Student Spotlights

IBH student Evelyn Murphy is fueling the health snack industry with her company, Energy by Evelyn. Inspired by her athletic background and family's entrepreneurial spirit, Murphy crafts natural energy bites designed to provide sustained energy without the sugar crash. Now an economics major and IBH student at UMD, she's expanding her retail presence while balancing academics and business.

What does it mean to create a true queer space? Roshida Herelle (she/they), a senior technology and information design major, was motivated by this question when she created her zine, “The Place Keeps Score: Retelling BIPOC Queer Stories at UMD” for her DCC capstone project. Her creative research explores how place shapes identity and showcases the experiences of queer students of color at this university.

Esohe Owie came with her family to Maryland from Lagos, Nigeria in her early teens, the eldest of three siblings. Adjusting to this new world was challenging, especially when – just a few years later – she needed to navigate an unfamiliar college system. Owie’s parents, who went to college in Nigeria, supported her path to higher education at UMD but had to rely on their daughter to figure out how to apply to and navigate college life. For students like Owie, and many others who are first generation, first generation immigrants or from other underrepresented student groups, Chantelle Smith…

This past summer, Grace Huang, a sophomore biochemistry major in the Integrated Life Sciences (ILS) program, found purpose at the intersection of biochemistry and public health through an innovative internship at the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing. Under the mentorship of Dr. Rozalina McCoy, Huang delved into the lab’s research on diabetes care and health disparities.

If you’ve been in the Anne Arundel basement lately, you’ve surely noticed a colorful new addition to the space—the columns now feature a stunning mural celebrating Maryland's natural heritage. Completed this past summer by Honors Humanities student Injoo Lee for her capstone project, the work was created to liven up this common area and create an environment that promotes life and beauty. She was motivated by her hope to pave the way for more public art across our campus.

Last spring, Carmela Sofia De Llano Hernandez, a student in the Honors Global Challenges & Solutions (HGLO) program and a junior sociology major, completed an internship with the U.S. Census Bureau’s School Pulse Panel project. Carmela is passionate about civic engagement and yearns to make a positive impact through policy research. The internship aligned with her interest in census categories and their impact on Hispanic/Latine communities.

ILS sophomore Ben Waterman is transforming data into action through his community-focused research internship with Say It Loud Advocates Research Network. Through this internship, Waterman, a biology and psychology double major, has found an unexpected way to blend his academic interests with real-world impact.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning this semester, HGLO student Matt Zinno makes his way from College Park to Capitol Hill for his new congressional internship. The Rhode Island native is interning for one of his state’s two congressmen, Seth Magaziner, and getting hands-on experience on the Hill. "It’s incredible to be working in a place as historic as the Capitol," Zinno said. "It means a lot to contribute legislative efforts that can create positive change in our country."

This summer, IBH student Duncan Kuchar ’26 realized a long-held dream by interning at SpaceX, an aerospace company that designs, manufactures, and launches spacecraft, rockets, and satellites. The junior aerospace engineering major’s journey to the prestigious company began in his freshman year, and he credits IBH’s focus on teamwork and presentation skills for preparing him to work in SpaceX's demanding environment.

Developing microfluidic tissue-on-chip systems through immunoengineering. Studying how extracellular vesicles in bacterial cells communicate with human cells. This is the parlance that National Institutes of Health (NIH) independent research scholar Parinaz Fathi speaks with confidence. The former mechanical engineering major (with an Honors College citation in the Gemstone program) is one of the youngest principal investigators in the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at NIH. She began in July 2022 as an independent research scholar working on nanotechnology and microfluidic models, specifically biological nanoparticles.