Summer Showcase 2026

In this project, I studied how social inequality changes the way people learn from rewards. Using a reward-learning task, computational models, and brain scans, I found that seeing someone else receive more or less can change how strongly people learn from their own outcomes. The way people perceive others also shapes this learning. These effects were reflected in specific brain regions involved in reward processing, showing that learning depends not only on what we receive, but also on the social context around us.

Student Role: Undergraduate Researcher

Project funded by: National Science Foundation (NSF)

This summer, I had the opportunity to intern with the Payne-Phalen Community Council as their Community Engagement Organizer Intern. My primary project was the help PPCC further develop their District Plan, which is a document that outlines Payne-Phalen's goals and policies regarding topics like transportation, housing, heritage and cultural preservation, and more. My tasks this summer involved heavy researching and data organizing. I also helped execute community events relating to other projects, such as PPCC's project to expand Evie Carshare access on Saint Paul's East Side.

Student Role: Community Engagement Organizer Intern

Project funded by: Macalester faculty/staff grant funding

Localization is the ability of a robot to determine where it is relative to a known environment. Our robots determine this by processing inputs from their sensors: wheel movement, depth sensors, and RGB cameras. Prof. Susan Fox’s Robotics Lab focuses on creating a machine learning model which processes, analyzes and categorizes colored images into specified locations around Olin Rice accurately. This summer, our research revolved around improving the accuracy of our previous models by updating software, changing training methods, and trying new types of architectures, including transformers, the architecture which gave rise to chatbots like ChatGPT.

Student Role: Research Assistant

Project funded by: Macalester College (e.g., endowed funds)

My summer research in the Witus Lab is about two topics. One, the protection of shielding polymers on therapeutic proteins. And two, the catalytic activity of hormonal peptides on reactions in the human body. For the first topic, the protection of shielding polymers were tested on proteins via proteolytic resistance at different time points. The digestion of the protein was measured to see how well the polymers protected the therapeutic protein. For the second topic, hormonal peptides were added to reactions that would occur in the human body to see if the reactions were catalyzed.

Student Role: Researcher

Project funded by: Macalester College (e.g., endowed funds)

As a sportswriting intern, I wrote daily stories covering each of those beats (except for out-of-season hockey). I attended Twins games, Lynx games and Vikings training camp and wrote gamers and longer features. My favorite pieces included a story about the Saints’ Ball Pig, a story about Cheryl Reeve becoming the winningest WNBA coach, and a story about a Gopher’s hockey player being drafted to the PWHL. I also got to meet No. 1 globally ranked golfer Scotte Scheffler. As an aspiring journalist, it was great to get professional experience and develop a portfolio of published pieces.

Student Role: Sportswriting Intern

Project funded by: Macalester College (e.g., endowed funds)

This summer I worked as a costume design assistant on a production of Hadestown that had an all teen cast! My job was to help the costume designer, Lily Turner ('24) execute her vision at Children's Theater Company.

Student Role: Costume Design Assistant

Project funded by: Macalester College (e.g., endowed funds)

TDA Cycle Explorer is an interactive web app that helps you discover hidden loops and rings in tangled webs of data. Click any point on the chart to see the exact circle of connections that created it.

Student Role: Research Assistant and Website developer

Project funded by: Macalester faculty/staff grant funding

I had the opportunity to work with and learn from the props shop at Childrens' Theatre Company in Minneapolis. I served as the properties designer for their summer production of Hadestown: Teen Edition and was responsible for sourcing, building, and painting all the props and furniture used, under the mentorship of the props team there.

Student Role: TAT Props Intern

Project funded by: Macalester College (e.g., endowed funds)

Changes in speech are some of the earliest manifestations of neurological disorders. Speech analysis is a quick, non-invasive way to screen patients for these conditions. Previous studies have demonstrated the capability of statistical algorithms to discern between people with Parkinson's Disease (PD) from healthy controls, ataxia from controls, and HE (a complication of severe liver disease) from controls. My research focused on identifying unique speech signatures of these three neurological disorders (PD, ataxia, HE) with the goal of accurately distinguishing between each condition.

Student Role: Research Fellow

Project funded by: The company/institution/organization you worked at

Solving ordinary differential equations (ODEs) is important for modeling real-life scenarios and applying them to fields such as biology, economics, and engineering. An ODE describes the rate of change of a phenomenon, and solving them allows us to predict this change. This summer, we worked on creating our 5-stage "PPP Algorithm", standing for "Picard, Prune, and Polish", an iterative method to produce the solution in the form of a barycentric rational function.

Student Role: Researcher

Project funded by: Macalester College (e.g., endowed funds)

During my SCORE internship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Carbone Cancer Center, I worked with the Ngo Lab to optimize models for brain metastases, which occur when cancer spreads to the brain. Traditional models use tumor spheroids, which are groups of cancer cells grown together; however, some cancer cells do not form spheroids well. My research focuses on an alternative model using microcarrier beads, which are tiny beads that allow cancer cells to grow and attach to their surface. I optimized these microcarrier spheroid models using metastatic breast cancer cells to study how tumors invade surrounding tissue.

Student Role: Researcher

Project funded by: American Cancer Society

This project provided me with an opportunity to learn Dorico, a notation software, as well as learn how to create front covers as well as properly format scores to be legible and easily useable by musicians. I transcribed Prof. Malawey's handwritten works into digital form, then reformatted, revised, and created front covers and finalized the scores.

Student Role: Researcher

Project funded by: Macalester College (e.g., endowed funds)

Our research investigated how cities integrate Beauty, Affordability, and Practicality.
These are three essential but often conflicted and misunderstood elements of livable urbanism.Through walking analyses, resident interviews, and policy review in Paris, Vienna and Barcelona, we will examine where and why the triad breaks down. Our findings will contribute to understanding how cities can or cannot sustain dignity and delight for all of its residents.

Student Role: Researchers

Project funded by: Macalester College (e.g., endowed funds)

This summer, I interned with the Women's Rights Program at The Advocates for Human Rights in Minneapolis. The Advocates works on a variety of human rights issues, including women’s rights, immigration, and the death penalty. During this internship I was involved in a fact-finding project with the goal of producing a report on activism in Minnesota during the surge in immigration enforcement earlier this year. I also researched initiatives combatting gender-based violence during the 2026 World Cup to support a partner organization in Morocco and researched emerging women’s issues in Europe and Africa as part of the Women’s Program’s reassessment.

Student Role: Women's Rights Intern

Project funded by: Macalester Summer Internship Grant

During summer 2026, I explored how research and management help organizations make informed decisions. At Karam Shaar Advisory, I researched and fact-checked more than six vendors for a bank client, examining ownership, sanctions, political connections, and financial or reputational risks. At Mano a Mano International Partners, I supported grant writing and a three-year strategic planning process, created new archive and Monday.com systems, and participated in two intern interviews. Together, these experiences connected my Political Science and Economics studies to my interests in banking, economic diplomacy, nonprofit management, and institution-building.

Student Role: Administrative Assistant $ Due Diligence Research Intern

Project funded by: MSIG funded 15 hours of my internships (with Karam Shaar Advisory), Mano a Mano paid for my internship with them

At Macalester, I’ve volunteered with Team IMPACT (TI), a national non-profit supporting children with chronic illness by pairing them with college sports teams. This summer, I worked in Japan for two months with Being ALIVE Japan (BAJ), a similar organization to TI. I presented at new program sites across Japan, mentored and ran leadership workshops for Japanese college students, led and participated in adaptive sport programs in hospitals, and made English resources + a new logo for BAJ to attract international collaboration. I finished by presenting at the TI Summit in Boston to ~200 college students from around the country!

Student Role: Program Development Intern

Project funded by: Kay Thomas Scholarship Fund + Alumni Donations for travel

During my summer internship with MTN Eswatini’s Enterprise Business Unit, I explored how data can help a company make better decisions and serve its customers more effectively. I analyzed customer and revenue trends, created performance dashboards, studied the company’s largest business accounts, and researched new products and growth opportunities. I then presented my findings and recommendations to company leaders. This experience allowed me to apply my Economics and Data Science studies in a professional setting while strengthening my communication, problem-solving, and analytical skills.

Student Role: Analytics and Research Intern

Project funded by: Macalester College (e.g., endowed funds)

Understanding how science evolves is key to anticipating the discoveries of tomorrow. We examine scientific development through a knowledge-network framework, where nodes represent scientific concepts and edges link concepts that co-occur in the abstract of a scientific paper. Using topological data analysis (TDA), we investigate how the shape of these knowledge networks changes over time.

Student Role: Researcher

Project funded by: Don't know

Xylazine, an adrenergic receptor agonist, has been increasingly detected in samples of illicitly manufactured fentanyl. Despite concerns of opioid overdose from xylazine-fentanyl combinations, current understanding of xylazine and combination pharmacokinetics (PK) is limited. To inform PK experimental design, we compared xylazine concentrations in perfused and non-perfused mice. This was performed with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS) analysis of plasma, brain, and spinal cord samples from subcutaneously injected male and female mice.

Student Role: Researcher

Project funded by: The company/institution/organization you worked at

As a Client Care and Research Support Intern, I got the opportunity to engage in hands-on tasks in the clinic, including front desk assistance, client event facilitation, social work and psychotherapy shadowing. Additionally, I got a chance to contribute with marketing tasks, creating newsletters, posters, and one-page educational materials.
Additionally, I am extremely grateful to have had an opportunity to engage with the research support, being involved in multiple research projects at CVT. As such, I had an opportunity to transcribe interviews, create infographics, and analyze survey data. This experience deepened my interest in trauma-informed care and strengthened my problem-solving, communication, and research skills.

Student Role: Client Care and Research Support Summer

Project funded by: Macalester College (e.g., endowed funds)