President's Blog: From the Heart

By Eric F. Spina

It's not hard to spot University of Dayton students, even if their T-shirts don’t sport our ever-present logo. They carry their passion like a calling card.

Take Jenea Adams and Richie Nagy, upperclass students from Cleveland. In late July they participated in a gathering of new students and their families in their hometown — and impressed me with their stories of what they did over their summer break.

Their experiences are nothing short of remarkable. Their passion, undeniable. Their impact, great. What a tremendous example to our first-year students of the transformative power of a UD education.

In a National Science Foundation-funded program at the University of Pittsburgh, Jenea used computational tools to study amino acids with results so promising her faculty mentors want to publish the work in a professional scientific journal. Talk about pride! This is a young scientist to watch.

"The summer research internship was unbelievably transformative for me," Jenea told me. "As a first-generation college student and a black woman in STEM, my experience at Pitt has added to my toolbox. …It's empowered me to continue to add to the fire of what I'm curious about, why I like biology, and how I can use my gifts to create change."

Thanks to Jenea's experience in the highly selective program, she's decided to pursue a Ph.D. in computational and system biology. But not before she applies the skills she learned this summer in the lab of Dr. Madhuri Kango-Singh, where researchers are using fruit flies to understand the impact of different drugs on brain tumors.

Richie, a junior majoring in psychology, served as a job coach at Hattie Larlham, a non-profit organization that works with children and adults with mild to severe disabilities. He helped teen-agers learn how to interview for jobs at a local restaurant, understand the importance of punctuality, and develop a work ethic.

"Day one they didn't talk a word, but by the end they were talking, joking, and socializing with the restaurant staff like they were there forever," he said. "Their work skills were amazing. They were diligent — and just good employees.  In fact, one got offered a job as a night dishwasher, his first steady, paid job."

The clear pride with which Richie told this story really struck me, just as clearly as the difference he made in these young people’s lives.

As remarkable as these two stories are, I also realized they’re not unusual for our students.

Mary Guida, a senior art education major, lived with a host family and taught art at a Marianist school in Santiago, Chile. Like a growing number of our students who travel abroad, she greatly expanded her world through living in another culture.

Lauren Breitenstein, a senior human rights major, traveled to Malawi to research the effectiveness of a girls’ empowerment program in the country. She was one of five UD students examining human rights issues in one of the world’s least-developed countries.

Entrepreneurship students Mike Sundermeier and Nick West advanced to the final round in the China-US Young Maker Competition in Beijing after tying for second place in the regional round in Suzhou. They won 80,000 yuan — nearly $12,000 — for Guardian Angel Directions, an app that gives directions based on the safest route. Neither had been abroad before they entered the competition, sponsored in part by Google and the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China.

And the examples go on and on, illustrating experiential learning at its finest.

What did University of Dayton students do this summer? They made their mark in the world.