What is Engaged Learning at SMU?

SMU'S MOST PRESTIGIOUS STUDENT ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM:
- Students learn beyond the classroom, tackling real world issues, exploring careers
- SMU finances projects up to $2000 and records project titles on student transcripts

  • 51 Projects - 51 Students
    39 Mentors - 12 Countries


    Meet the students
    April 30, 6 pm, HT Ballrooms


    Click here to view projects

  • Junior Joshua Abramovitch will create a simple and inexpensive device that can be used to accurately measure gamma and x-ray flux and calculate radiation dose rates. (Mentor: Dr. Andy Liu)
  • Junior Mariam Alaka will travel to Nigeria to gauge orphan’s awareness of HIV/AIDS. (Mentor: Dr. George Holden)
  • Junior Raha Assadi will study the effectiveness of a dropout prevention program in Plano Independent School District directed towards Hispanic girls. (Mentor: Dr. Sheri Kunovich)
  • Senior Morgan Beckwith will intern with Mystic Ballet professional dance company to gain inside knowledge about the administrative and artistic sides of a successful contemporary dance company. (Mentor: Dr. Shelly Berg)
  • Junior Lauryn Bodden, while studying in London, will explore the glocal food movement and compare it to food decisions and eating habits of America. (Dr. Owen Lynch)
  • Sophomore Juliana Bond will develop a model of sustainable micro-farming techniques at the SMU Community Garden.

    Sophomore Derek Phanekham will make the Community Garden an interdisciplinary learning site model to transfer to urban neighborhoods.
    (Mentor: Dr. Elaine Heath)
  • Junior Kevin Bruemmer will develop original 13C MRI contrast agents to detect chemical species important in clinical and biological processes. (Mentor: Dr. Alex Lippert)
  • Junior Daniel Brock will explore, through self and social awareness, how ethical decision-making for the energy industry and lawmakers can be both profitable and free of political and personal biases. (Mentor: Maria Richards)
  • Junior Morgan Cain will research economic, socio-political, and individual actors impacting organizational structures in Moscow to identify key relationship and factors that will lead to the widespread adoption of eco-friendly practices (Mentor: Anne Lincoln)
  • Junior Claire Carson will volunteer at Kidane Meheret Children’s Home in Ethiopia, using the experience to produce a play script which will be produced by SMUST, Meadows student theatre organization. (Mentor: Dr. Gretchen Smith)
  • Junior Maria Cole will develop a life-skills training program for adults focusing on positive parenting and child-rearing success. (Mentor: Dr. Williams-Rossi)
  • Junior Matthew Cody will organize and lead a service trip to Panama for the SMU Spanish Club. (Mentor: Moron-Nozaleda)

    Senior Jordan Fields will create a communications plan for the SMU Spanish Club. (Mentor: Dr. Linjuan Men)
  • Junior Delanah Colbert will work with UBELONG in Cusco, Peru to develop and deliver a culturally relevant health education program addressing nutritional disorders. (Mentor: Dr. Carolyn Smith-Morris)
  • Junior Maria Cross will create a short film to compare and contrast attitudes towards gun policy within the United Kingdom and the United States. (Mentor: Brice Campbell)
  • Sophomore Aaron Chu will evaluate the performance of the iFlame laser transmitter before, during and after irradiation to examine its viability for usage on the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. (Mentor: Dr. Annie Xiang)
  • Junior Parminder Deo will contribute to the SMU residential commons initiative by researching the University of Oxford’s long-standing residential commons model. (Mentor: Jeff Grim)
  • Junior Kalindi Dinoffer will research profiles of female entrepreneurs in the United States and produce an academic paper on the similarities and differences of self-employed and employed women. (Mentor: Dr. Maria Minniti)
  • Junior Zachary Friske, along with Mustang EMS and SMU Office of Risk Management, will develop and launch a SMU Cardiovascular Incident Prevention/Response Program. (Mentor: Lee Arning)
  • Junior Thomas Gelo will bring to life the view of a foreign culture from the eyes of a study abroad student through the medium of an Avant Garde film. (Mentor: Dr. Gretchen Smith)
  • Sophomore Fantine Giap will develop a mathematical model to assess the spread of health knowledge in Vietnamese public hospitals. (Mentor: Dr. Carr)

    Sophomore Janice Kim will assess the health and cancer literacy of Vietnamese women. (Mentor: Dr. Smith-Morris)
  • Junior Michael Graves will research effective communication practices of the United Methodist church and contribute to a chapter of Dr. Dixon’s book, In Between Sundays – Strategic Communication in the Church. (Mentor: Dr. Maria Dixon)
  • Sophomore Hassan Hanan, volunteering with Vision on Africa, will develop a life skills tool kit of basic business concepts as a result of working with economically deprived women and youth of Yeka sub-city, Ethiopia. (Mentor: Dr. Maribeth Kuenzi)
  • Junior Derek Hawkes will research the successes and failures of technology usage by orchestras for revenue-increasing purposes, and publish a set of effective mobile use guidelines for similar groups. (Mentor: Dr. Maria Dixon)
  • Junior Taylor Henry will research, develop and implement a sustainable, scalable and replicable system to provide drinking water to a community that relies only on solar energy. (Mentor: Dr. Andrew Quicksall)
  • Sophomore Preston Hutcherson will enroll in the same humanities course at two institutions, SMU and Richland College, to be able to answer to what extent is the value of a course tied to the amount we pay for it. (Mentor: Dr. Tim Cassady)
  • Junior Ghazala Janmohamed will assemble traveling displays of archeological and ethnographic materials from Picuris Pueblo, presently stored at SMU-in-Taos, to educate the public about the long span of human occupation in the Northern Rio Grande region, New Mexico. (Mentor: Dr. Mike Adler)
  • Sophomore Danielle Katz will use her Spanish skills and education minor to volunteer at an over-populated kindergarten in Cuzco, Peru through the non-profit UBELONG. (Mentor: Dr. Renata Égüez)
  • Junior, Kristen Kelso, while studying abroad in London, will research street performers and create a solo performance piece to communicate the challenging art of street performance. (Mentor: Dr. Gretchen Smith)
  • First year Thomas Kennedy will develop a web server for iGiddyUp, an iOS application which will improve the efficiency of the SMU Giddy Up system.

    First year Patrick Leopard II will develop an implementation plan for iGiddyUp, iOS application. (Mentor: Dr. Mark Fontenot)
  • Junior Fernando Lira, along with League of United Latin American Citizens Council and Upward Bound, will develop a mentorship program for youth in the Pleasant Grove community of Dallas. (Mentor: Dr. Barbara Morganfield)
  • Sophomore Christina Lollar will research sulfur ylide and develop a novel sulfur ylide mediated synthetic technique for the preparation of benzil derivatives. (Mentor: Dr. Lippert)
  • Junior Emily Mankowski will research racism in Australia as an effort to create awareness. (Mentor: Dr. Halperin)

    Junior Lauren Mishoe will create a mixed-media solo performance over her research of the New Zealand Maori people. (Mentor: Dr. Blair)


  • Junior Mikaila Muñoz will produce a robot prototype as a hands-on educational toy to be used to promote learning about electronics and programming in children, ages 3 to 12. (Mentor: Dr. Brittany Ransom)
  • Sophomore Kyle Nakatsuka will research urban revitalization in communities with deep socioeconomic needs and strong movements towards cultural self-determination, comparing contemporary native American communities of Taos and Hawai’i. (Mentor: Dr. Mike Adler)
  • Sophomore Gabriella Padgett will study the environment that fosters success in the classroom and the ability to think and perform creatively, comparing peer education in the U.S. and China. (Mentor: Dr. Ira Greenberg)
  • Sophomore Anish Patel will research the functionalization of carbosiliane-thioether dendrimers. (Mentor: Dr. David Son)
  • Junior An Phan will learn about policy making this summer during a Congressional internship. (Mentor: Mr. Rick Garza)
  • Sophomore Mei Mei Pollitt will attend the Festival D’Avignon, an arts extravaganza, in summer 2013 and produce a media based performance of her own and begin a database of global art festivals for the Meadows community. (Mentor: Dr. Gretchen Smith)
  • Junior Sean Potter will investigate the impact of transient measurement error on personality assessment in a diverse community sample. (Mentor: Dr. Michael Chmielewski)
  • Junior Alexandria Stinger, while studying in London, will learn about the symbiotic relationship between urbanism, art and humanity and create a solo dance performance on those themes. (Mentor: Dr. Shelley Berg)
  • Junior Rebecca Swarm, using the Café Momentum program as her subject of study, will research the traits, attributes and experiences that increase the likelihood of success of young men enrolled in the program. (Mentor: Dr. Sheri Kunovich)
  • Sophomore Daisuke Takeda will expand Green Riba, an e-commerce and traditional micro-finance storefront, to connect West Dallas and SMU-based artists to larger, national markets. (Mentor: Ms. Regina Nippert)
  • Junior Meredith Tavallaee, while interning at the Musee du Lourve in Paris, will research recent acquisitions to the sculpture collections. (Mentor: Dr. Pamela Patton)
  • Junior Rachel Wilson will investigate British hip-hop culture and produce a short film and instillation piece of her findings. (Mentor: Dr. Shelley Berg)
  • Junior Charles Wysocki will research the molecular mechanism of lifespan extension through dietary restriction. (Mentor: Dr. Johannes Bauer)
  • Sophomore Lucy Yu, with Global Medical Brigades Panama, will coordinate a doctor shadowing experience this summer for pre-health students with the intent to develop a SMU Medical Brigades club. (Mentor: Miroslava Detcheva)




The Office of Engaged Learning:

  • Facilitates the Engaged Learning project.

  • Connects students with project ideas to faculty and staff who serve as mentors, to campus programs and courses with student engagement opportunities, and to community partners willing to host student projects.

  • Acts as the clearinghouse for information about student engagement beyond the classroom.


The Engaged Learning Project

Engaged Learning takes learning to the ultimate level through student-driven, goal-oriented projects anywhere in the world.

Students' projects include undergraduate research and community service. Students also engage in internships and creative activities.

The project counts toward Capstone and Oral Communication credits in the University Curriculum, and can be petitioned for more.

SMU publishes student work in the Engaged Learning Collections, celebrates student achievement at graduation, and posts projects on transcripts.

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