DePauw Stories

For 22 days in January, DePauw students, staff and faculty members explored new interests and expanded their horizons together. Here's a look back at the month in pictures.

Better Cooking through Science

Chemistry professor Jeff Hansen '86 has been introducing students to new recipes and cooking lessons during winter term since he first introduced “Sweet and Savory Science” in 2003.

Why teach a class on cooking? “Well, because I like cooking, and obviously I like chemistry,” Hansen said. “I think the two are a very good match. I've long felt that understanding the chemistry that's going on when you cook will help you have better results. Read more…

Collaborating on Code

Undergraduate research happens year-round at DePauw, and those projects have a tendency to spin off into new opportunities. Physics student Dong Bi Li ‘22 had decided he needed to learn a programming language for graduate school just as Physics professor Jacob Hale realized he needed a way to analyze the data he was collecting. The two worked together during the month to hone their Python programming skills while creating a tutorial for future students (or faculty members) who decide to follow in their footsteps.

Field Trip

While many of the traditional off-campus trips were put on hold due to travel restrictions, students still managed to do some exploring. Geoscience professors Tim Cope and Ken Brown led a three-week field expedition to the Mojave Desert to map and study the geologic development of western North America. In a discipline where one can never see too many rocks, the Mojave trip presented DePauw students with 1.08 billion years worth of learning opportunities.

Trial Basis

In Preparing for Law School and Legal Careers, students received a month-long glimpse into life as a first-year law student. Led by Nicole Burts ’13, who serves as a recruiter for Indiana University’s McKinney School of Law, students had a chance take part in a mock class taught by Frank Sullivan, a former 19-year associate justice of the Indiana Supreme Court.

Rebecca Parsons ’23, an English literature major on the pre-law track at DePauw, said she appreciated the classroom experience — even if it was a little intimidating to get called on at first. “It was nerve-wracking to get put on the spot, but it was cool to see how the critical thinking skills from DePauw really step in quickly.” Read more… 

Roynovation

DePauw’s Roy O. West Library is in the middle of a $30 million renovation project scheduled to conclude in November 2022. The final result will bring new technology, more light, better study spaces, and yes, a larger Cafe Roy to the beloved library. For friends of Roy, here’s a quick glimpse into our work-in-progress. Read more…

Reel Scary

Why do we love what scares us? What can horror tell us about the changing tensions of a society? This course spent much of January inside a darkened cinema, screening a century’s worth of horror films in search of answers.

Unlike watching Netflix on a laptop in bed, English professor Nicole Lobdell said that watching horror films as they were intended to be viewed brings new meaning to the experience. “Students said to me, ‘We’ve seen Psycho, but we’ve never seen it on a big screen, together.’ And I said, yes, part of this is watching a film as a group, as a community, and then thinking together about the big themes that run through it.”

Don't Stress

In Science of Stress, psychology professors Christina Wagner and Susanne Biehle teamed up for a course to help students not just survive, but thrive at DePauw. Students came away from the experience with tools to better understand and manage their own stress, while the two professors had a chance to explore new strategies that will ultimately benefit the entire campus.

“We want to provide the DePauw community with simple strategies for managing student stress,” Biehle says. “We call them micro-interventions, or things you can use in your class or group that don’t require days of training. Giving psychology away is how I think of it.”

Getting in the Game

Students created their own 3D games in a new course led by Mike Boyles, director of DePauw’s Tenzer Technology Center. Working with Unity, a cross-platform development tool used widely in the games industry, the class received a broad introduction to the life cycle of 3D game development.

“Game development is a huge area with many different roles,” Boyles said. “Technical students can go into programming, and non-technical students have plenty to do in areas like design, animation or marketing on the business side of things. It’s a perfect fit for the liberal arts in our opinion.” Read more...

Taking Control

Have you ever asked yourself: ‘Who am I, and what do I want to do with my life?’ If you have, you’re not alone. In fact, Erin Mahoney, director of career development, advising and internships at DePauw, developed a course to help students answer those questions. 

This winter term, she and Nick Minich, assistant director of career development, focused on five steps to becoming your own career expert. Their course took a multi-faceted approach toward the career exploration process, offering students opportunities to engage in individual assessments, conduct speed interviews, and network with alumni and other experts in their future fields.