab, a rising sophomore and biological sciences major, who is researching the function of RNA binding proteins in eye lens development at UD's Lachke Lab. At the lab, Arjun performs genotyping of mice DNA and engages with scientific literature, gaining practical experience in preparation for future professional opportunities. “As an aspiring medical student, this project has helped with my understanding of fundamental molecular biology and genetic concepts which underlie human health and diseases.”

Congratulations to Megan MacWade, a junior psychology and women and gender studies double major, on receiving the 2024 Seitz Award! 🌟 Megan's dedication to the Blue Hens CARE Program, which provides sexual misconduct prevention education and promotes healthy relationships, exemplifies the "We Are Blue Hens" values. The Seitz Award recognizes students who embody respect, openness, innovation, engagement, and mentorship. https://ow.ly/GNSl50SKT2u

🏥 Meet Grace Kearns, a University of Delaware senior, communication major and Delaware INBRE Summer Scholar, who is making the complicated comprehensible. She interviews biomedical researchers at ChristianaCare, Nemours Children's Hospital, the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, and Delaware Technical Community College – and turns her findings into written and digital content that helps patients, healthcare providers and the general public understand science and health research. 🔎 “I have developed an understanding of how language influences attitudes towards science and healthcare. In my future research, I plan to narrow in specifically on how political discourse influences people’s perceptions of science and healthcare.”

💙 CAS students are doing outstanding work this summer, completing international internships, teaming up with local organizations and doing research at UD’s campus. 📖 For our next featured student, meet Margaret Armstrong, an honors English and Spanish double major at University of Delaware, who is researching the evolution of advice for “good” writing from 1920 through the World War II era. Margaret’s research began in the classroom with an assignment to read old issues of Writer’s Digest magazine and now she applies some of her findings to her own coursework and creative writing. “I think everybody wants to read about characters that they relate to in some way. In the early research I found that usually meant people want to read about good people and relate to good things. Now I see people relating to more complex characters.” 🔗 Read more: https://lnkd.in/eTXhzqxn

Great work, Derek!

Part 2: We're in international education. Of course, we made this video for our international friends! Are you in international education? Let us know in the comments how you would finish the prompt! 📸: SMA Hikmatullah, Al Monther, & Tong.

🌎 You’ll find CAS students around the globe this summer, working at internships, studying abroad and doing cutting edge-research. 🧬 As the first in a series highlighting our amazing students, meet University of Delaware junior and honors biological sciences major Atif Bacchus who is using gene-editing technology at the Helen Graham Center at ChristianaCare to fight an aggressive form of breast cancer that does not respond to many standard treatment therapies. “I just fell in love with the research,” he said. “I realized that this is a major issue, and I had helped to make a difference.” Inspired by his mother’s battle with rheumatoid arthritis, Atif plans to pursue both research and a career in medicine to help others who are suffering. 🔗 Read more: https://lnkd.in/gVGqqVXU

🌽 Delaware area teachers learned about the state's multi-cultural communities during a series of workshops on Indigenous and Latinx Delaware, part of a Library of Congress grant on Teaching with Primary Sources. Barry Joyce, a professor of history at the University of Delaware, partnered with the National Council for History Education to lead these workshops. Pictured: Two workshop participants making tortillas by hand, photo courtesy of Barry Joyce Read more: https://lnkd.in/enaf_RdJ

From a young age, Timothy “TJ” Tomaszewski dreamed of space. Now a junior, he leads the Delaware Atmospheric Plasma Probe Experiment (DAPPEr) team, building the state's first spacecraft to orbit Earth. An honors physics major, TJ chose UD for its strong space science program. His leadership and dedication have earned high praise from faculty, with his team’s mission considered one of the best student missions ever reviewed. Funded by NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration TJ's team of 20 students is creating a CubeSat to study the sun's effects on Earth’s upper atmosphere, set to launch in 2026. TJ's commitment to space science fuels his dream of working at NASA. 📰: https://ow.ly/cnJ550SsgBy