Melanie Ourhaan '20, a political science major and business and economics double minor, has had the unique experience of interning for the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) as a Virtual Student Federal Service content creator. The IVLP, the U.S. Department of State's premier professional exchange program, has helped strengthen U.S. engagement with countries around the world. During her internship, Ourhaan created digital content for the Faces of Exchange website that showcases the impact featured IVLP alumni have had on the world. Read more.

As a biochemistry and molecular biology major, Julia Clevinger '21 originally assumed that her free time at Gettysburg College would be filled with science-based activities and clubs. However, as she got involved in programs and organizations such as the Eisenhower Institute and the Center for Public Service, Clevinger soon realized the importance of being an engaged citizen beyond her academic focus, and the power each individual possesses to spark change in their community. Read more.

As a first-generation college student and son of veteran Army parents, Steven Landry '22 felt ready to dive into an immersive academic and historical environment at Gettysburg College. Now, he's preparing to enter another one-this time more than 6,000 miles from Gettysburg for a yearlong study abroad experience in Japan, as a recipient of the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship for the 2020-2021 academic year. Read more.

Growing up in San Diego, Kevin Benavente '20 viewed the college search process as an opportunity to not only explore his existing academic interests, but also to venture beyond the state lines of California. As a student at Gettysburg College, Benavente has made the most of his experience as a member of the football team, peer learning associate (PLA) for the economics department, a public address announcer for the men's and women's basketball teams, a community advisor (CA) for the Office of Residential and First Year-Programs, and a campus tour guide. By being so involved on campus, Benavente made lasting relationships with peers, professors, and alumni. Thanks to the Gettysburg Network, he has secured a job months before his May graduation date. Read more.

Paige Evans '20, like many students, has widespread interests and has never been able to describe herself as just one thing. In fact, the multidisciplinary approach at Gettysburg College has given her the freedom to be shaped by everything from algorithms to Aristotle to recreational sports. Read more.

Daniel Jones '22 of Culpeper, VA felt strongly about majoring in biology and chemistry when he initially stepped foot on campus his first year at Gettysburg College. Jones reached out to his first-year advisor, Prof. Stephen Stern, for cirriculum advice regarding the sciences, but was shocked when Stern encouraged him to embrace Gettysburg's liberal arts education and take courses that could expand his worldview. Taking Stern's advice in stride, Jones began a journey of discovery, eventually declaring a Religious Studies and Public Policy double major. Thanks to constructive conversations at Gettysburg College, Jones has found new passions that offer a multitude of opportunities to expand his knowledge even further. Read the full story.

Caroline Cuetara '21 of Downingtown, PA, a French and international affairs double major, English literature minor, and Lincoln Scholar at Gettysburg College participated in a Kolbe Fellowship during the summer of 2019. Under the guidance of her mentor, French Prof. Florence Ramond Jurney, Cuetara spent her summer months analyzing two works by Maryse Conde, a renowned French author of historical fiction. Read Cuetara's story.

In choosing Gettysburg College and taking advantage of the many hands-on learning opportunities available to him, Jaeger Held '23 is able to continue pursuing his passion for Civil War history and growing even closer to his roots. During his first semester, he has already joined the Civil War Club and the Pennsylvania College Guard reenactment group, as well as volunteering his time at the Civil War Institute. Through the Civil War Institute's Brian C. Pohanka Program, Held has been hired for an internship next summer with the National Park Service at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park in West Virginia, an opportunity to continue to learn about such a defining war in American history. Read Held's full story.

Matthew Cherubino '22 of Flemington, NJ, a biochemistry and molecular biology major at Gettysburg College, began a research project about immune checkpoint inhibitors for cancer treatment. Cherubino began his research in his First-Year Seminar, Cancer in Society: A War Against Immortality, under the guidance of Chemistry Prof. Robert Garrity. Garrity's class piques students' interests about many facets of cancer and gave Cherubino the opportunity to learn more about a potential career path in cancer research, which offers many opportunities and generous funding. Read Cherubino's story.

As the son of two secondary school teachers and a member of a family filled with educators, Logan Grubb '21 of Hummelstown, PA, has always known the value of learning. Although he'll more than likely be the first to break this line of succession, Grubb is drawing on his economics and public policy majors to impact a field that has influenced him throughout his life - music education. Read Grubb's full story.

A team of two Gettysburg College students and a member of the faculty embarks on a journey underground as part of their summer research experience through the Cross-Disciplinary Science Institute (X-SIG) at Gettysburg College. This experiential learning opportunity requires grit, flexibility, a fair amount of bravery, and no aversions to mud or water. The cave environment is one-hundred percent humidity, with a temperature range of 49 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit, and there are areas where the team could be wading through waist deep water or higher. Working with Biology Prof. Istvan Urcuyo to research and catalogue invertebrate lifeforms of Pennsylvania caves, Georgia Larzelere '22 and Owen Skirtich '20 are up for the challenge.

This past summer, chemistry and physics double major Rikard Bodin '20 and physics major Neng Yin '20 worked with Physics Prof. Tim Good on plasma research. Together, they upgraded and installed the Pickets Charged Plasma Device-an instrument named after the shape of its picket fence magnetic field, while also drawing upon the history and Pickett's Charge in the Battle of Gettysburg. Inspired by the X-SIG program, Bodin and Yin are integrating the now-operational device into their individualized research projects as part of their physics capstone experience.

Two months after visiting Manu National Park in the Peruvian Amazon for Prof. Alex Trillo's tropical terrestrial biology course, a group of Gettysburgians are now in shock. The land they just saw thriving is being threatened-because the Amazon is ablaze. Wildfires began sweeping the Brazilian jungles in August, and continued in Bolivia. Manu National Park-known for its rich diversity and serving as home to hundreds of species, including birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles, in the southeast of Peru-could be affected next.

Hands-on opportunities are a staple of the Gettysburg College experience. They allow students to embrace an innovative mindset and discover new ways to help transform the world around them. This past summer, Lamara White '21 of Newark, N.J., was able to do just that through the Digital Technology Summer Fellows Program. Combining her passions of music and computer science, she designed a one-of-a-kind instrument-a 3D-printed electric guitar. In just eight weeks, White learned about and operated 3D printers and software for the first time at the College's Innovation and Creativity Lab. It was here in this home for curious creations that she was able to execute her vision for a new instrument while learning the importance of technological advancements in the music industry and beyond.

Creative innovation and collaboration are two striking assets of a Gettysburg College education. Imaginative minds converge at the Innovation and Creativity Lab, where students and faculty alike uncover groundbreaking possibilities and give rise to insightful inventions. Thanks to a cross-disciplinary approach, Spanish Prof. Christopher Oechler and his team constructed a virtual reality rendering of Madrid's El Corral de Principe, setting the stage for his students to experience a 17th-century theatrical space through a modern lens.

Coping with homesickness may be a challenge for some first-year students. But Hana Huskic '22 discovered a scholarly community at Gettysburg College that allowed her to link activism efforts related to her home in Bosnia and Herzegovina with her academic pursuits of an individualized major in linguistic anthropology. Combining her interests in anthropology, political science, and women, gender, and sexuality studies, Huskic planned a research project to head home to document and participate in the first-ever gay pride march in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, on September 8. It drew more than 3,000 participants, including ambassadors of several countries. She also covered the protest the day prior to the march and will present her research on November 7 in the Science Center.

On Aug. 7, Biology Prof. Alex Trillo published a new paper in the scientific journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution alongside student and faculty collaborators both here at Gettysburg College and abroad. Entitled "The Influence of Signaling Conspecific and Heterospecific Neighbors on Eavesdropper Pressure," this article discusses how the predation and parasitism faced by a calling animal can be affected by the calling activity of its neighbors. After reviewing the effects of having neighbors of either same or different species, Prof. Trillo and her collaborators developed a predictive risk model based on the number and appeal of calling neighbors. This model helps identify important implications that will allow for better understanding of community dynamics and the evolution of signals. Gettysburg contributors include Biology Prof. Michael Caldwell, biology major graduate Tiffany Lam '19, and current biochemistry-molecular biology major Oliver Pickering '22. For this article, Dr. Trillo also collaborated with Christopher Benson, a physics graduate student at the University of Lethbridge in Canada, and David Logue, a psychology professor at Lethbridge who also is a member of the biology department at the University of Puerto Rico.

The daughter of a Berks County police officer, Haley Shultz '21 spent many days shadowing her dad in local courthouses when she was growing up. Now a public policy and political sciencedouble major, she believes these early-on experiences nurtured her passion for social justice issues, especially within the criminal justice system. Shultz was excited to return to the courts as a Kolbe Fellow this summer, and this time around, her dad shadowed her as she explored the origins of issues that exist in several Veterans Treatment Courts in Pennsylvania, specifically victim rights. Alongside Public Policy Prof. Anne Douds, she worked to develop action items to improve the courts' current processes. Read full story.

Exactly one month after being honored as the salutatorian of Gettysburg College's Class of 2019, Leah Gulyas '19 was recognized alongside Biology Prof. Jennifer Powell by scientific journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology, which published their co-authored review article on June 19.

Gettysburg College students take pride in their work, and we are likewise proud to announce their recent academic achievements. Students whose semester averages were 3.6 or above were recently placed on the Dean's Honor List. The following local students have been awarded this outstanding academic achievement in the Spring 2019 semester.

Spending most of his life in Nepal, Pranav Kayastha '20 is familiar with the many challenges his home country faces, such as rapid population growth, unemployment, and poverty. Coming to Gettysburg to study mathematics was a change in pace from what he knew in Nepal, and this new way of life, paired with the College's rigorous liberal arts curriculum, encouraged him to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. He then connected this way of thinking to home-harvesting ideas on how he could help Nepalis attain a better life.

Gettysburg College students take pride in their work, and we are likewise proud to announce their recent academic achievements. Students with a quality point average in the range of 3.300 to 3.599 for a semester's work were recently placed on the Deans' Commendation List. The following students from your area have been placed on the Spring 2019 list:

Gettysburg College's Matt Granito '22 was recently named a regional winner at the Draw the Lines competition--a nonpartisan state-wide contest for people of all ages to draw their own election map of Pennsylvania, end gerrymandering, and improve democracy. This is the second time Granito has been honored at the legislative mapping contest. Granito earned second prize in the Higher Education division in Central Pennsylvania and his map will be entered into the statewide round for a chance to win a prize up to $5,000. "As with my previous map last fall, my goals are still compactness and contiguity. With that, I was able to ensure that all 17 districts were connected, and not just by a road or small landmark," said Granito, who plans to major in organization and management studies and minor in computer science. "Districts are clearly unfair if a district is not whole or broken up into pieces. This is the reason that both compactness and contiguity are important factors that lead to a fair map." Learn more about Granito's accomplishment.

Jonathan Trilleras will spend the Fall 2019 semester studying in Denmark. He was presented with a $1,000 award from the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship program.

For Bailey Harper '19, an opportunity came knocking while she was studying abroad in Athens, Greece-over 5,000 miles away from Gettysburg College. It was an email from Art History Prof. Felicia Else, asking if anyone was interested in doing research for the upcoming exhibit The Plains of Mars: European War Prints, 1500-1825 in the Schmucker Art Gallery. "I said, 'Prof. Else, I want to do this.' And I sent it. I don't think I even signed my name. I may have hit reply all too," laughed Harper. Read full story.

Julia Chin '21 received a Freeman-Asia Award for her Spring 2020 global study semester in Japan with Kansai Gaidai University. Freeman-Asia provides scholarship awards to U.S. undergraduate students to study abroad in East or Southeast Asia with the goal of strengthening cultural ties between the U.S. and the countries of East Asia. Gettysburg College encourages students to be inquisitive thinkers who ask questions and seek out answers. Through partnerships with programs abroad, our students have the opportunity to engage in global study experiences, and those experiences help to unleash a desire for a lifetime of curiosity and positive impact. Read more.

During a discussion about the Loxahatchee River Restoration Project at their April 30 workshop, the Board of Commissioners for Palm Beach County, Florida, referenced a report prepared by Gettysburg College students in the Eisenhower Institute's Environmental Leadership program. Over the course of the year, these 10 students have worked closely with Dr. Howard Ernst, Seiden-Levi Fellow at the Eisenhower Institute, to explore water policy in the United States. After spending the fall semester learning about the policy process and relevant environmental concerns, they traveled to South Florida to conduct field research on restoration plans for the Loxahatchee River. Read more on the Eisenhower Institute's website.

Being selected for a prestigious scholarship or fellowship shines like a badge of honor on a resume. But how one translates that distinction into the real world means much more. Recently named Gettysburg College scholars now have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pursue paths that pique their curiosity, actively seek answers to profound questions, and adopt a personal drive to enact change.

Challenge. Failure. Resilience. Triumph. And what it means to be a Gettysburgian through it all. These and other themes were reflected during Gettysburg College's 184th Commencement ceremony as we celebrated the accomplishments of our 611 graduates and looked forward with them to the future. Founded in 1832, Gettysburg College is a highly selective four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences with a strong academic tradition that includes Rhodes Scholars, a Nobel laureate and other distinguished scholars among its alumni.

22 Gettysburg College students have recently been credited in Prof. Christopher Fee's new encyclopedia titled Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories in American History. Anika Jensen, Susanna Mills, and Isabella Rosedietcher were credited as editors. The new two volume set of encyclopedias features over 800 pages of entries detailing controversial and influential conspiracy theories in contemporary American society and the history of these theories. The encyclopedia explains the cultural context and significance of conspiracy theories, an analysis of conspiracy theories and political affiliation, and the role of the internet in the spread of conspiracy theories. Gettysburg College's liberal arts curriculum empowers students to think critically and seek answers to difficult social and political problems in contemporary society. The rigorous research conducted by these students exemplifies what it means to Do Great Work.