Clark University

Belonging is a nuanced emotional need that's top-of-mind for college students as they transition from high school to college and from college to whatever comes after graduation. In her ongoing series of paintings and community service projects titled "The Embrace Project," studio art/marketing major Wynne Dromey '25, MBA '26, explores what it truly means to belong.

Every fall, students in Professor Kristina Wilson's Art, the Public, and Worcester's Cultural Institutions course get a taste of what may be ahead for them if they seek marketing or museum careers. The class offers a departure from more traditional course offerings by giving students the opportunity to produce episodes for the podcast "WAMxUniversity," which focuses on the works inside the Worcester Art Museum.

Clark University junior makes a statement with game design

Every Wednesday afternoon, Red Square bustles with the activity of the Clark Collective pop-up market. Created to support student entrepreneurs and encourage innovation, the Collective provides a space where students can promote their business ventures, whether products or services. A common thread among sellers is a desire to uplift fellow Clarkies, from selling nourishing food to making wares aimed at helping their peers express themselves.

The Fall Game Expo hosted by Clark's chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) was created to help students meet developers and build community. The IGDA sets up expo booths in a way that emulates the popular PAX East gaming convention and encourages students and developers to chat with one another.

Jennifer Krulisz-Hossain '25, MPA '26, and Temera De Groot '25 have created opportunities on campus for first-generation students like themselves to gather for social and academic fellowship and support.

Clark's Gustaf H. Carlson School of Chemistry and Biochemistry celebrated the launch on Oct. 30 of a new research laboratory filled with equipment that will greatly expand the capacity of students to prepare for jobs.

Zayda Waters '25 and Ellie Hanson '25, MAT '26, are focused on improving education systems for future students - while they're still students themselves.

The short film "Cabin Boy," a meditation on male isolation, paranoia, and the demons is written and directed by Zeke Fairley '25 as his senior thesis, the film is set to begin production next month to be ready for a screening next May.

When psychology major Danny Fredette '26 first learned of clinical psychology doctoral student Aimee Chan's research project on Asian-American adoptees and their therapeutic experiences, he felt an immediate connection. "This project was very salient to me, and the rest of the student researchers in the group, because we relate to it identity-wise," says Fredette, who is an Asian American adoptee himself and is one of several students on Chan's research team.

While conducting geographic information science (GIS) research in Goiania, Brazil, geography major Rowan Compton '25, M.S./GIS '26, stumbled upon a conflict between local "keepers of the pastures" - or []

Attending Clark University's Sophomore Summit was a pivotal experience in shaping my career vision. Having spent my first year at Clark undecided and anxious about choosing my major, I jumped at the opportunity to attend a curated networking event that could help me envision a way forward. The summit, designed to equip sophomore students with networking skills and a clearer understanding of potential career paths, offered a mixture of self-discovery and practical advice.

Angel Rojas '25, Aidan Hilaire '26, Zeke Fairley '25, and Abby Rhodes '24 spent their summer recording in and around Mexico City, supported by a $10,000 Projects for Peace award. Their film aims to uplift the voices of communities most impacted by climate change and water scarcity and runs as a journalistic project in parallel with a $1.5 million multidisciplinary climate change research study funded by the National Science Foundation and led by Tim Downs, professor in the Department of Sustainability and Social Justice (SSJ) and the study's principal investigator.

Farmers have acres of fields to look after, and it can be hard to spot an insect infestation before crops endure significant damage. What if a robot could help? That's a question computer science Professor Gary Holness and students are tackling in Clark's robotics lab, the Laboratory for Intelligent Perceptual Systems.

Eleven Clark undergraduate students spent this summer in Greece, researching the history of forced migration and settlement through the lens of food and culture. Their work was part of Clark's newly developed study abroad course, People-on-the-Move Research Studio: Food, Migration, and Belonging in Thessaloniki, funded in part by the Leir Program.

Working in the laboratory of Arshad Kudrolli, professor and chair of the Physics Department, the Ph.D. candidate conducts experiments detailing how California blackworms (Lumbriculus variegatus) move through water-filled spaces of various shapes and strictures. Student researcher Simon Bissitt '26 describes the worms he and Kapadia observe wriggling inside various containers as "inspiration models" for those future robots.

Meridian Stiller '26 worked at the nonprofit Sanctuary One Care Farm, which helps people struggling with health issues heal by participating in farm activities and provides a home to animals in need of rescuing or rehabilitation.

Abbie Hart '25 spent the summer working at the Worcester Art Museum.

Ashley Valois '25, Clark's Undergraduate Student Council president and a political science major, welcomed hundreds of new Clarkies to campus. "You aren't alone," Valois, of Waipahu, Hawaii, said. "At Clark, there is a village of people rooting for you, professors and friends you don't even know yet."

For 76 Clarkies, summer was spent in the lab peering into microscopes, analyzing data, studying dung beetles, or mating fruit flies in the STEM Summer Undergraduate Research Program.

Through a unique partnership with Worcester, 75 new trees have been planted in the Main South neighborhood to add natural beauty to the area and contribute to a healthier, and cooler, environment for residents.

Will Smith '25, M.S. '26, is working on a summer research project in his hometown of Concord, New Hampshire, studying the effects of lupine flowers on the egg-laying behavior and overall performance of the frosted elfin butterfly, an endangered species.

Clark University announces students named to the Spring 2024 Dean's List.

Clark University awarded 1,376 degrees (503 bachelor's, 847 master's, 26 doctoral degrees) and conferred four honorary degrees at the University's 120th Commencement ceremonies held at the DCU Center in downtown Worcester, on Monday, May 20. The graduates included 653 international students representing 39 countries.

Noah Katz '26 needs no thesaurus when asked to describe what it was like to walk onto the field at Fenway Park and umpire a game in front of a sellout crowd of 37,000 raucous fans. He easily comes up with a host of adjectives, "incredible," "cool," and "surreal" among them.

Progress on the gender-neutral bathroom initiative, curricula that teach cross-cultural skills, and allyship and advocacy have earned members of the Clark community recognition.

Clark University awarded 1,376 degrees to the Class of 2024.

Natasha Rivas '24 deepened her skills even further during a semester abroad in Osaka, Japan, funded through a prestigious Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship.

Recipients of the 2024 President's Achievement Awards for Inclusive Excellence are Oliver McCormick '24, Amy Daly Gardner, MSPC '05, the Department of Language, Literature, and Culture, and Women's and Gender Studies. Abbie Goldberg, professor of psychology and the director of Women's and Gender Studies, received the Distinguished Inclusive Excellence Award, as did McCormick.

Dillon Remuck '25, a computer science and interactive media major, is a researcher at the University's Strategic Analytics and Institutional Research office (STAIR).