Summer Check-Ins: How Gemstone Students are Spending their Summers

This summer, we introduce a new article series to The Stone: Summer Check-ins, which will feature profiles of some of the diverse plans that Gemstone students have for the summer.

So without further ado, here are the first check-ins from Alex Boukhvalova, Kevin Chou, and Elfadil Osman!

Alex Boukhvalova

Year: Junior | Majors: Computer Science and Biology | Team: SCOPE

I’ve had the chance to travel to Chapel Hill, North Carolina for one week of internship training and then to San Diego, California for an 8-week internship program.  In San Diego, I’m interning at an immunology lab within Scripps Research Institute.   I’m studying protein design with regards antibodies for a conserved portion of the HIV virus, and I’m incredibly lucky because this is my first internship that fully encompasses both of my majors.  I have been working with modeling software to do structural based protein design and then will be doing wet lab work to test binding and stability.  Needless to say, it is an incredible amount of work and there are constant curve balls thrown because as Gemstone students we definitely all know that nothing ever goes as planned in research!

When I’m not in the lab, I have been using my spare time to explore San Diego and California.  For the first three weeks of my stay, I was in Solana Beach with a host family.  It was my first time staying with a host family, but my hosts were incredibly gracious and took me on multiple trips up and down the coast and even took me to a big Tango milonga, where I learned how to dance and got to watch a performance!  I just recently moved into University of California, San Diego (UCSD) apartments.  Fun fact about the apartments – they are almost completely occupied by a Brazilian exchange program so I have made so many friends with whom I honestly feel like I’m in a different country (maybe it’s because of the Portuguese all around?).  I’ve already had a chance to make one weekend trip to Los Angeles and am hoping to travel around California some more, but San Diego is such a big city that there is still so much left to see.  I live right next to a beautiful glider port (background of the picture) where people go every night to watch the sunset.  It really is interesting to compare the laid back and relaxed nature of the West Coast culture to the hustle and bustle of the East Coast – it’s definitely nice but takes a conscious effort to adjust between the two.  I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer holds and am excited to travel to Seattle and Leavenworth, Washington after San Diego for a final conference where I will present my research!

Precious Gem: Cassidy Laidlaw

This week, we at the Stone would like to recognize yet another one of the exceptional members of the Gemstone program.  Rising sophomore Cassidy Laidlaw, new member of team BIASES, is a Computer Science and Mathematics double major.  Last semester, he enjoyed his heavy course load complete with programming, algorithm analysis, and abstract algebra.  However, Cassidy is much more than a double STEM major as he is also a member of the Men’s Choir and a jazz ensemble on campus at the University of Maryland.

Cassidy’s face lit up during our interview whenever he spoke about music.  During the spring semester, he was busy performing in weekly concerts for both of his music groups.  As a member of Men’s Choir, Cassidy had the opportunity to perform at the Kennedy Center with some of the cast members of Les Miserables, an experience he thoroughly enjoyed.  In addition to performing, music also influenced Cassidy a different way this semester.  He participated in a Jerusalem Marathon where he raised over $2,500 to support children in Israel.  At the end of his fundraising, he flew to Israel over spring break to run the marathon and to meet the child he was partnered with for the duration of the fundraising.  During his time overseas, Cassidy had the chance to hear his partner sing with the charity choir, which he described as a beautiful and special experience.  His affiliation with Israel does not stop with this touching experience. Cassidy will be a co-president of Terpim next semester, which is an Israeli culture group on campus.  While participating in all of these activities would be enough for most people, he also finds time to tutor kids in 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th grades in a nearby community, to work on a computer program he took on as a side project, and to satisfy his love of the outdoors by biking and running.

Cassidy’s plans for the future are just as impressive as the litany of activities he participates in now.  He is currently weighing his career preferences, but he believes that he would be happy doing research as a professor.  However, he is very excited by the possibility of working at Not Impossible Labs, a company that looks to solve the diverse problems facing humanity.  Cassidy is attracted to the opportunity of having a job where he could directly see his ideas and work affect other people positively.  His last goal may not be entirely surprising, as Cassidy bikes all over campus, but he hopes one day to bike all the way across the country.  He may have just been placed on his Gemstone team but Cassidy is already doing great things, and there is no doubt that he will continue to do so throughout his time at the University of Maryland.

- 15 June 2015 – Nate Nenortas 

Precious Gem: Tommy Tran

Meet Tommy Tran. This Neurobiology and Physiology major from Rockville, Maryland is finishing his freshman year here at UMD. He is on the recently formed Team PHAGE, a Gemstone team that he coauthored. Team PHAGE is looking to use bacteriophages to develop a disinfectant for use in hospitals and farms. This would be an important alternative to antibiotics because it can still attack antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and doesn’t promote their resistance. He explained that as the project co-author he wasn’t the one to come up with the idea for Team PHAGE, but he did a lot of the research in order to write the literature review section of the proposal. Tommy is premed, and will doubtlessly use what he has learned in his chemistry and biology classes to be an asset to his team. I asked him about when he knew he wanted to be a doctor, and he said at one point he realized he enjoyed his science classes the most, and it was the right fit. His favorite class this year was organic chemistry because figuring out the problems is like a “puzzle”.

Tommy is busy outside of the classroom as well. He is on the club tennis team, and his weeks are filled with practices and tournaments. The team hasn’t gotten to nationals yet, so one of Tommy’s goals is to help them on this quest. This summer, Tommy will be working as a tennis instructor, developing juniors (kids ages 5-15) in tennis. In addition, he’ll be doing an internship at an orthopedic center shadowing a doctor in Rockville and taking a sociology course online. Come late August, he’ll be a camp leader for Gems Camp. He says he’s most looking forward to comparing himself as a freshman to the class of 2019. I asked him about his experience going to Gems Camp and coming to Gemstone the first semester. He says he was skeptical; coming from Gonzaga College High School, an all boys private school, he was used to knowing everyone in his grade very well. Now looking back at the end of the year, Tommy can safely say he found a new home in Ellicott Hall. 

- 1 June, 2015 - Elliot Frank

Gemstone takes University Awards

The Gemstone program performed very well at the University of Maryland 34th annual awards program. In addition to many inductees to ODK, 7 different Gemstone scholars were recognized for their outstanding performance and involvement at UMD. Congratulations to all of the winners!

Omicron Delta Kappa
Omicron Delta Kappa is an honor society at UMD which seeks to recognize students who exemplify the best of our university through their scholarly and extracurricular activities. Gemstone had 8 inductees this past academic year.
Fall 2014 Inductees:
Winston Liu
Sree Sinha
Julia Wainger

Spring 2015 Inductees:
Emily Cheung
Eileen Ser
Zachary Siegel
Leah Sukri
Christina Winkler

Omicron Delta Kappa Top Ten Freshman
These ten freshman are recognized for their great “achievement in leadership and campus involvement” in the short time they have attended UMD.

Recipient: Elliot Frank, Journalism Co-chair for GSC

Maryland Images Volunteer of the Year Award
This honor is given to one student who has given exceptional amounts of time and effort as a tour guide to help prospective students choose UMD.

Recipient: Christina Winkler

Outstanding Chapter President of the Year Award
This award is given by the Omega Greek Leadership Honor Society to a fraternity or sorority chapter president who exemplifies leadership and the Greek Life community.

Recipient: Kara Higgins

Resident Assistant of the Year Award
These award winners are recognized for their outstanding service as resident assistants in their communities. They serve as role models for their peers and foster community development.

Recipient: Benjamin Borchers

Members of the Maryland Medallion Society and Byrd/Elkins Finalists Recipients:
Winston Liu, Michael Sikorski, Sree Sinha

Wilson H. Elkins Award
This honor recognizes a graduating senior who is extremely involved in campus activities and who has helped make significant strides in student affairs. This award was made in memory of Wilson H. Elkins, who was the president of UMD from 1954 to 1978.

Recipient: Sree Sinha

Precious Gem: Tori Queeney

Hello from the Netherlands! Or as they say here, hoi-hoi! I’m currently spending the semester in Maastricht, a small city in the southernmost province of the Netherlands. I originally was going to study in Amsterdam, but Dr. Coale and Dr. Skendall were really interested in a program here in Maastricht and how it could be adapted for the Gemstone curriculum, so I did a little research and found myself volunteering to be the first UMD student to study here! I liked the program here because of the four-week “project period” at the end of the semester. The project that the Gemstone staff was interested in is called Think Tank, where teams of students (sound familiar?) work together to solve problems posed to them by real-world companies and institutions. I’m the first UMD student to come to Maastricht, but we’re hosting a UCM student in the fall and hope to have more Gemstone students study abroad here in the future. Of course, I’m still working with my Gemstone team while I’m here – I mostly do editing for grant proposals and other writing things. I love being able to stay involved – my team, CATTAILS, recently won the library award and I’m so proud!

Gemstone Top Terps

The third annual Gemstone Top Terps Awards Reception was held this past Monday evening in McKeldin Library. We're incredibly proud of these students for all their hard work that they've put in so far with the Program. If you haven't heard already, here are the winners:

Class of 2018
Rookie of the Year Award: Elliot Frank

Class of 2017
Most Valuable Team Member Award: Adam Berger, Team VESSEL
Mentor of Year Award: Dr. Susan Dwyer, Team MORALS
Librarian of the Year Award: Jeremy Garritano

Class of 2016
Most Valuable Team Member Award: Isha Agarwal, Team SAVIOR
Mentor of the Year Award: Dr. Zhengguo Xiao, Team BASIC
Librarian of the Year Award: Eileen Harrington
Outstanding Junior Colloquia Presentation Award: Team BASIC
Outstanding Junior Poster Award: Team Haptic

Non-Cohort Specific
Gems Camp Leader of the Year Award: Eileen Ser
Outstanding CONNECT Mentor Award: Tracy Sebastian
Outstanding Section Leader Award: Kara Higgins
GSC Presidential Award: Nikki Wolfrey and Ben Borchers


Congratulations to our Top Terps! Be sure to join us at Citation Ceremony - May 20th, 7:00pm at the Memorial Chapel - to celebrate our seniors! The Class of 2015 awards will also be announced at that time - hope to see you there!

Freshman Perspective: Senior Thesis Conference

As a freshman, I was placed on a Gemstone team only two weeks ago, although all of freshman year seems to be the process of getting us acclimated to research. This process happens when we make mock project sheets in GEMS100, do research with our 104 section, and attend Junior Colloquia. And it works: I remember watching the Junior teams and imagine myself presenting on the stage. When I went to Thesis Conference, I expected it to be another step in this process of learning about research.

And there was a lot to learn. I was fortunate to sit in on Team CLOT and Team NAVIGATE’s presentations, both teams who developed promising products and communicated their results effectively. I learned a lot in those presentations by watching the teams explain their methodologies, break down difficult concepts for an audience, and answer tough questions. I also got a piece of advice for presenting from talking to Dr. Coale: “slow down."

But I don’t think Thesis Conference is about research per se, but Gemstone as a whole. When I walked into Riggs Alumni Center, I was instantly greeted by tables that had sign-ins and programs for mentors, discussants, GEMS102 students, alumni, friends, and family members. I realized that this was as much a celebration of the work each senior team had done as it was a chance for them to show off to the audience. The research that each team produced is impressive, but just as important are all the people that contributed to make it possible. And I think Dr. Coale’s advice is just as valid for us freshman: slow down, and enjoy the rest of your time here until it’s you on stage, presenting at Thesis Conference.



-27 April 2015, Elliot Frank