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“Got milk?” For a group of Hamilton student researchers, the well-known slogan might be modified to “Got calcium?” The most abundant metal in our bodies and a valuable component of milk, calcium serves functions well beyond building strong teeth and bones. Hamilton research students, working with Douglas Weldon, the Stone Professor of Psychology, are examining how our mental processes depend on calcium.  The compound performs lesser known, but essential, roles in blood clotting, chemical signaling and action potential firing.

When Deanna Perez ’14 looks at a bookshelf, she doesn’t just see a row of book spines. Instead, she sees unwinding possibilities that can be unlocked both through reading and through art. “There’s endless potential in what could be between the leaves of a binding,” she remarked. In her Emerson Foundation project, “The Life of a Book: From the Bindery to the Pedestal,” she is crafting sculptures out of books to explore their narratives and to examine the balance between destroying books and giving them a new life through art.

Deanna Nappi ’15 was awarded the Antarctica Service Medal by the National Science Foundation. Nappi served aboard the L.M. Gould in October 2012 during a challenging expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula.

Utica's Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School, now with a crumbling brick exterior and overgrown foliage, stands in stark contrast to the educational institution it once was.  In their Levitt Group project titled “BRICKS: An Intersection of Architecture and Community,” three students are investigating the relationship between the city’s physical identity and its surrounding community.

This summer Emma Zanazzi ’15, a women’s studies major, is getting involved in some of the issues most important to her. Through funding from the Kirkland Endowment, she is interning with the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, a non-profit organization that works to endorse female candidates in political campaigns and elections.

Studying in India for the fall 2012 semester, Anderson Tuggle ’14 couldn’t have anticipated that the research in which he was engaged would have such relevance months later. Tuggle, who studied India’s Mid-day Meal program and the role of parents, teachers, and local institutions in providing meals, referenced this research in a New York Times letter to the editor.  Published on July 20, the letter was in response to the reported deaths of 22 children in India after they ate contaminated lunches.

The economic crisis that began in 2007 triggered a sense of financial insecurity among big and small institutions as well as individual investors.  The housing bubble, subprime lending and deregulation were all thought to contribute to market instability.  Ru Jun Han ’14 believes another, more technological, component was also responsible.

No one could doubt that James Anesta ’14 is dedicated to theater. In addition to appearing in a number of productions over his time at Hamilton, he took the time last summer to write his own play, “Hell the Musical,” which he will also direct. He's using an Emerson Foundation grant this summer to gain some scope as director. In his project, “Portrayals of the Afterlife in Popular Culture,” he is exploring different artistic representations of heaven and hell.

Some Americans misunderstand the role of lobbying and its contribution to the political process.  The practice benefits advocacy groups, large and small, that want to inform and to have their opinions heard by government representatives. Nick Solano ’14 is working for Williams & Jensen PLLC, a government affairs law firm in Washington, D.C, and learning about that firm’s lobbying efforts.

This summer, through an Emerson Foundation Grant, Sarah Sgro ’14 is studying writing that, in her words, “confronts the realities of family and romantic life through a grotesque lens.” In her project, “Family Gone Bizarre: The Domestic Grotesque in Contemporary Fiction and Poetry,” Sgro is exploring how authors approach themes of domestic life in dark and bizarre ways. She’ll then be examining those themes in her own writing.