Two Colgate Students Lead Projects for Peace Abroad tmfonda@colgate.edu Thu, 07/31/2025 - 10:23 This summer, Colgate students Harshitha Talasila ’26 and Kajol Luplunge ’28 have been selected as two of 125 recipients of Projects for Peace grants. Accepted from a pool of applicants at partner institutions across the globe, their projects address issues of substance abuse, mental health, and women’s health internationally. To date, there have been more than 2,000 Projects for Peace in over 150 countries — Talasila and Luplunge’s initiatives now join the list. Harshitha Talasila ’26 On July 1, Talasila arrived in Vijayawada, India — the site of her Projects for Peace fellowship and, more personally, her birthplace. “I immigrated from India to the States when I was five,” she explains, “and wanted to give back.” Her project partners with a nonprofit, Young Indians, and centers around the subjects of mental health and drug abuse. An environmental studies and peace and conflict studies double-major, Talasila developed the idea for her project by consulting family members in Vijayawada. She asked, “What is a really pressing issue here?” and became aware of rising drug-abuse cases and a lack of dialogue about mental health, especially in the school system. “In India, these topics are often stigmatized,” she says. “This can lead to a lack of support for individuals, with broader long-standing impacts on a community.” In preparation for her project, Talasila consulted Shaw Wellness Dietitian Allison Bowers and Alcohol and Drug Services Counselor Stephen Elfenbein. Additionally, she spoke to her former advisers with the Dutchess County Youth Council of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to source public speakers. In association with Young Indians (Yi), each session of her program takes place at a local University or school. There, Talasila and other speakers share information about various drugs, abuse, and associated mental health concerns. “When the project originally started, we weren’t sure if we would get a really strong response,” shares Talasila. “But the minimum class size we’ve had is 150 students.” Following their presentation, Talasila hosts a Q&A with program participants and circulates feedback forms. “A lot of the feedback has been, ‘Hey, no one’s ever talked to us about this,’” she says. “And by the end, I feel like a good majority of our participants walk out knowing more about the topic.” For Talasila, though, the project is about more than education: it’s a step toward long-term change. “We must start at the individual and local community levels to build peace,” she argues. “Peace isn’t just about the absence of conflict — it’s about creating the foundation where communities are able to thrive and support one another.” Kajol Luplunge ’28 In partnership with peers at Clark University and volunteers at Diyo South Asia, an NGO she co-founded with peers in high school, Luplunge’s Project for Peace is based in Sankhuwasabha, Nepal. There, her project is working to address both practical and societal challenges Nepalese women face during their menstrual cycle. “In Nepal, menstruation is often treated as a taboo rather than a physiological process,” explains Luplunge, who co-founded Diyo South Asia to address such concerns. “Some girls don’t make it through school because they don’t have access to proper facilities, leading to higher rates of child marriage and other long-term consequences.” A major directive of Luplunge’s project is to build clean, well-lit, and hygienic bathrooms with proper disposal facilities in two government schools in Sankhuwasabha. By doing so, she and volunteers aim to provide girls with the safety and privacy needed to stay in school during their periods. “We’re also teaching 57 women how to make reusable pads, so they can improve access and share this information with their communities,” she adds.   A third phase of Luplunge’s project is reproductive education. “Menstruation shouldn’t be a secret,” she says. By hosting workshops for 400 boys and 500 girls, she aims to spread awareness “not just about biology, but about discussing these topics sensitively and openly.” As Luplunge completes a neuroscience research project in Hamilton, she is continuing to write articles, draft interview questions for local women, and prep slides for the project.  “Helping others has always been part of how I grew up,” she says. “This project is specific to the summer, but we’re planning more.” The Projects for Peace program was founded in 2007 with a $1 million investment from Kathryn Wasserman Davis, a philanthropist and longtime advocate for international peacebuilding. Interested Colgate students can apply through the University’s Office of National Fellowships and Scholarships.   News and Updates Student Harshitha Talasila leads a workshop on mental health and drug abuse at Velagapudi Ramakrishna Siddhartha Engineering College in Vijayawada, India.

Meredith Shapiro ’28 Studies Climate Signals Through Clam Shells tmfonda@colgate.edu Tue, 07/29/2025 - 08:39 Meredith Shapiro ’28 intends to major in environmental geology, so she’s getting a jump-start on fieldwork experience this summer, completing a research project with Professor of Earth and Environmental Geosciences Paul Harnik and Professor of Physics Rebecca Metzler. As part of a team of student researchers, Shapiro is examining how climate change and algal blooms impact marine life in coastal regions — through the eyes of a specific mollusc species. Within the collaborative project, Shapiro belongs to the Nucula team, examining the Atlantic nut clam (Nucula proxima). Other teams, such as the barnacle team and the bryozoa team, research separate organisms with a similar objective: to discern how climate change impacts trait variation. By considering one species, Shapiro has garnered a detailed understanding of the Atlantic nut clam’s structure. “The clams themselves,” she explains, “are composed of three layers: nacre [also known as mother of pearl], a prismatic layer, and a thin skin-like external layer.” Shapiro’s primary research focus is the nacreous layer, made up of tablets that are each only microns in size. “The size of these tablets has been found to correlate with environmental factors such as pH and temperature in the regions where these shells were formed,” Shapiro says. Such regions, including the Gulf of Mexico and coastal areas along Maine, are monitored by state and federal agencies to support ecosystem health. In the sixth week of her project, Shapiro and her peers met with one of these groups — the Maine Department of Marine Resources — for an immersive research excursion. “We had two days of active fieldwork there, touring nearby labs and collecting samples on a boat,” says Shapiro. On the water, “we dropped a big scientific claw machine down to the bottom of the sea floor to grab sediment, sieving it to remove any excess.” While many of the specimens they gathered were left for the benefit of Maine’s Department of Marine Resources, they brought home samples to analyze and compare to materials gathered by Colgate students in past years, sourced primarily from the Gulf of Mexico. From here, Shapiro and peers will continue to analyze samples from coastal Maine and Mexico to draw greater observations about the Atlantic nut clam species and assess their hypothesis: whether the nacreous layer becomes thicker as coastal waters get warmer. “I am proud to be doing this research,” says Shapiro. “We hope that, from it, we can better understand the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems.”    Academics Natural Sciences and Mathematics Research News and Updates Student Department of Earth & Environmental Geosciences Meredith Shapiro ’28

TIA Venture Introduces Model to Automate Vanilla Farming Contributing Writer Tue, 07/15/2025 - 11:32 “Vanilla is everywhere,” says Jahanvi Chamria ’28. “It’s there in chocolate, perfumes, and almost every dessert in some quantity.” So when she and Diya Badola ’25 launched a TIA venture focused on hydroponic farming — a method of growing plants in a water-based nutrient solution without soil — they chose to center their efforts on vanilla: a valued, notoriously delicate crop. Their venture, Shneer Agritech, introduces a fully automated hydroponic system designed to to halve production time and significantly reduce labor costs. Based in Jaipur, India, Shneer Agritech operates on a small plot of land where Chamria and Badola are testing their technologies. A computer science and physics major, Chamria credits “Colgate’s focus on a well-rounded education” for strengthening her ability to “conduct research and grasp new scientific concepts.” For the venture, she has programmed a system of sensors and alarms to water and deliver nutrients to the crop, eliminating the need for human oversight. “With this system, no person has to physically check if everything’s okay,” she explains. “The system just takes care of itself, and it fully automates labor costs.” When pH and carbon dioxide levels fall below a certain threshold, the sensors activate, triggering the delivery of water or nutrients through a network of tubes. Though the crop grows without soil, it is supported by a porous aggregate — in this instance, lava rocks — which allow for proper drainage. The method, Chamria and Badola report, uses “roughly 80% less water than traditional vanilla farming.” “Vanilla is one of the world’s most valuable spices, yet traditional farming is inefficient, costly, and environmentally unstable,” adds Chamria. “Our smart irrigation system ensures precisely timed nutrient dosing, while a built-in filtration unit preserves water purity and reduces waste.” Chamria and Badola’s first batch, harvested this year, consisted of about 16 plants grown in 1.5 years — half the time needed for traditional cultivation. Their larger mission further addresses volatility and exploitation in the global vanilla trade, particularly in Madagascar, where the bulk of the world’s vanilla is produced. “With rising global demand and increasing preference for ethically sourced, premium ingredients, we’re aiming to provide food manufacturers, importers, and fragrance companies with a reliable, high-quality vanilla supply,” says Chamria. In the coming months, the venture will continue to take shape as the team participates in the TIA Summer Accelerator, an eight-week program designed to help students and recent alumni build their ideas into businesses. “We were able to grow one batch, and it turned out pretty well. Now, through TIA, we’re looking at a larger setup,” says Chamria. “Of course, we have a robust, working idea — I’m confident that our TIA mentors will continue to help us transform it into a sustainable business.”   Entrepreneurship News and Updates Student tia

Counseling and Student Health Services Launch Unified Health Records System tmfonda@colgate.edu Thu, 07/03/2025 - 15:06 A new, unified electronic health records (EHR) system now allows consenting students to receive coordinated care across Colgate’s Health and Wellness (H&W) services. The development is made in an effort to reaffirm the University’s commitment to whole-person health and data security. Spearheaded by Assistant Vice President for Wellness and Director of Counseling and Psychological Services Dawn LaFrance and her H&W colleagues, the new system enables shared HIPAA-compliant communications and access to comprehensive student records. LaFrance praises the EHR as “a way to approach the healthcare that we provide students in a more holistic way.” Headaches, for example, might be a concern that Student Health Services would help with, “but they may also be stress-related,” says LaFrance. “In order to really be thoughtful about the mind and body working so closely together, an integrated system helps us put all of those pieces in place.” To opt in, students arriving in the fall semester must consent to share healthcare communications across their care team, which may include staff from the Counseling Center, Haven, the Shaw Wellness Institute, and Student Health Services. “Students should know that this system does not involve the dean’s office or the faculty — it’s just these four departments,” says LaFrance. Along with the use of this new system, LaFrance adds, “we’re holding more staff meetings to promote shared wellness across departments. The more that we can do those kinds of things, the more that we’ll be able to use each other’s expertise when we’re helping a student.”   Campus Life Wellness Faculty & Staff

Colgate in the Media: June 2025 kputman@colgate.edu Tue, 07/01/2025 - 14:56 Colgate University faculty, staff, and alumni regularly provide their expertise and contribute to national and regional media outlets, shaping discussions around vital research and current events.  Colgate Receives $50M Gift for Its Third Century Campaign Inside Higher Ed Five Alumni Give Colgate University A Record $105 Million Forbes Colgate U. Lands $105 Million for Student Housing Campus The Chronicle of Philanthropy 3 Colgate projects: How do they affect the university and the Village of Hamilton? Observer-Dispatch Is the Trump administration helping ‘viewpoint diversity’ on campus? The academy has something to say Deseret News, President Brian W. Casey Sending Good Vibes Harper’s Bazaar, Artist Devon Cunningham Former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner on her new book, 'Madam Mayor' Spectrum News 1, Charles Evans Hughes Visiting Chair of Government and Jurisprudence in the Department of Political Science Stephanie Miner This College Student Wanted Privacy - His College Couldn't Give Him Any Hackernoon, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Noah Apthorpe Gotham EDU Film And Media Career Development Program Sets 2025 Cohort Deadline, Isabella Ohrt ’25, Brittany Cohen ’26, Grace Owusu-Amoah ’26, and Shuhei Matsutoya ’28 New York Sirens select Kristýna Kaltounková with No. 1 pick in 2025 PWHL Draft The Athletic, Kristyna Kaltounkova ’25 Antonio Delgado is running for New York governor, challenging Kathy Hochul Gothamist, Antonio Delgado ’99 US president Donald Trump officially nominates new ambassador to Romania Romania-Insider.com, Darryl Nirenberg ’81 Faculty News Alumni News and Updates Alumni Faculty & Staff

Jennifer Brice to Serve as Gretchen Hoadley Burke ’81 Endowed Chair in Regional Studies for 2025–26 sdevries@colgate.edu Thu, 06/26/2025 - 14:47 Professor of English and Creative Writing Jennifer Brice has been appointed to serve as the Gretchen Hoadley Burke ’81 Endowed Chair for regional studies for the 2025–26 academic year. Brice is the author of three books: The Last Settlers, a work of documentary journalism; Unlearning to Fly, a memoir-in-essays; and Another North: Essays in Praise of the World That Is. She teaches courses in creative writing and contemporary literature, including True Crime and Living Writers. This fall, Brice will teach ENGL 374: Creative Nonfiction Workshop, with a focus on writing about place and the natural world, especially in relation to the upstate region of New York. The workshop will include the reading and writing of creative nonfiction, with an emphasis on the memoir and the personal essay. As part of the course, students will also present a community reading of their writing about the region. Robert Cowser’s anthology, Why We’re Here: New York Essayists on Living Upstate, will serve as a central text, along with a selection of writing from The Best American Science & Nature Writing series, as well as some classics of nature writing by such writers as H.D. Thoreau, Wendell Berry, Annie Dillard, John Burroughs, Terry Tempest Williams, John McPhee, and Sherry Simpson. In addition to readings and discussions, students will also journal weekly and conduct research to create essays of their own as part of a final portfolio of a single or several shorter essays. Brice plans to use the funding and support provided to the Burke Chair to create additional opportunities for the students taking the course, including inviting local experts and colleagues in the biology, geology, geography, and environmental studies departments to speak about the natural history of the region. The course will also include a weekend of hiking and canoeing at Camp Colgate in September with Brice’s students in ENGL 217: Introduction to Creative Writing. At the conclusion of the course, Brice said she plans to include a public reading by the students in downtown Hamilton and produce an anthology of the best student writing from the semester. The Gretchen Hoadley Burke ’81 Endowed Chair for Regional Studies was established in 2006 by Stephen Burke ’80 and Gretchen Hoadley Burke ’81. The Burke Chair aligns with the mission of the Upstate Institute to promote and advance a broad and deep understanding of the diverse cultural, social, economic, and environmental resources of upstate New York through community-based research, the reciprocal transfer of knowledge, and civic engagement.  Academics Arts and Humanities Faculty News Research Centers and Institutes People Faculty & Staff Upstate Institute Department of English and Creative Writing