Oh, And You Are Doing What This Summer??
When many of us are looking forward to some time off this summer to recoup from the long Vermont winter, splashing around in a pool or lake or ocean, or hitting the road to visit family or friends, or taking that long awaited vacation we have been planning, several Honors College students will be engaged in activities of another kind, spending their summer hours working on field projects or in research laboratories and centers around the country. Several Honors College students have received prestigious internships from prominent research and governmental institutions to work on projects of interest to them. In our ongoing effort to highlight the activities of our students, we asked some of them to share with us how they will be spending their summer vacations. Grace Erin Cameron, Barbara Dewey, and Jacquelyn Pless were kind enough to respond to our questions about their summer internships.
Grace Erin Cameron
What internship have you received?
I have received a National Science Foundation grant, in the form of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates Supplement (REU). The following website may help explain what the program is about: National Science Foundation.
How did you get the internship?
During the 2007 Fall semester, a new professor in the Anthropology Department, Dr. Scott Van Keuren, was looking for motivated undergraduate students interested in archaeology to be a part of his future research. Dr. Van Keuren is an archaeologist who works in the American Southwest, and the NSF funds his current project in Arizona. As stipulated in his grant, he is eligible to have REU students, myself being one of them. With the insistence of my academic advisor, Dr. Rob Gordon, I discussed this opportunity with Dr. Van Keuren. The application process was largely out of my hands, but we collaborated on a research project idea, and the NSF REU program accepted it this winter.
Who will you be working with and where?
This grant is opening up many doors for my professional development and personal experience. This summer, I will be traveling to Arizona for 8 weeks and working as a Research Assistant on Dr. Van Keuren’s current field project, alongside two other undergraduates and crew members. The site, Fourmile Ruin, is a large Ancestral Pueblo village inhabited in the 14th century. This will be my third time in the field, allowing me to see a different part of the archaeological world. Guatemala, Vermont, and east-central Arizona are all extremely different geographically and culturally, and each project style is different. It is truly a great opportunity to be excavating in the SW at this point.
What research project will you be working on?
The summer excavations are almost acting as a supplement to the true focus of the grant. Either during late summer or early fall, I will have the opportunity to analyze a collection of roughly 150 whole vessels likely from Fourmile Ruin. This is a looted collection, but was recently donated to Brigham Young University. No professional archaeologist has ever analyzed the collection, and with this grant I will have the opportunity to assist Dr. Van Keuren in documenting and studying the vessels. This collection is also the focus of my Honors Thesis!
What do you hope to accomplish over the summer with your project?
Another aspect of the grant is to offer undergraduates an opportunity for publication and further professional development in preparation for graduate study. A paper is expected from my research of the ceramic vessel collections, and/or a poster presentation at the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in April 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia.
What purpose do you see your internship serving for you?
All of this will certainly add to my overall experiences in the field of archaeology. It is an incredible opportunity, and will certainly broaden my skills in excavating and analyzing artifacts and archaeological data. I plan to pursue a graduate degree in Anthropology (archaeology) following my time at UVM, and this opportunity for helping make that a reality.
Is there any thing else you would like to add, including other research experiences or internships served, presentations, awards/honors received, grants, publications?
Sure, first of all, let me give you a brief introduction to what I am studying at UVM. I am finishing up a double major in Anthropology and History, as well as a minor in Geology. My present concentration is in Archaeological Anthropology, although during my First Year, I considered switching to Geology. During the summer of 2006, I traveled to Italy as part of the Regional Geology class offered by UVM. The month I spent there was an amazing experience, and though my fascination for geology remains, my love for archaeology has not faltered. During that same summer, I received the Kleinknecht Award (through the Anthropology Department) to travel to Guatemala. There, I worked with Dr. James L. Fitzsimmons (now at Middlebury) at his Classic Maya archaeology site, Zapote Bobal. The month I spent in Guatemala was a thrilling experience and instilled in me a passion for archaeology, and for Mesoamerican cultures past and present. Since then, I have taken a formal field school, the 2007 UVM Archaeological Field School, focused on the Champlain Valley in Vermont, particular in the town of Charlotte. Although it was unlike the awe-inspiring jungle that my previous work had been in, the experience added another solid building block for my future in archaeology.
Barbara Dewey
What internship have you received?
I will be one of 24 students involved in the Director's Summer Program at the National Security Agency. NSA link: National Security Agency.
How did you get the internship?
I heard about the internship through a program I attended last summer called the Summer Program for Women in Mathematics. Women in Mathematics. I then applied in October 2007, since the application process also involves a security screening.
Who will you be working with and where?
I will be working with some of the nation's brightest mathematicians on real-world problems. I will be using my background in abstract algebra, number theory, probability, statistics, combinatorics, computer science, and analysis. I will be working in Fort Meade, Maryland.
What research project will you be working on?
I will learn shortly, but probably will not be able to share what it is.
What do you hope to accomplish over the summer with your project?
The NSA works on some of the most real-world applications of pure mathematics, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to put my math skills to use. I hope to expand my "bag of tricks" to better tackle math problems presented in the future.
What purpose do you see your internship serving for you?
This internship is a highly competitive program, which I feel will enhance my resume in applying to graduate schools. However, my interest in this job is mostly curiosity. My mathematics education has set me up with a "bag of tricks" and now I have the opportunity to use these tricks to solve some problems!
Is there any thing else you would like to add, including other research experiences or internships served, presentations, awards/honors received, grants, publications?
- I spent the summer of 2006 as a summer research assistant to Dr. Randall Headrick of the physics department, Last summer I participated in the Summer Program for Women in Mathematics. As for awards and honors, I will list what I have received.
- Presidential Scholar (national honor), 2005
- Green and Gold Scholar, UVM
- Recipient of Junior Mathematics Award, UVM, '06-'07
- Recipient of Nam Sang Kil Scholarship in Mathematics, UVM, '07-'08
- Recipient of Undergraduate Statistics Award, UVM, '07-'08
- GPA: 4.0 cumulative for the first three years of college
- And I am preparing to do an honors research project in binary cubic forms during the '08-'09 academic year
Jacquelyn Pless
What internship have you received?
I have received an internship with the Chief Economist of the Human Development Network at the World Bank. The Human Development Network plays an important role in the Bank's overall ideals of reducing poverty. More about the Bank's strategies/goals can be found at: World Bank
How did you get the internship?
I applied for this internship after being informed by the Economics department that the Bank was looking for interns in four or five different departments at the Bank. This one, which suited my interests in focusing on alleviating global poverty with a focus on education and health, also was seeking someone with an Economics background and quantitative analysis experience. The application consisted of a resume and cover letter. After sending this in, I was contacted in regards to a phone interview, when I was informed that I was one of only a few that was given an interview. I was notified a week later of my acceptance.
Who will you be working with and where, and do you know what your project will be?
I have not received specific project descriptions yet. I was told I will receive this information closer to my starting date, June 1. The internship is paid, and runs from June 1-August 2, so I will be spending my summer in DC.
What do you hope to accomplish over the summer with your project?
With this internship, I hope to extend my understanding of global poverty, its implications, and the political structures that foster the persistence of economic inequalities. I am hoping to have the opportunity to conduct my own data research in regards to the quality of health and education and to provide adequate quantitative analysis to transform the data into some tangible concept and/or ideology. Since I do not know the specifics of the projects I am working on yet, though, I hope mostly to further my understanding of global inequalities.
What purpose do you see your internship serving for you?
Next year, I will be writing my honors thesis on the relationship between education funding and youth mental health in the United States; therefore, this internship perfectly cradles my personal interests. I am hoping that this internship will inspire future research in these fields, or even provide the groundwork for possible graduate study research.
Is there any thing else you would like to add, including other research experiences or internships served, presentations, awards/honors received, grants, publications?
- STAR Award, fall 2005: Student Academic Recognition for achieving a GPA in top 5% of students on campus.
- Milton J. Nadworny Award in the Department of Economics, Spring 2008, for academic merit, independence of mind, determination, intellectual curiosity, and commitment to human welfare
- Intern for UVM's Student Legal Services since Fall of 2007
- James Buxton Scholarship, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, for academic achievement
- Golden Key International Honour Society
- I have also interned for Lippincott Williams and Wilkins in Philadelphia for the past two summers. I have assisted in market research projects promoting the sale of medical textbooks while overseeing minor production projects.
Last modified June 17 2008 02:37 PM