You can sit in class and study about it elsewhere or you can come to Alma College and get to work!
Muscle Biology
Nicolas Arnold’s interest in medical research took him to the Center for Muscle Biology at the University of Kentucky during the summer of 2015. His research focused on circadian rhythms — the daily cycle of processes that get booted up or shut down at day and night — in human muscle tissue. “The ability to collect and analyze data was by far the most developed of my skills in my time at Kentucky,” he says. “I learned so much about how to critically analyze information … and how to create a picture of what is happening based on that data.”
Material Chemistry
Sarah Cox faced a tough choice when she finished her senior year in 2015. The biology major received graduate school offers from multiple Ph.D. programs. She credits her research experiences — including her role in helping to discover a new molecular gelator while attending an NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates program at the University of Michigan — for making her stand out to the top graduate schools in the Midwest. “Everything I learned about chemistry, I learned at Alma,” she says. “Some of the graduate students I was working with in the summers now use techniques I brought with me from Alma in their own research labs.”
Understanding Ethnic Identity
In September 2014 a referendum was held in Scotland asking the Scots if they wished to become an independent country; independence was rejected 55% to 45%. Students in Dr. Britt Cartrite’s 2014 political science spring term course traveled to Scotland to explore Scottish identity and nationalism to better understand why some Scots wanted independence but others were happy remaining British. In 2016, Dr. Cartrite again offers a course in Scotland to research firsthand the relationship between identity and politics within Scotland.
Sound exciting? Alma College believes so strongly in the value of these experiential learning opportunities that we want to make them possible for every student. Venture Grants and other scholarships are available to support student research and study abroad opportunities. What will you work for?
