STUDENT SUCCESS

Simon Nguy explored the world of investing at U of I through the Davis Investment Group. The program allows a team of students to manage a portfolio of $900,000 in long-term investments, providing hands-on experience in the finance world. Nguy interned at Mountain West Bank in Coeur d’Alene and he plans on a career in finance.

As a 2021 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow, senior Grace Meyer worked alongside U of I Professor Omi Hodwitz on the Guantanamo Recidivism Study and the Terrorist Recidivism Study, collecting demographics on people accused of terrorism who were held in military detention at Guantanamo Bay, and those convicted of terrorism in the U.S. court system. She helped compile data with the goal of answering a question: Which system is more effective at preventing recidivism? Were people held in one system more likely to commit another crime after being released than those held in the other?

Senior Keera Paull spent last summer extracting and sequencing bacteriophage and bacterial DNA from honeybee samples collected in the Pacific Northwest. Her goal is to help protect bees from American foulbrood, a fatal honeybee disease caused by bacteria that kill bee larvae. Paull, who earned the Beverly Flowers Memorial Scholarship, helped researchers understand how microbes in a honeybee’s environment contribute to bee health.