When he was seven years old, Jaeger Held '23 visited Washington, D.C., for the first time. It was the winter of 2008-09, shortly after Barack Obama was elected president. The air was crisp, and all around him, the excitement was palpable. Seven years later, there was a shift in Washington. He remembers watching with unease as the 2016 election and the Trump administration unfolded. From then on, he felt an urgency to act and to be an active participant in the change he wished to see. During his high school days, Held attended American Legion Montana Boys State, which teaches youth the fundamentals of government, and served as a legislative aide and page for the Montana House of Representatives during the 2017 and 2019 legislative sessions. Most recently, in June, he contacted the chair of the Montana Democratic Party and attended the state convention, which was conducted virtually via Zoom due to COVID-19.

At Gettysburg College, our students are given the opportunity to explore new subjects and perspectives and tap into experiences that challenge them to think critically and reflexively. International student Srey Nich Vunn '22 who flew to the U.S. from her home country, Cambodia, to pursue higher education in 2018, has experienced this firsthand, as Gettysburg has given her many opportunities to further pursue her passion for social change.

Throughout history, forms of artistic expression have served a dually reactive and proactive purpose-being an outlet to reflect on the past and present and project toward a different and better future. Today, it can be seen in action across social media feeds, which are smattered with graphics of clenched fists, symbolic of the Black Lives Matter Movement, photographs that capture the emotional highs and lows of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and inspiring quotes from political leaders amid a historic election season. Two recent Gettysburg College Schmucker Art Gallery exhibits have further explored how art has been a canvas for change throughout history.

Bread is a universal touchpoint-a staple food across the globe. As individuals worldwide gather to make and break bread, their bodies find nourishment. And in many cases, this simple food, made primarily of flour, yeast, salt, and water, also offers the emotional nourishment of comfort and community. Last fall, students in psychology Prof. Nathalie Goubet's class, Coping with Adversity: Resilience in Childhood, built upon these premises of bread making and bread breaking in an innovative way. With the help of a Community-Based Learning Fellowship through the Center of Public Service and funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, they designed a hands-on workshop that aimed to teach Gettysburg Area Middle School students resilience-building skills. Read more.

Ricardo Miranda '21, Rouwaida Nitiema '21 and Claire Woodward '20 are three Gettysburg students who conduct research with professionals in the science field, balance labs, courses, and extracurricular activities, and pursue their passions in a liberal arts and sciences setting. All three are becoming equipped for lives in the science and mathematics fields. Through offerings at Gettysburg College, they are also able to engage in other academic interests, from German studies to music, while getting involved in campus activities.

Ever since Carter Hanson '23 arrived at Gettysburg in the fall, many of his longstanding interests culminated in gratifying experiences in the college setting. The political science major quickly fell into his element after enrolling in a First-Year Seminar (FYS) entitled The Mathematics of Voting. For an assignment in the course, Hanson went on to win second place in the higher education Western division of the Draw the Lines competition for his congressional map.

The Center for Career Engagement has recently announced Ingrid Bayer '22, a political science and public policy double major and member of the Women's Volleyball team, as Gettysburg College's Student Employee of the Year. Bayer was selected as the Student Employee of the Year among a pool of 55 nominees for her for her effort in supporting the mission and ideals of the Garthwait Leadership Center. Read more

Sierra Conboy '20, of Ventura, California, saw her acceptance to Gettysburg College as an opportunity for immense growth and possibility. The international affairs and political science double major took full advantage of her liberal arts education by studying abroad, participating in the Eisenhower Institute, and becoming an active member of the Women's Volleyball team. Though she faced a busy schedule, Conboy welcomed the challenge and embraced Gettysburg as a lifelong committment. Read more.

Gettysburg College offers experiences that require courage to open minds to new ideas, challenging previously held beliefs and perspectives. One way students can engage in diverse perspectives is to immerse themselves in new environments, including those in other countries. Churon T. Lanier-Martin '20, a first-generation college student from Chester, Pa., considers the opportunity to study abroad through Gettysburg's Center for Global Education an invaluable part of his college experience. To expand his worldview, he traveled to Indonesia for a semester.

For as long as he can remember, Ziv Carmi '23 has been drawn toward public history. When he learned of Gettysburg College's rich public history offerings, which aligned with his interest in museum curation, he applied Early Decision to pursue his undergraduate studies across the country. As a first-year student, the history major with public history and Civil War era studies minors has already published a research paper from his First-Year Seminar in The Cupola, Gettyburg's open-access repository for student and faculty scholarly work. He then presented his findings on presidential leadership in the Space Age at this year's Celebration of Academic First-Year Engagement (CAFE) Symposium. Read more.

After the cancellation of her senior lacrosse season due to COVID-19, student-athlete Liza Barr '20 pens a heartfelt reflection on the impact Gettysburg College has had on her life these past 4 years. Read more here.

The Center of Public Service offers immersion projects to students in order to help them connect to a new culture, while focusing on important social justice issues. For students like Hassan Williams-Kone '21, this experience not only allowed him to learn about Rwanda's more recent efforts to foster peace, unity, and reconciliation within the nation, but helped him recognize the importance of shared connections with others. Read more.

Charles Hagen' 20 came to Gettysburg College with no expectations. As a first-year, he was unsure of what the future would hold. Now a senior, the organization and management studies major and political science and business double minor is excited to start his career at AT&T in its Business to Business sector. It took time to find that clarity, but thanks to his experiences at Gettysburg, Hagen feels more prepared than ever to tackle new challenges. 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.

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.

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.