November 17, 2024

EagleEye

A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff

Lessons in the Sciences: Mary Washington Alumnae Advance STEM Careers

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A young woman leaves New York to earn a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at a small Virginia women’s college in the 1950s. After graduate school, she becomes a revered electron microscopist – but not without the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated field. Consequently, she spends her life helping female students at her […]

Students Wild for Smithsonian Endangered Species Program

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Liliana Ramirez and Madelyn “Maddie” Lichter know that residence hall life can be a bit like living in a zoo. So these University of Mary Washington students felt prepared for all the wildlife sounds and smells they’ve experienced over the last several months. Both pursuing UMW’s new conservation biology major, Ramirez and Lichter are pioneer […]

Blood Relative’s Injury Spurred Red Cross Club President

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Senior Cindy Ramirez plans to pursue a career in internal medicine, but the Mary Washington biology major is already putting her studies to work as an EMT and president of UMW’s Red Cross club.

Senior Cindy Ramirez plans to pursue a career in internal medicine, but the Mary Washington biology major is already putting her studies to work as an EMT and president of UMW’s Red Cross club.

Cindy Ramirez was 8 years old when her sister was injured in a sledding accident that broke her sacrum, a pelvic bone that supports the weight of the upper body.

“I was really nervous, but all I could think about in that moment was how I could help her,” said Ramirez, now a senior at the University of Mary Washington. “That was when I realized I wanted to pursue a career in medicine.”

This future physician is on her way to earning her white coat and stethoscope. An honors student majoring in biology, Ramirez has spent countless days and pulled all-nighters in the Jepson Science Center, memorizing organs, muscles and bones – like the one her sister broke – which will be essential when she attends medical school.

But Ramirez is already applying this critical knowledge. Her four-month training as an EMT wraps up in January, which happens to be National Blood Donor Month. Between rides with the Fredericksburg Rescue Squad, she heads UMW’s Red Cross club, an organization she’s been involved with since her early days at Mary Washington. Read more.

Ranking Highlights UMW’s Commitment to Sustainability

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The University of Mary Washington has earned a spot on a list of the nation’s most environmentally conscious schools. The ranking appears in the 2021 edition of The Princeton Review’s Guide to Green Colleges, which profiled 416 U.S. schools demonstrating a commitment to sustainability, based on student academic offerings and career preparation, as well as […]

Summer Science Symposium Showcases Student Research

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Temperatures soared yesterday, but Allison Grant was cool and calm as she explained how climate change has disproportionately affected low income neighborhoods that are impacted to a greater degree by heat. “Redlining was outlawed over 50 years ago,” said the UMW senior, citing the discriminatory lending practice that prevented minorities from purchasing homes. “Yet it […]

Wild Encounters Prepared Alumna for Zoo Job

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Cage diving with great white sharks. Swimming alongside humpback whales. Getting close to lions and leopards on an African safari. It sounds like a nature TV show, but it’s not. It’s how Nikki Maticic ’14 spent one summer break as a Mary Washington student. Now she cares for lions, tigers and Andean bears – oh, […]

Wild Encounters Prepared Alumna for Zoo Job

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Nikki Maticic ’14 earned her stripes – and a UMW biology degree – after impactful study abroad trips to South Africa and the Galápagos Islands. She’s now an animal keeper at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Photo courtesy of Nikki Maticic.

Nikki Maticic ’14 earned her stripes – and a UMW biology degree – after impactful study abroad trips to South Africa and the Galápagos Islands. She’s now an animal keeper at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Photo courtesy of Nikki Maticic.

Cage diving with great white sharks. Swimming alongside humpback whales. Getting close to lions and leopards on an African safari.

It sounds like a nature TV show, but it’s not. It’s how Nikki Maticic ’14 spent one summer break as a Mary Washington student.

Now she cares for lions, tigers and Andean bears – oh, my! – as well as farm animals at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Her dream job as an animal keeper became a reality thanks to a UMW biology degree and study abroad trips to South Africa and the Galápagos Islands. Read more.

In celebration of International Education Week 2019, Nov. 18 to 22, UMW shares stories of students who have studied abroad. One in three Mary Washington students volunteers, interns, conducts research, or joins a faculty-led trip or other UMW-approved experience outside the United States, according to Center for International Education (CIE) Director Jose Sainz. Visit CIE or call (540) 654-1434 for more information.

Nikki Maticic swam with giant tortoises during her study abroad trip to the Galápagos Islands. Photo by Nikki Maticic.

Nikki Maticic swam with giant tortoises during her study abroad trip to the Galápagos Islands. Photo by Nikki Maticic.

Smithsonian Partnership Lets Students Explore Endangered Species

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Imagine getting up close and personal with the world’s most endangered species – and then having the chance to save them. Thanks to a partnership with the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation (SMSC), Mary Washington students will soon have that experience. They’ll spend a semester working directly with these animals and learning from Smithsonian scientists and […]

Smithsonian Partnership Lets Students Explore Endangered Species

by

Imagine getting up close and personal with the world’s most endangered species – and then having the chance to save them. Thanks to a partnership with the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation (SMSC), Mary Washington students will soon have that experience. They’ll spend a semester working directly with these animals and learning from Smithsonian scientists and […]