Take Five Scholars
Program
Spring Reception
May 4 th , 2012
Honoring the Graduating Class of 2012
Take Five Scholars
Produced in the College Center for Academic Support,
Lattimore 312
University of Rochester
Welcome to the Take Five Scholars Program Reception. Thank you for your
interest in this unique program and for joining us to honor the 2012 graduating
class of Take Five Scholars!
Take Five Scholars are among the most interesting students on campus. By
definition, they have strong interests in two or more different and often disparate
fields. Each Take Five Scholar is granted additional time to explore an area of
intellectual interest outside their major. The self-designed course of study, focused
around one central theme or idea, introduces the student to the subject and sets the
stage for a lifetime of further learning.
Take Five Scholars embody the true spirit of a university. They are learning
for learning’s sake, not to impress an employer, or graduate program and not to
simply amass another credential. The decision to spend time and energy
voluntarily studying a new subject is not one that can be lightly made. For those
reasons and for many others, the University of Rochester is justifiably proud of its
Take Five Scholars.
We invite you to canvas the room and read about the projects undertaken by
these scholars. Each is as special, individual, and as worthwhile as the students
themselves. These unedited accounts, included in this booklet and written by the
Take Five scholars themselves, convey both their enthusiasm for and appreciation
of the program.
So read and envy them for their youth and vigor, their drive and curiosity,
and their promise and potential. If you are like anyone else associated with this
group of energetic students, you will be left wondering, “Why didn’t I study that in
college?”
If you are an undergraduate student interested in applying to the Take Five
Scholars Program, please visit the program website at:
http://www.rochester.edu/college/CCAS/TakeFive/,
or visit the Take Five Program administrator in 312 Lattimore Hall.
The Mental Health of Women in the Middle East
Naomi Ahsan
Major: Biological Sciences: Neuroscience
My Take Five program has sought to build an understanding of mental illness among
Middle Eastern women. Many medical issues can offer interesting comparisons of genders and
gender roles. Mental illness additionally has particular cultural contexts, and patterns can be
traced across individual life histories of those who live in the same region of the world. I
expected that I would find healthcare to be less institutionalized and less developed in most
Middle Eastern countries compared to the United States, making native attitudes and approaches
to health distinctly different from what is encountered in the West and perhaps influenced by
Islam. I considered an awareness of the history and political situations in the Middle East to be
essential for my studies. In the process of completing my Take Five program, I have built skills
in analysis of mental health as a public health issue.
To satisfy my learning objectives, I designed a curriculum of eight courses. Three of
these were undertaken during a semester abroad at the American University in Cairo, forming an
introduction to the culture and history of the Arab world as well as the methods of social science
research. At the University of Rochester, I have taken courses in public health, the history of
international and global health, civil war and the international system, and Islam in the Third
World. I am unifying these pieces of my curriculum with an independent study in my last
semester at the University of Rochester with the guidance of Professor Ted Brown.
As I have progressed through my project, I have investigated various examples of
successes and failures of public health policies. My goal for my independent study is to generate
my own ideas for policies addressing mental illness in Middle Eastern women.
Addressing School Reform by Examining the Psychology of Effective Teaching and
Student Motivation
Neha Ahuja
Major: Biological Sciences: Neuroscience
Reading over my Take 5 Proposal from almost two years ago, it is fascinating how
simplistic and objective my original question was. I proposed to study school reform by
examining effective teaching and student motivation. At the time, I believed these are the
building blocks of a valuable education. And although my course of study has explored and
addressed my question, the issue is more complex than I had ever imagined.
My freshman writing class, Reforming America’s Schools, introduced me to fundamental
issues in school reform. Should school standards be regulated at the district, state or federal
level? What are the consequences of standardized high-stakes test? What is the role of a school?
As Neuroscience major, with a strong interest in cognitive science and psychology, everything
came down to a science for me. I believed that students need to be intrinsically motivated and
school faculty need a thorough understanding of child and adolescent development to a create a
nurturing, learning environment. I also believed teachers need to employ cognitively sound
teaching methods. In other words, teachers need to understand how students learn, think, and
manipulate information.
Cognition and psychology are important fields in education and they certainly hold some
answers to what is going wrong in public schools today. However, reforming America’s schools
is an incredibly complex issue. Schools are tied down by standards at the district, state, and
federal level. Policies like No Child Left Behind seem great on paper, but have unintended
consequences like teaching to the test and increased drop out rates due to threats of retention.
Teachers who have tenure breed mediocrity. And the lowest performing schools are in povertystruck areas, where students lack a support network at home or sufficient access to healthcare.
This extra baggage is brought into the classroom. Even using motivational psychology and
cognition in education as tools for school reform requires rigorous, scientific research, which is
very expensive.
So although these and other topics complicate my original project, my course of study has given
me a thorough understanding of issues surrounding school reform and the tools to critically
analyze education today.
Popular Music and its Effects on American Culture
Justin Anderson
Major: Biological Sciences: Cell & Developmental Biology
The goal of my Take Five study was to have a better understanding of popular music in
an academic context and to discover how this music has had an impact on modern American
culture. In seeking this scholarship, I was determined to take a similar amount of both music and
cultural history courses in order to parallel the development of popular American music and
modern American culture. My interest in this study stemmed from my popular music cluster,
which I used to supplement my learning of popular music for the study. Thus, my study revolved
around the courses that inspected the history of popular music genres (Jazz, Blues, Rock, Heavy
Metal, Music of Black Americans, etc.) and the sub-culture of the fans surrounding these genres.
Unfortunately, much of my program has changed since I began the application process
for Take Five at the end of my junior year. Although I haven’t been able to take some of the
courses I had originally planned for, I believe I have fulfilled my programs goals through other
supplemental courses. I am now taking a newly offered course titled “Thinking About Music,”
which evaluates the effects of many different genres on the minds of various Americans. This
course has been a great alternative to the missing courses in my study and has touched upon
many of the questions I had yet to answer. Consequently, in finding new courses, I believe that I
have achieved my Take Five goal. While I may not have been able to take all the history or
music courses I had originally wanted, I was able to gather more information regarding culture
from the popular music classes that I did take. Because many musical genres overlap, I was able
to properly paint a big picture of music and its effects on the culture surrounding it.
Society and Moral Philosophy
Steven Bandes
Major: Physics
In my Take Five program I set out to achieve a fuller understanding of the philosophy of
morality. I wanted to challenge my own conceptions on the subject and learn how to formally
critique other theories. Right and wrong are too often left as a simple matter of intuition, of
feeling. I wanted to learn what philosophers, people who had dedicated careers to studying the
issue, had to say about it.
Along the way I learned a great deal, not just about morality, but just as importantly,
about how people think about morality; the reasons people are drawn to some theories and reject
others. I made great headway in my own search for a philosophy without arbitrary distinctions
and self-contradictions. Most importantly, I learned how to approach, question, and understand
fundamental principles of morality, such as the value of life, which are often considered
unassailable. These are important steps in an honest and courageous pursuit of moral truth.
The Evolution of Black Women in Response to Their Surroundings
Lynn Nkechinyere Benson
Major: Biological Sciences: Molecular Genetics
In my early studies of African families in West Africa, it was quite evident that African
women were the pillar and strength of the African family. To my understanding, such was
usually the case due to cultural and social beliefs and practices, as well as the developing
structure of the West African society. Although black women in America faced different
circumstances than women in Africa, they too appeared to be the pillar and the strength of their
black family. Especially in times of hardships and discrimination, African-American women
have demonstrated will and tenacity in order to support their family. For my Take Five Project, I
sought to achieve two primary goals to understand the development of this role taken on by
many African-American women. First, I aimed to explore outside factors, social, political and
economic, that served to motivate and mold black women in their role as providers. Secondly, I
wished to examine the black woman as an individual to determine how these outside factors have
defined who she is, physically and mentally, and more importantly how she is effected by her
assumingly assigned role
As a Take Five Scholar, I have embarked on a wonderful and intriguing journey through
history in the courses I selected to achieve my goals. I have been given the opportunity to learn
and engage with professors from a variety of departments including political science, economics,
anthropology, English and psychology. Although a few of my classes did not pertain to AfricanAmerican women specifically, there were times when we discussed women as it applied to the
respective subjects. It surprised me that women were referenced usually in their role as mothers,
wives, daughters or caretakers. Hence, I found out early that in order to understand the role of
black women, I must seek to also understand their relationships by including parents, children,
friends, and people in general as “outside factors.”
To do so effectively, I decided to use my time in two of my Take Five courses to conduct
extensive research on relationships black females maintain with males. Each study required me
to create surveys to collect quantifiable data, while conducting oral research. As a result, for the
first time as a college student, I was allowed to not only conduct oral research, but also take on
research in the social sciences. Although I am still concluding my research projects, it has been
made clear that the plight of black males in America has created the increasing need for AfricanAmerican women to be the major supporters in the black family.
In texts, the evolution of the personality of African-American women has also been
documented, in part, to describe their relationship with others. Three pervasive stereotypes have
developed over time: the devoted Mammy, the sexual lascivious Jezebel and the angry outspoken
Sapphire. Ironically, these stereotypes have managed to incorrectly portray black women as
unhealthily independent and incapable of symbiotic relationships with those who are closest to
them. More importantly, these stereotypes have given rise to the myth of the Strong Black
Woman (SBW). According to the African-American female poet, Laina Mataka, “The Strong
Black Woman is Dead!” The SBW passed away, “while struggling with the reality of being a
human instead of a myth.” My desire to understand the omnipresent discourse regarding the
SBW, and my need to believe that she is not dead sparked me to inquire who exactly the SBW is.
After this fifth year, I think I will be able to conclude that the SBW is still alive but needs to
immediately focus on her mental and physical health in order to continue on. The responsibility
that accompanies the adjective “strong” is more than what one individual can bear. The key is for
America to forgo stereotypes, and provide both economic and political support for relationships
to be strengthened. By doing so, black women can confidently accept others who can assist her
in carrying her load in order to wear the title “SBW” as a badge of honor instead of as a death
sentence. Overall, the complexity of the development of the role of black women in America has
made this Take Five Project worthwhile. I truly enjoyed the opportunity to review black
women’s history in the context of different departments within the University of Rochester.
Poverty and the American Health System
Jenab Bhatia
Major: Chemical Engineering
The original goal of my Take Five program was to learn about the American health
system and the politics that affect it, and how this relates and contributes to socio-economic
disparities in health. This year has taught me much more than that. Through the courses I chose
with my Take Five advisor, Professor Theodore Brown, I have gained an extensive knowledge of
the American health care “system,” the many facets of public health, the intricacies of
international and domestic health policy and law, and the history of medicine, among other
topics.
Going into my Take Five year, I knew little about health care in general. As a chemical
engineering major and an environmental engineering minor, I had never taken a social science
class before. For a unique approach to understanding health in American society, my Take Five
program consisted of public health, anthropology, political science, and history courses. Public
health courses provided me with an overview of public health issues from a societal perspective,
which included social disparities in health. The anthropology course I took furthered this look at
the social and cultural dimensions of health, specifically the way in which low-income
communities value and receive treatment. In my political science course, I'm learning about how
the U.S government uses laws to protect and to promote welfare while struggling with the “right
to health” recognized by many other countries. In addition, I took three courses in the history
department, all of which were taught by Professor Brown. These were undeniably my favorite
courses to attend because they thematically connected my Take Five program by delving into the
history of America's health system, health politics, health perceptions, and global comparisons.
I'm extremely grateful to the University of Rochester for allowing me to pursue my
interests in the American health system. Not only has it enhanced my undergraduate education
and aided me in accomplishing my intellectual goals, but it has challenged me and given me a
new perspective on the health system of the United States.
The Philosophic and Moral Basis of Political Action
James Callahan
Major: Brain & Cognitive Sciences
In my Take Five program, I sought to understand the underpinnings of political actions
with clear moral implications. For some time prior, I had a great interest in politics and was
often outraged by political actions that I thought were unjust. Through my program, I aimed to
get a greater understanding of philosophic and moral frameworks, which might justify or
rationalize such actions. I also sought to discover what modern political scientists thought of
violent political action. Considering that I had majored in brain and cognitive science
beforehand, I had little idea what to expect.
Now, after having taken classes on modern philosophy and ethics, as well as classes on
violent political conflict, I see that the questions that I had been asking are incredibly complex.
From a moral standpoint, I now see that difficult ethics questions rarely have definitive answers.
Different moral frameworks can declare the same actions moral or immoral, and it can be hard to
decide which has the right answer or what the flaw of one of the frameworks is. From the
standpoint of political science, I now see that the study of politics is in some ways uninterested in
morality. Many theorists focus on explaining why or how things happen, rather than questioning
the morality of political actions. However, attempting to use moral frameworks to guide future
political actions can also lead to trouble. Trying to do the right thing does not always lead to
favorable outcomes, and a different future understanding of what is truly the right thing
complicates matters even more. Additionally, applying conventional modern moral frameworks,
vast swaths of historical political actions appear unjustifiable (unless some sort of long term
Utilitarian argument is used). However, it is clear that some past actions were taken with little
consideration of what is moral; rather, they were done because they were thought to be effective.
Perhaps my past moral outrage was justified, but given that the political workings of our world
are still in many ways disputed, it can be hard to say what truly should be done from a moral
perspective.
Photography and Its Role in Modern Culture and Society
Justin Chan
Major: Biomedical Engineering
At the beginning of my Take Five program, I set out to understand the roles that
photography plays in today’s society. In order to achieve this, I chose classes from the
departments of Art History and Studio Arts. My initial interest in photography stemmed from
seeing French photographer Eugene Atget’s depictions of the streets of Paris. The aesthetics of
the photographs initially called my attention, but questions that surround why Atget set out to
capture eerily empty streets of France in the first place caused me to want to know more about
early photography. I set out to first use courses in the Art History department to learn the history
behind photography as well as relevant art movements. Supplementing the historical knowledge
I took classes in Studio Arts to learn more about the craft of photography as well as being an
artist.
In the middle of my Take Five program I was introduced to the Art New York program, a
semester dedicated to enabling students to become immersed in art in New York City. The
program incorporates a twenty to twenty-five hour per week internship with a course in New
Media as well as an art colloquium course. After discussing the program further with advisers, I
decided that the program would be a unique opportunity for me to actively engage photographers
and incorporated it as my final semester at the University. I interned with a portrait photographer
whose work is featured in magazine editorials and advertisements. Working with the
photographer elucidated the infrastructure that commercial photographers fit into: the magazine
that needs a photographer, the magazine editor that determines the direction of the photo shoot,
the photographer’s agent that represent them, hair stylists, makeup artists, as well as the studio
manager and assistants. I was also allowed the opportunity to follow the creative process from
the idea’s inception, to production, to the finished product.
In the end, the internship was extremely valuable and added a completely new and
different element to my Take Five. The coursework with the Art History and Studio Art
departments gave me the necessary background knowledge to understand how photography has
come to be embedded in almost every facet of our lives. Interning in New York City allowed me
to experience just what it takes for a photographer to survive. Truthfully, it seems like it takes a
lot of effort to stay afloat in the photography industry - often times there is no stable annual
salary, no reliable prediction of what jobs you will have next, but some people thrive in this kind
of environment. I will always remember my Take Five year as a year of introspection,
independent learning, and the chance to really pursue my outside interests.
African-American Narratives: Literary Expressions of Identity
Mara Chinelli
Major: Anthropology
In my proposal, I presented a Take Five program that focused on interpretations of black
identity within African-American literature. While I had not yet pursued this topic in my
undergraduate coursework, as a student of anthropology, I was interested in exploring issues of
race, ethnicity and language through an alternative disciplinary framework. Halfway through my
Take Five semester, I am now able to reflect on how fruitful my academic experience has been,
and how my interests on this topic have developed. The preliminary questions I wanted to pursue
have expanded and transformed dramatically due to the four classes I have taken this academic
year.
I began my Take Five program in the fall with Professor Stephanie Li’s courses, “Race in
American Fiction” and “The Radical Narratives of Toni Morrison.” The first course provided me
an opportunity to explore the ways in which the racial binary between blackness and whiteness
manifests in American literature, and how class, gender, language and sexuality have shaped it as
well. Reading a breadth of novels and essays by well-known writers such as Mark Twain and
James Baldwin, as well as contemporary authors like Junot Diaz and Chang-rae Lee, broadened
my understanding of what constitutes an American literary canon. Preparing response papers
each week provided me an opportunity to formulate challenging questions about the texts, which
encouraged me to interrogate them further. More often than not, the issues that arose in class
discussion in “Race in American Fiction” carried over in my study of Toni Morrison’s novels,
essays and critical theory. Reading a novel each week immersed me in Morrison’s explosive
language, which often invited stimulating discussions with my peers. Becoming familiar with her
influence on African-American literature forced me to think more about the qualities that
constitute this genre.
These issues and themes have significantly crossed over into my coursework this
semester, which has largely focused on the impact of slavery in African-American literary
traditions. In Professor Li’s class, “Slave Narratives & Neoslave Narratives,” I have become
familiar with the politics and literary tropes of nineteenth century slave narratives. Reading the
works by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Henry Bibb among others, has demonstrated to me
that these texts take on a hybrid form between non-fiction and fiction. Studying the critical
voices in early black literature has also influenced my readings of the twentieth-century novels in
Professor Tucker’s course, “Slavery & the Twentieth Century African-American Novel.” I have
been able to see how slave narratives have aided later African-American writers to imagine the
interior lives of slaves that remain largely unknown. The combination of these classes has
allowed me to spend more time examining works that have greatly influenced each other. It has
heightened my knowledge and appreciation for a variety of African-American literature, which I
hope to continue exploring after I graduate.
Hearing: A Study in Signal Processing
Guang Yi Chua
Major: Music
As an individual who had a background in science and has always found it fascinating, I
developed a strong interest in hearing and how the brain processes these signals during my career
as an undergraduate majoring in music. This prompted my application to the Take Five program
with the Biomedical Engineering Department’s Dr. Laurel Carney as my advisor. We
constructed a comprehensive program of Applied Mathematics, Brain and Cognitive Science,
Biomedical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering courses together. With these courses, I
hoped to leave the University of Rochester with better knowledge of how these principles unite
and allow us to perceive and understand all the sounds in our noisy world.
In addition to these classes, I also began working with Dr. Carney in her lab. Her research
deals with the inferior colliculus, the area of the brain that processes sound. Although she
actually runs studies to gather data, mathematical modeling of the systems she designs also plays
a large part in her research. Between my experience working in Dr. Carney’s lab, mathematical
courses in multi-dimensional calculus, linear algebra, and modeling, neurobiology, and
engineering courses in signal conduction, production, and processing, I have gained a significant
amount of knowledge in a subject I knew next to nothing about when I applied to the program
almost two years ago.
I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have had this opportunity to Take Five and learn
about topics in a field I had not studied before. As I pursue my career interests, having this
knowledge will undoubtedly aid me in my future endeavors.
The Impact of Social and Cultural Values on Health and Illness
Kathryn Cooper
Major: Biological Sciences: Neuroscience
When I planned my Take Five program, I wanted to learn more about how the values of
other cultures affect the way their people view life and death, and how this in turn affects the
approach to healthcare. I became interested in this topic after taking a World Musics course, in
which we learned about burial rituals in a West African village where funerals were days of
merriment and singing rather than somber occasions. This gave me an impression of vastly
different beliefs across cultures in which different views of death produced very different
reactions to it, and which would possibly create different medical practices in these societies.
However, what I ended up learning throughout the course of my program is that different
cultures seem to be more similar than different with regard to feelings toward death. For
example, in an anthropology class we discussed burial rituals in different regions and the absence
of outward displays of sadness are often motivated by religious beliefs that doing so would
impede the spirit of the deceased on their ascent to Heaven.
So, views about death appear to be similar across cultures, but different explanations for
illness do result in different types of treatments. Where biomedical explanations are not the
norm, a wide array of folk beliefs may offer alternative views on the causes of illness, from
voodoo and sorcery to social indiscretions. One fact that has become abundantly clear to me
throughout my program is that when such alternative beliefs are not taken into consideration by
planners of medical interventions, the project will almost certainly be ineffective. One such
initiative attempted to curb child malnutrition on Mt. Kilimanjaro. However, planners failed to
take into account the shame associated with the condition due the belief that it was caused by
sexual indiscretions by parents, and proceeded to award mothers “graduation certificates” when
they finished a nutritional education program. Understanding how the society viewed this illness
could have helped them to create a more culturally sensitive and effective program.
My Take Five program has been an incredibly valuable experience for me. As a
Neuroscience major, I did not have much time for humanities courses, and in the last year I have
been able to take courses in Anthropology, History, Public Health, and Philosophy. I feel that
my education was made much richer through this course of study, and it has allowed me to grow
as a person. I am glad to have had this opportunity before entering the rigors of medical school
this fall, and I hope to continue learning about different medical beliefs throughout my career to
make me a more culturally sensitive physician.
Public Health in the Indian Context
Anna Coughlan
Major: Chemical Engineering
The original aim of my Take Five program was to study the intersection between
religious philosophy and health practices in India. I was not expecting a wild ride into the
controversial area of public health and the literal wild ride of my daily commute via autorickshaw in the heart of Delhi. Throughout my time at the University of Rochester (U of R) and
during my semester abroad, I discovered the many facets of providing quality health care to
individuals, especially those in a developing country like India. What I found was that
alternative, preventative medicine has a more subtle presence in Indian society. The people I met
seemed very much aware of Ayurveda practices and used them almost subconsciously in daily
life. At the same time, India is growing at such a rapid pace and demands the modern medicine
that goes along with development. Their efforts to provide inexpensive, available health care for
the population parallels the efforts in the U.S. and other countries. My small, specific study into
an ancient culture faced with modern technology turned into a massive global public health
investigation.
The Take Five coursework began with a couple of eastern religion classes at the U of R
to provide some background into the culture. When I traveled to India, few people outwardly
mentioned the philosophies of the great Hindu texts, but the ideals of fulfilling one’s societal
duty (Dharma) and living in the present vaguely permeate interactions. Several individuals did
engage in discussions about diet and Ayurveda teachings, such as not drinking water while
eating or using turmeric as a healing salve. Those who were practicing Hindus did not stick with
just homeopathic remedies; in fact, Indians take more modern drugs than Americans! In Paul
Farmer’s book Infections and Inequalities, which I read for one of my Take Five classes, he
claims that some anthropologists and health workers mistakenly believe that faith in traditional
homeopathy can obstruct the use of modern medicine. My experiences in India support Farmer’s
claim that this is in fact a myth. The ancient philosophers and healers of India have helped mold
and shape a society and its concepts of health and medicine; there is a uniquely Indian way of
taking on the world. Yet, I learned that the cultural context plays less of a role in health care than
other factors such as economics, politics and social divisions.
A health history class at the U of R helped me to understand that health in India must be
seen in the larger global context, beginning with British colonialism and ending in an era still
plagued by widespread malaria and childhood diarrhea. While conducting research for my
Socio-Economic Development class in India, my classmates and I were able to interview (via the
help of a translator) numerous public health workers in three states. Although the government
has mandated that each region have sufficient health facilities like primary clinics, hospitals and
free and reduced medication, corruption and negligence have left the system in shambles in some
areas. Structural violence, which in India means the caste system, gender inequality, or poor
education, as explained in my Medical Anthropology class, often inhibit quality care from
reaching the most poor and marginalized groups. As a global community, we often rely on big
players like the World Health Organization to provide resources and guidance, yet they have
been wrong in the past. As my Take Five program draws to a close, I have a better grasp of the
kind of efforts and campaigns it will take to provide health care to Indians and all citizens of the
world. It’s no small task, and it’s something I leave for the next scholar to pursue.
Philosophy of Consciousness
Kevin Delaney
Major: Applied Music (BM)
For my Take Five year, I set out to study consciousness from a variety of angles.
Consciousness is one of the most mysterious topics of analytical thought, yet for any individual,
our own consciousness is so plainly familiar. For this reason, I crafted my Take Five proposal to
study consciousness from both of these perspectives. Through the disciplines of cognitive
science, philosophy, and literature, I sought to get a complete picture of what the major questions
of consciousness are and what their possible answers could be.
The Take Five year has turned out to be everything I expected. While I still have no
concrete answers as to how consciousness works (who does?), I have a much more informed way
of thinking about it. Most importantly, I learned that the approach of combining science and
philosophy is the only way to really come to an understanding of consciousness. It was
interesting to see how often my cognitive science classes made reference to topics of philosophy
of mind, and similarly, how often my Philosophy of Mind course used concrete examples from
the field of neuroscience. I now have a much clearer idea of where the major areas of debate are
for the study and philosophy of consciousness. In short, is consciousness a phenomenon of brains
only, or is it possible in other material states, such as computers? I also learned the history of
how people have framed the topic of consciousness in literature and intellectual thought, and it is
interesting to see how the questions now are not so different from the ones in the past 300 years.
One year is not enough time to fully form a stance on the issues of consciousness or to
completely understand their scientific basis, but it has been totally enriching to study them.
As an Eastman student, a year of study and the University of Rochester has been a
meaningful intellectual experience. While studying a topic I had a genuine interest in, I found
myself learning much more than I had originally set out to. As I continue on the path of being a
musician, I will take the intellectual passion, thoroughness, and ingenuity that I encountered in
philosophy and cognitive science as a model of how to evaluate and study a problem. As an
artist, consciousness forms the basis of my work, and my growing understanding of it will be an
asset for the rest of my intellectual life.
Elohim and Allah: Understanding the Foundations of Christian and Islamic Belief
Meaghan K. DeWaters
Major: Comparative Literature
When I proposed my Take Five program, I had a simple goal in mind. I wanted “to return
to the root of religion and critically examine the texts, history, and spiritual experiences that
make up what is called Christian and Islamic faith today.” I planned my program to follow three
distinct phases: Text, Evolution, and Interpretation. In the Text phase, I planned to read the
scriptures of Christianity and Islam in an effort to understand the hypothetical foundation for the
future manifestations of each religion. The Evolution phase was focused on the historical
development of these religions, examining the ways that politics, geography, and power have
influenced spirituality in the modern age. My final phase, Interpretation, was a more general
category that included various philosophical and mystical interpretations of religion. I was
interested in the personal and individual understandings of these religions, as well as the
variations in collective interpretation, and how these relate to “orthodoxy,” if such a thing exists.
In many ways, I have accomplished my goals. I gained insight into the texts, history, and
varieties of experiences that exist within these traditions. In reality, however, my Take Five
program was much more nuanced and challenging than this outline suggests. I will admit that I
was initially interested only in Christianity; studying Islam was more of a secondary addition that
I was not particularly committed to at the outset of my program. As it progressed, however, I was
captivated by the expansive and intricate history of a religion that I knew almost nothing about. I
had considered my pre-existing understanding of Islam to be rather balanced, but my Take Five
program revealed that I knew almost nothing of its realities: I encountered my own ignorance.
The classes I took with Professor Emil Homerin were illuminating and led me to recognize the
complexity of a religion that I, for whatever reason, had essentially ignored in favor of a more
familiar religious tradition. I began to reconsider my understanding of history as it relates to
Islam and its ties to culture, nationhood, and social identity.
Further, I have gained an entirely new understanding of the contemporary world. My
Take Five program has given me the opportunity to investigate, for example, some of the
contributing factors that lie behind the rise of religious violence in the modern era. I have a better
sense of the Arab Spring and how these uprisings relate to Islam and by extension, their
implications for the rest of the world. I have learned to pay attention to the complexities of
personal and corporate belief, and more importantly, how these complexities must be recognized
in order for religiously motivated conflicts to come to peaceful resolutions.
This scholarship year has in fact informed what I plan to study in graduate school. I hope
to use literature as a medium through which I can examine the development of modern religious
belief. Further, I want to understand how the recent evolution of religion has contributed to
contemporary prejudices, ethnic tensions, and political questions. I believe Islam will be a large
focus of my future scholarship. Without the Take Five program, I may have never discovered
this passion.
Migration, Agriculture, and Labor: Connections between Africa and Latin America
Michelle Dick
Major: Health & Society
The initial goal of my Take Five Program was to explore the impact of the movement of
peoples between, within, and out of Africa and Latin America. My interest in this topic was
fueled by a desire to understand the development of modern day Latin American society and its
links to the African continent. Essentially, I wanted to see how the Atlantic Slave Trade
impacted both regions, and how the legacy of the Atlantic Slave Trade and colonization
continues to dictate the social, economic and political environments of the regions.
Through courses such as Colonial and Contemporary Africa, and the Atlantic Slave
Trade, I have learned how the legacy of the Atlantic Slave Trade and colonialism affect the
economics, politics, and development of the African continent. I learned similar lessons as they
applied to Latin America through studies in the courses of Economies and Societies of Latin
America and the Caribbean and Spanish American Cultures. There are strong similarities
between the impact of colonialism and imperialism on the development of both regions. I have
learned that many of the problems both regions face, from political corruption to stagnant
economies can be traced back to the exploitation of labor and natural resources that characterized
colonialism.
Through other courses such as Religion of the African Diaspora and the History of the
African Diaspora in Latin America I have studied the contributions that people of African
descent have made to Latin American society, the history of their arrival and impact in the
region, and the trials that they have and continue to face. I have learned that the elements of
African culture that were preserved by slaves, such as religion, music, dance, and dress, became
key to the rebellions and other forms of resistance that took place throughout colonial Latin
America. Eventually, these elements became integral in movements for independence.
While my initial goals were to study the impact of the Atlantic Trade and colonialism in
Africa and Latin America, the final result of my studies provided more than just an overall
understanding of the historical process. Through lectures, seminars, an independent study, and
conversations with my advisor, Professor Mandala, it has become clear that the developmental
problems of these regions are not simply the result of corruption, harsh natural environments, or
social context, but rather the challenges facing Latin America and Africa are a result of a legacy
of exploitation through colonialism and imperialism at the hands of what we now call the
“Developed World.”
Behavioral Economics: A Cognitive Approach to Economic Decision Making
Christopher Driscoll
Major: Applied Mathematics
The Take Five Scholars program has allowed me to explore the academic interests I have
developed over the course of my time at the University of Rochester. Through late night
discussions with friends, I began to think about the decisions I make in my day-to-day life and,
specifically, what factors went into those decisions. I became highly critical about my decisions
and whether or not they were rational. I wanted to find an outlet where I could explore this
curiosity further; the Take Five program was just that.
So what exactly is behavioral economics? Not so surprisingly the field is a branch of
economics which analyzes consumers’ behavior through a psychological lens. Behavioral
economists attempt to explain behavior that the classical models do not predict. For example,
classical economists model consumption through utility maximization, which requires the use of
calculus to solve. It does not seem intuitive to think about consumers as calculus machines.
Rather than thinking of humans in such a way, behavioral economists consider consumers more
as humans who are prone to temptations and inconsistencies and derive their models as such.
Throughout my program I have blended courses from the departments of economics and
psychology. The economics courses have provided a foundation in which to consider consumer
decision making and the psychology courses have highlighted the causation of human behavior.
With both, I have been able to address the causes of inconsistencies in decision-making and
better understand myself and the world around me. I thank the University of Rochester for giving
me the chance to explore my curiosity!
Media and the Muslim World
Maya Dukmasova
Majors: Religion / Philosophy
My Take Five project was aimed at exploring the representations of Muslims and Arabs
in the American and non-American press. I designed the program around courses in history,
anthropology, and communications with the goal of acquiring an in-depth understanding of the
history of the modern Middle East and its representation. My coursework gave me the necessary
background to be able to evaluate how representation of current events in the region is
influenced by international political concerns and historical international relationships.
A study abroad semester at the American University in Cairo, Egypt was at the heart of
my project. The study abroad program was crucial because it provided access to media studies,
history, and communications classes otherwise unavailable at the University of Rochester.
However, it was also immensely valuable because it allowed me to explore the media culture in
the Middle East and to compare it to media in the United States and Europe. My experience in
Egypt was invaluable because it allowed me to participate in and observe directly the culture I
was studying. My perspectives on media representations of the Middle East became far more
nuanced after living in Egypt for four months.
Upon my return from Egypt, the eruption of the Arab Spring produced a vibrant media
environment for me to investigate. In my capstone independent study I focus on examining the
media coverage of the Bahraini uprising in particular. I am exploring the way that the strategic
importance of the tiny island nation has impacted the coverage in the American, British, and
Middle Eastern press at the cost of attention to the human dimension of the uprising.
A Warrior’s Mind: the History and Psychology of Medieval Warrior Codes
James Eles
Major: Biological Sciences: Neuroscience
Chivalric knights in England and France, Samurai in Japan, Ghazi warriors in Anatolia
and the Middle East—three systems of warrior ethos that might be reduced to a common,
relatable term: Fanaticism. These were men who were willing to fight to the death in defense of
their honorable reputation. How did these codes, and the honor cultures that inspired them,
derive independently across the world within the same 100-200 year period? How did political
and religious institutions influence their development and direction?
My project is first of all concerned with defining mentalities. Augmenting historical
analysis with literature, one is able to connect cultures’ definition of the ideal warrior: skilled
with weapons, wins no matter what, gives generously to his followers, and is loyal to contracts.
From here, we can begin to ask how this mentality arose, and the answer is, of course, very
difficult and variable through cultures. We can see that the individual is instructed by his
environment, and the environment is instructed by a) the amount of warfare present and b)
institutions with a vested interest in a warrior class. From the institution level, it was sensible to
generate an incentive structure that encouraged these ideal warriors. Ensuing struggles between
institutions (i.e. state and religious or state and state) to define warrior confederations with
absolute loyalty were inevitable, but nonetheless demark a common evolutionary checkpoint
between these cultures.
This exploration is germane to today’s geopolitical circumstance. While the need for
ideal warriors was replaced by systemized war apparatuses, fanaticism is still an essential
component to many small-scale military operations today. Based upon honor or other ideological
constructs, these organizations can be a wildcard in the increasingly global world. The
discoveries of this project may apply to this, and thus provide a valuable lens through which to
understand the trajectory of current events.
The History of Religion and Conflict in Greco-Roman Antiquity
Gregory Fedorchak
Major: Biomedical Engineering
The goal of my Take Five Program was to explore how religion factors into specific
cases of Greco-Roman conflict such as the conquests of Alexander the Great, the First JewishRoman War and the persecution of early Christians. Just as religion may give rise to conflict, I
also wanted to investigate how conflict may give rise to the spread of religion and to the
blending of different ideas and cultures within the Greco-Roman world. In order to achieve my
academic goals, I designed a program with courses in religion, art and architecture, history,
classics and foreign language, as well as a semester studying abroad in Athens, Greece.
I began my Take Five in the spring of 2011 with two courses central to my program:
Jews, Pagans and Christians, which focused on the problem of religious polemic in the ancient
world and Cycles of War and Peace, which explored theories of conflict and peacemaking and
applied them to various conflicts, including the Peloponnesian War. These courses taught me
how the oppressed in a conflict often rise up to become the oppressors later on. They also taught
me how “uncertainty” provides an impetus for conflict, especially ones with religious
components since religion requires faith in something that cannot be proven certain. The subsequent semester was one that I will never forget. The College Year in Athens
study abroad program gave me the opportunity to study Greco-Roman antiquity as close to first
hand as possible. Through onsite learning in mainland Greece, the Peloponnese, and the islands,
I became well acquainted with Greece and its glorious past, as well as its long history of both
religion and conflict. History became real and tangible for the first time. Did you know that the
word “history” comes from Greek (ἱστορία)? In my first history class since high school, To the
Strongest: The Ancient Near East from the Death of Alexander to the Coming of Rome, I studied
the shift in religious thought throughout the Hellenistic period and the complications that arose
along the way such as the Maccabean Revolt, an intra-Jewish conflict spurred on by differing
Jewish reactions to Greek culture. I rounded out my studies with Aegean Art and Archeology,
The Orthodox Church and two Greek language courses, Modern Greek and Ancient Greek. Upon my return to Rochester, in addition to the lingering effects of culture shock, I was
awestruck by the Greco-Roman influences reverberating throughout campus. I had never noticed
the Doric columns virtually everywhere on the academic quad, or the statue of Athena, the
“Goddess of War,” in Rush Rhees library. From our athletics to the democratic principles of our
Student Association, we bear the stamp of our Ancient Greek ancestors. I will continue my
Biomedical Engineering education in Ithaca (New York not Greece) with this in mind and with a
fresh outlook on the world as a whole. I am forever grateful for the University of Rochester’s
“learn what you love” philosophy (another word that comes from Greek) and for the Take Five
Scholars Program for allowing me the opportunity to live out my dream program.
Ancient Roman Life
Emily A. Fogel
Major: English
When I lived in Bath, UK, it often felt like I existed in several time periods at once. I
was in the England of modernity, but adjacent to this contemporary Bath and, in a way,
providing its foundational support, were the Regency and the Roman periods. The Roman
element of the city, lying just beyond the present space, is what caught my imagination. “What,”
I thought, “could living in ancient Rome be like?” In an attempt to answer this question, over the
course of my Take Five year, I have explored the architectural, archaeological, historical,
linguistic, and literary pieces that give present-day historians and classicists their view of ancient
Rome. After having studied Latin language and grammar, read Catullus and Virgil, learned
about the Catilinarian conspiracy, the Punic Wars, and mystery cults, and been up to my neck in
dirt and potsherds in Italy, I am beginning to understand what “Roman life” really meant.
Roman life consisted of a set of values involving pietas to the gods and fides to one’s
family. It idealized the Roman farmer, working only with tools and the land, who could throw
on a toga and become the perfect politician. The Roman citizen had strict gender definitions to
which it was necessary to adhere. And, of course, at times in Rome’s history, Rome was also
expansionary, and the Roman citizen located in this broad cultural nexus could expect to have
many global influences introduced into his life.
However, these were only the ideals; Roman life also comprised many contradictions.
While asserting the value of the self-sufficiency of its individual citizens, large-scale plantationstyle farming was prevalent. While there were qualities essential to one’s masculinity, these
qualifications extended only to Roman citizens and even then there are many instances of these
rules being bent and broken, with regards to over-emotionality and even cross-dressing. While
Rome had imperialistic tendencies and even borrowed much artistically and religiously from
Hellenistic culture, Roman society was also extremely resistant and skeptical of the Other—the
Other being anyone outside of Rome. More than anything else, and this is the primary difficulty
in describing and indeed learning about Roman life, Rome was constantly changing. Even the
truism “All roads lead to Rome” is not strictly true, for Rome was not always the center of the
Roman Empire. The Byzantine portion of the empire long outlasted the fall of Rome in Europe
and, centrally, on the Italian peninsula.
So, perhaps it is more fitting to take a general lesson out of my Take Five experience.
Conducting my Take Five in Roman life has given me the tools to work within other disciplines,
knowledge of the workings of world powers, standards of sameness and otherness and how these
can be viewed, and, as I had intended, insight into the daily lives of those who lived in this
distinct culture, now two millennia in our past but still incredibly present.
Exploration in Geological and Environmental Sciences through Art
Katherine Garner
Major: Chemistry
I applied to the Take Five Scholars Program with the hopes of being able to take a
science I found both interesting and beautiful and use those two aspects to develop an integrated
understanding of what it means to be a geologist. Through my Take Five course work I have
been able to take a step back from the classroom and view the courses I’ve taken in our EES
department from an artistic perspective, no longer seeing science as a set of facts and linear
processes, instead noticing how the information collects in discrete tubes stored for later use,
mixes within our palettes, and blurs together on the canvas of our mind to produces an
understanding of our discipline. As an art student I learned that rarely is a painting finished
when you think it is finished; instead you come back to it over and over to adjust and shift the
colors and strokes. In the study of geology I’ve seen this process, this changing of the final
product over the course of classes and research. Both art and science are processes, with no end
other than the one you place.
Viewing the scientific process in the light of the artistic process has led me to take a step
back and view my courses as an integrated whole, much different than the sum of its parts. My
courses have shown me the true variety in geology and the environmental sciences, blending
research with politics, science with society, the laboratory with the field. Being able to see the
more global implications of geology and being able to leave the math in the class room and
express the concepts in a visual sense offers the hope of change. Being able to ‘paint a picture’
of a science, both literally and figuratively, creates accessibility, the first step in getting people
involved and invested. And at this point we can’t afford to not be invested in both our sciences
and our earth. My Take Five project has opened my eyes to the issues our planet is facing and to
creative and effective ways of understanding and approaching these problems.
Public Health: Structural Violence, Cervical Cancer, & Women in Low-Income Communities
Lindsey Garrison
Major: Music
For as long as I have lived I have been blessed with many things: money for food and
clothes, a private school and university education, and a loving and strong support system just to
name a few things. I have always realized how lucky I am to receive these effects, and I do my
best to not take them for granted. However, as I have grown up and become more independent I
have become aware of the fact that I have also been blessed to have something that many people
do not: my health. Growing up, whenever I was ill or injured I simply went to a doctor and was
given a remedy, which would help me get better with great ease. I have lived this way my whole
life without much thought until last year.
Having applied to the Take Five Scholars Program in the fall of my senior year, and
being asked to re-apply with a more specific focus on social injustice in America, I pondered
over what topic to narrow in on. In the United States we are surrounded by a plethora of
injustices that all deserve the utmost amount of focus; however I could not decide which topic
spoke the most to me. That was until I decided to take a class the spring of my senior year that
opened my eyes up to the world of public health. I sat in on the second class of Dr. Ted Brown’s
History of International and Global Health, and it was as if a light turned on inside me. I sat
there, astonished, as I recognized that so many of the social injustices I was pondering connected
to the world of public health. I knew instantly that I wanted my focus to revolve around health in
America and the injustices surrounding it.
After meeting with my advisor (and hero/guru/most-awesome-teacher-in-the-world) Dr.
Nancy Chin, we together devised a program in which I would focus on just one issue of public
health that contained many of the different injustices, that we would label “structural violence,”
which I was concerned with. I was to focus on sexism, racism, and elitism having an adverse
effect on the type of healthcare, pertaining to HPV & cervical cancer, which women in lowincome communities are subject to. However, over the past few months, the skeleton of the
program that was originally created has turned into a full-bodied life altering experience.
I have spent the past semester and a half in classrooms with some of the most incredible
professors and peers I have ever encountered. All of them have taught me that public health goes
beyond statistics and population numbers; it is about our world as a whole and how everything
we do causes a reaction. They have taught me that health is a right and that without it a person
cannot indulge in the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Additionally, they have
taught me that while I can learn amazing things about public health in a classroom, the only way
I will truly understand how health and healthcare work is if I explore the world outside of the
classroom.
Luckily, I have been fortunate enough to observe the world of health and healthcare
through the lenses of some remarkable women at a Catholic Workers Shelter here in Rochester.
What started out as an independent study for my Take Five program, has turned into the most
rewarding part of my experience this year. Twice a week during first and second semester I have
been volunteering at Bethany House Shelter for Women and Children in the hopes that I would
be able to learn more about what it is like to be a woman living in a low income community
dealing with illness and healthcare; but I have learned so much more than just that. The women
at Bethany House have let me into their lives with such openness that the wealth of knowledge I
have obtained cannot be adequately quantified. I have been told of family strife, personal
struggles, the life of a homeless woman, and everything in between. At the end of this semester I
will be conducting one-on-one interviews with some of these women and with their permission I
will conclude my Take Five program with a paper/ethnography discussing my class experiences
and how they relate to my experiences at Bethany House. In addition to speaking to the women, I
have been able to discuss in great length the struggles of these women with my advisor Dr.
Nancy Chin. Her insight and empathy is so inspiring and thoughtful, and through our
conversations I have been able to not only decipher much of what I’ve heard at Bethany House,
but I have also been able to learn from Dr. Chin how important this experience is for me not only
as a student, but as a person.
In the end that is what I have come to realize that Take Five is about, about empowering
and furthering yourself as a student and as a person of the world. The Take Five program truly
embodies the University of Rochester’s motto of Meliora, for it has taught me to be “ever
better.”
Germany in Flux: Communicating Changes in National Identity and Culture through Film
Sarah H. Gerin
Major: Art History
To quote Professor Celia Applegate, Germany suffers from a “somewhat schizophrenic
view” of national identity. After completing my Take Five year, investigating issues surrounding
German national and cultural identity, I can’t help but agree. These issues are still debated and
met with apprehension in many sociopolitical contexts, both within Germany and abroad.
Moreover, there is much debate as to what it ‘means to be German’ in the first place. During my
Take Five year, I set out to study the way in which history and historical memory shape notions
of national and cultural identity within Germany—and more importantly, how these shifting
ideas and representations are both expressed and shaped by cultural productions, such as film.
Rooted in the disciplines of history, politics, and anthropology, my Take Five curriculum
ultimately underwent some changes (due to scheduling and course offerings), shifting more
toward an examination of visual culture than the specific medium of film as a way of
understanding these complex issues. Classes such as Introduction to Historical Methods:
Germany East and West and Modernity and Modernism: Weimar Germany provided strong
historical foundations with which to understand the historical, political, and socio-cultural
developments of Germany and specific historical eras, such as the Weimar Republic. The history
seminar on Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict considered such concepts as national identity,
nationalism, national consciousness, and ethnicity. This course provided ways to arrive at a
general but nuanced understanding of what these terms have meant historically and still mean
today.
During the spring semester things took an unexpected turn toward philosophy, where I
studied many of the foundational philosophical and social texts from the most important 18th
century German thinkers, such as Hegel, Nietzsche, Fichte, Goethe, and Heidegger. Marx and
Marxism focused on Marxist thought and has been a perfect supplement to the class on 18th
century thinkers. These two classes, though relatively unplanned from my original proposal,
have proven critical to better understanding intellectual history and its effects on shaping notions
of nation, social structure, and their respective outgrowths in political, social, and economic
thought.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to be a Take Five Scholar. This year has been one
of the most rewarding, and admittedly, one of the most challenging years here at the University
of Rochester. Bringing together the critical enterprise of interdisciplinary German studies, this
year has significantly enhanced my grasp of cultural formations, intellectual history, literary
studies, visual studies, political constellations, philosophical discourse, and public spheres. How
amazing is that?
Reasons and Ethics Behind Decisions Made in Medicine
Rebekah Goldstein
Major: Music
Medical ethics is something that has always intrigued me, and when I found that there
were many fantastic bioethics courses here, I decided that applying for Take Five in this area
would be perfect for me. Through the initial stages of developing my Take Five program, I
looked at courses that would give me the most well-rounded view of the health care system in
America and how policy contributes to the decisions that are made in medicine. I realized that I
needed to look not only in the philosophy department to find courses that would provide me with
the most information on my topic, but in the public health, anthropology, and history
departments as well. I had never taken classes in any of those departments since being at the
UR, so this gave me the opportunity to delve into a greater range of disciplines throughout my
time here.
Ethics is an important aspect of medicine and there are a number of reasons why certain
procedures in medicine should and should not happen, including finances, religion, and culture.
I began my program during the first semester of my senior year taking Ted Brown’s Introduction
to the U.S. Health System, and the philosophy department’s Reason and Argument class. The
Reason and Argument course gave me a strong basis in how philosophical arguments are made
and how to think in a philosophical way. This was an important start to my program so that I
could look at points made throughout my other courses and decipher how much weight they
carry when making ethical decisions. Getting a strong understanding in the U.S. health care
system was also extremely important as that plays a large role in how and what medical
procedures are carried out for Americans. Also, this course helped prepare me for his more indepth American Health Policy and Politics course that I would take the following fall. Both of
these courses helped me to discover how the American health care system came to be and what
effects it has on both doctors and patients.
I had to switch my initial Take Five schedule a bit when I realized that some of the
courses I intended to take were not offered every year. During the fall semester of my Take Five
year, I substituted the course Ethics and Science of Stem Cells into my schedule. This was an
interesting course that gave me the perspective of both a philosopher and scientist and the
dichotomy between the two. I found how important it is to really look into the efficacy of certain
medical procedures and how both medicine and ethics go hand in hand. This was a good course
to pair with the Public Health Ethics course that I also took that semester. With this course I was
able to discover more about the meaning behind public health and how difficult it is to make
medical decisions on a larger public health scale. In my final semester, I am taking Medical
Anthropology, Moral Problems, and Ethical Decisions in Medicine. At this point, I have a strong
understanding of how to develop a strong argument and how to recognize a poor argument. I can
also compare the U.S. health care system to that of other countries and how those systems really
affect the health of the country’s population as a whole.
I have discovered that medical ethics is a continually changing field as the medicalization
and policy changes. With all of my courses, I have developed a stronger understanding of what
needs to go into analyzing medical decisions for individuals and whole populations, but I have
discovered that there is never one correct answer. There will always be a strong argument for or
against any decision, medical or not, and the decisions made vary for each population or
individual. I am truly grateful that I was given the opportunity to take these courses, and the
knowledge that I have gained will benefit me in any field that I choose to pursue.
Islam & the American Media Post 9/11
J.J. González
Major: Political Science
On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists from the Islamist militant group al-Qaeda
hijacked the world religion of Islam by using four commercial aircrafts as missiles in coordinated
suicide attacks upon the United States. Their actions intensified an American media that
continues to portray the world’s 1.4 billion Muslims as backward, violent religious fanatics.
My investigation has shown that when Americans think of Arabs or Muslims, the images
that spring to mind are not likely to be those of real people, but misconceptions based on
Hollywood and the news media. Americans have internalized a constant fear for the Arab world
and Muslims. I argue that at the core of the development of this fear is the American televised
and printed media with their depiction of Islam, or at times, lack thereof. Biased news coverage
along with films that are almost predisposed to have an “Arab enemy” create a culture that
transforms Arabs into something they are not. This perpetuates stereotypes in our own culture
and fuels hate here and abroad. Becoming a more informed global citizen is the best weapon to
combat negative stereotypes and perceptions of Islam in the United States.
My Take Five Program consisted of studying the history of Islam to understand the
political and social influences of the past and their application to the modern world. I continued
by investigating Islam in the context of American culture and its depiction in the news media.
Finally, I wrote a bibliographic essay on the topic as a resource for others interested in finding
sources for further research.
Public Health in the Third World
Emma Grettenberger
Major: Applied Music
The original purpose of my Take Five program was to discover how populations in the
Third World are affected by disease and how they conceptualize and treat disease and illness in
contrast to the ways in which disease is spread and treated in the United States. Over the course
of this school year, I have studied how illness and disease spread and how they are understood
culturally around the world. Through public health, epidemiology, anthropology, and history
courses, I have learned that illness and disease are far more complicated concepts than I
previously understood them to be. Illness and disease afflict populations of low socioeconomic
status most severely and are concepts steeped in cultural and social meaning.
Before I began my Take Five year, I was aware that troubling health disparities existed
among populations of the world, but I was surprised by the extent of the health disparities within
my own country. As a middle-class American with health insurance, I have had access to quality
health care, but I am part of a privileged few within my nation and the global community.
Studying public health has exposed me to both the health-related problems that face poor
communities and to the possibility of creating social and governmental change that may improve
the health of individuals and communities.
I found all of the courses I took as part of my Take Five program engaging and valuable
to the purpose of my program. Introduction to American Health Systems was integral to my
program because it provided me with a greater understanding of how American values have
influenced the development of the current American health system and how the American Health
system compares to those of other nations around the world. Similarly, Introduction to Public
Health and Birth and Death II gave me public health and anthropological frameworks for
understanding how programs aimed at improving population health are constructed and
implemented. In these two courses, I gained an appreciation for the importance of situating
health interventions within particular cultural contexts and of including the communities they are
intended to benefit in the process of program development.
As a voice major at the Eastman School of Music, I have received a high-quality music
education that has prepared me well to become a singer. However, I have wide-ranging interests
outside of music, and I had little opportunity to explore them in the first four years of my
undergraduate studies because of the highly prescribed vocal music program at Eastman. I am so
grateful to the University of Rochester for allowing me to participate in the Take Five program.
It has been an incredible opportunity for me to examine issues that I find fascinating as well as
relevant to my experience as a citizen of the world.
The Economics of Environmental Sustainability
Jonathan Grima
Major: Biological Sciences: Neuroscience
Something that has always fascinated me and plagued my mind is/are the reason(s) why
the “green choice” is usually the least popular? Don’t people realize that our planet is slowly
being destroyed? Wouldn’t it make sense to adopt alternative environmental policies with
everything we do in order to help sustain our planet? It is because of these questions that my
good friend Matt Bauer convinced me to sit in his Environmental Economics class with
Professor Rizzo. I was blown away! I honestly had no idea that Economics played such a vital
role in environmental issues. I finally realized that the “green choice” is usually the least popular
because it is almost always the most costly. It is because of this that I wanted to pursue a Take 5
studying the economics of environmental sustainability. I really wanted to enrich my knowledge
on the interplay between economics and environmental issues, how they affect each other, and
how the economic way of thinking can mitigate environmental issues. I simply wanted to whet
my appetite for this topic and learn more!
I can happily say that I’ve been able to accomplish all the aforementioned tasks with my
Take 5 program. Through my coursework I have learned that environmental issues, like the
depletion of natural resources such as fisheries, are the result of individuals acting in their own
self-interest. These individuals fail to internalize the costs associated with their behaviors and as
a result they continue to collect the benefits until the resource in question has been fully
depleted. Also, individuals unfortunately fail to truly appreciate these environmental amenities
because it is very difficult to value them. Goods like trees are not sold in markets and as a result
it is very difficult to precisely comprehend the true value of these environmental amenities and
the services they provide for our world. This is a major challenge that if resolved could hopefully
translate into major environmental improvements.
Another very important concept that I have learned is that although many citizens claim
they would be willing to pay more for green goods, these purchases on average end up not taking
place. Why is it that the green choice is the least popular? First one must understand that the
definition of a green good is an impure public good or a good with both public and private
characteristics. These are goods that are either more expensive or of a lesser quality to its closest
alternative at the same cost but are nonetheless bought due to its positive environmental
characteristics. People who buy these goods are essentially contributing a public good to society
and it is because of this that these goods suffer from collective action and free-riding issues and
why citizens do not “drive” green goods. Majority of individuals are not willing to provide the
benefits of these goods to society while having to incur all the costs of free-riding and
informational shortfalls. Obtaining green information is extremely costly and not too many
people are willing to accept this burden. Finally, if citizens are not the true social drivers of green
goods then who is? One might suspect that larger players such as firms, institutions, and the
government are the true social drivers of green goods. These players are large enough to make a
significant impact, they usually have an overtly social mission, and they are better able to
overcome the costs of collective action and free-riding.
My Take 5 year studying the economics of environmental sustainability has been such a
blessing for me. The fact that the University of Rochester has generously granted me a tuitionfree fifth year to study a passion that I have not been able to study previously due to my rigorous
major is so incredible and goes to show how wonderful this university truly is. I honestly feel
that my Take 5 program has added another dimension to my being and has given me a new
perspective on life. Learning about economics and environmental science has given me a new
way to look at the world and I would not have been able to obtain this extraordinary benefit
without the Take 5 program.
Christianity in Russian Culture
Jacqueline Gutman
Major: Brain & Cognitive Sciences
When I began this Take Five project, I had already taken a couple of courses in Russian
literature and I had a sense that the Orthodox religion was this monolithic, dogmatic institution
that somehow managed to permeate every facet of Russian culture. It seemed to me that all the
diverse heritages of the Russian people—whether the pre-Christian Slavs, the Don Cossacks, the
Jews, the Tatars, or any of a number of other people residing in Russia with their own fully
developed cultures—must have simply been subsumed by the Church authority. But the more
closely I looked at the Russian religion, the more I discovered how far the religious folk belief
strayed from the traditional Church teachers, and upon further examination, how different even
the teachings of the Russian Church fathers were from the theologies of Greek Orthodox and
Catholic understandings of Christianity. Rather than the Orthodox Church superseding the folk
traditions which came before it, those folk traditions colored the popular interpretation of
Orthodoxy, constraining the understanding of Christ, the saints, and the liturgy by refracting it
through a lens of superstition, paganism, folk parables, and ritual. Russia is such a vast and, in
some ways, eerily unnatural place that its stories and etiologies must be as fantastic and mythic
in proportion as the country itself.
Russia’s history has always been punctuated by abrupt, violent conversions: the
Christianization of Kiev by Vladimir, the abolition of serfdom, the Bolshevik revolution. True
change in Russia comes far more slowly than the suddenness of these decrees suggests, but
because these ideals were not given time to develop gradually in the folk understanding, they
could only be made sense of by placing them within the context of extant belief systems.
Christianity in Russia was a highly syncretic faith from the outset, and the destruction of wooden
idols during the baptism of Rus did not serve its intended purpose of eradicating these Slavic
deities from the folk memory, but rather laid the groundwork for a painting over of the old pagan
figures with the new Christian saints and martyrs. Connections between the old and new faith
were sometimes made based on a single common element in their mythologies; other times, the
association might be made on purely etymological grounds, from some word or name that
sounded similar to a more familiar one.
The enduring cult of Mother Earth in Russia paved the way for the cult of the Theotokos,
or God-Bearer, and the image of the Virgin Mother intertwined with the idea of Moist Mother
Earth to engender the idea of Mother Russia herself, the mother of all Russians, a holy land on
baptized soil and the only place on earth in which God might dwell. Icons are just as much a part
of that holy land as talismans, folk legends are just as important as hagiographies, and the
agricultural calendar keeps time in tune with the liturgical character. The Russian dual belief,
dvoeverie, is not derived from the logical reconciliation of contradictory faiths, but from the
acceptance of a faith that actively rejects reason, whether that comes in the form of miracles and
resurrections or in the form of magic and superstition.
Through my Take Five coursework in art history, religion, Russian literature, Russian
history, and an independent study, I’ve come to a clearer understanding of what makes
Christianity in Russia so completely unlike Christianity anywhere else in the world. Russian
Christianity is rooted in its soil, in its history, in its heritage, and it cannot be divorced from that.
As many of Russia’s most famous saints and monks did, one can have a perfect understanding of
what it means to be a Christian in Russia without any understanding of the Gospels. A Russian
can bring an icon into battle as a magical protective object without committing a heresy. A
Russian can leave some porridge for the home’s domovoi right below the icon corner. Russian
Orthodoxy is a religion of tradition and ritual, and complex theological doctrine is of only
tangential importance to the religious belief. The great split between the Old Belief and the
Nikonian reforms had everything to do with ritual and nothing to do with doctrine. In Russia, a
belief is true if it supported by faith and ritual, and the ritual is true if it is supported by history. I
have been constantly surprised, on the one hand, by the syncretism of the Russian religion and its
willingness to incorporate traditions from such a diversity of sources, and, on the other, the
nation’s intolerance of those who are unwilling to assimilate or adapt, such as its Jews or its Old
Believers. In my independent study, I am working to synthesize these broadly different
conceptualizations of Russianness to better understand how the folktale became a vehicle for the
marriage of the pagan Slavic and Orthodox Christian faiths. I am so excited to have been given
the opportunity to take so many seemingly disparate classes and extract from them a common
theme that will achieve its culmination in my independent study.
Finland: Discovering its Cultural Background
Ashley Haluck-Kangas
Major: Biology
For my Take Five Year, I set out to uncover the origins of Finnish culture. I wondered
how a country that was part of other larger nations for most of its history could develop a culture
that was so unique from its neighbors. Thus, I set out to trace the cultural and historical
connections between Finland and the countries of Sweden, Russia, and Finland.
I designed my program to span over a course of three semesters. First, I took an
anthropology course in hopes that I would learn how to approach studying culture. At the same
time, I began to study Finnish history from the pre-history period until the 19th century. After
this preparation, I set off for Finland to spend a semester learning everything I could about the
country from an academic standpoint while experiencing it. I then planned to return to Rochester
to dissect my experience, and write a final thesis outlining exactly how each of the nations of
Sweden, Russia, and Germany contributed to the development of Finnish culture.
Through this experience I developed skills that I had not previously exercised during my
undergraduate experience. Besides learning how to speed-read and skim, I also began to
appreciate the complexities of studying the humanities. Unlike the sciences, which have a wellestablished method for approaching problems, study in the humanities can be approached in
several ways. Scholars critique approaches, author’s arguments, and even how one defines what
they study. Through my studies, my ability to identify and form arguments greatly improved.
In terms of my topic, I learned many things I didn’t expect. I did discover several points
throughout history in which Finnish culture was dramatically shaped by each of my countries of
interest. However, what I hadn’t realized previously was the interconnectedness of the European
continent. Even before the current integration project (the EU), powerful men and great thinkers
shaped the entire continent. Previously Finland appeared to me to be an isolated country,
influenced mainly by its nearest neighbors. What I realized is that connections can be drawn
between Finland and almost any other European country.
My Take Five experience was incredibly enlightening. My studies helped me to develop
greatly both academically and personally. I am incredibly grateful to have had this invaluable
opportunity.
Shaping Islamic Identity
Lubaba Hasan
Major: Biological Sciences: Microbiology
Growing up in a Bengali Muslim household, I have always had a certain understanding of
my family’s and Bengali community’s practice of Islam. As Islamic issues became increasingly
prevalent in the post-9/11 world, I recognized that studying Islam from multiple academic angles
would equip me with a comprehensive knowledge of the varying Islamic traditions across the
globe. The other side of that is conceiving how Muslims from an array of countries, cultures, and
sects could possibly identify with one another. Take Five afforded me the opportunity to
challenge my experiential knowledge of Islam with an objective and multidisciplinary course of
study.
Originally, my sights were on the courses that focused on Islam in the Religion and
Anthropology departments, as well as Arabic, the language of its scripture. The introductory
course covered Islam’s history and theology, which provided context for the courses that
explored Islam’s relationship with globalization and mysticism. The interplay between religion,
politics, and socioeconomic realities in Islamic regions showed in the creation of Islamic versus
Muslim states and in the waxing and waning of the Sufi tradition. These Islam-centric courses
constructed a great base for my goal to understand the diversity among Muslims. Halfway
through, I decided to study other religious traditions in order to gain insight into what is unique
and particular of Muslims and their relationship with Islam. Courses in the Anthropology of
Religion, Judaism, and Christianity helped me answer that question.
My Take Five program was not just an opportunity to expand my personal understanding
of Islam, but also lent to a general appreciation of the power of religion. In an increasingly
secular global community, it seems dangerous to homogenize political and economic systems in
the name of globalization while ignoring the religious and cultural circumstances of each
particular community. Religion can be a powerful tool to build communities, or far too often
nowadays, an inspiration for violent responses to unwelcome outside forces.
Understanding the Effect of Modernism on Art, Music, and Literature
Maria Janda
Major: Biological Sciences: Neuroscience
My Take Five program has been essential to my growth not only as an undergraduate, but
also as I grow into a cultured adult. My freshman year I knew that I wanted to major in
Neuroscience, setting me up for a rigid and academically intense course schedule. As I worked
through my sophomore year I began taking history courses and picked up a second major in
history. As a double major my opportunities to extend my academic interests became incredibly
limited but through my history courses I developed a fascination with the time period between
World War I and World War II. What intrigued me most were the various artistic developments
that occurred in the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, and how they reflected
the social and political unrest during this era.
I developed my Take Five program through various art history, music history and
literature courses I could fit into my schedule. Fortunate enough to get into the Take Five
program my Junior year, I was able to take my classes over the course of two years which
provided me with greater opportunities to personalize my curriculum. I began with Great
Russian Writers, figuring that since I had never taken a literature course it would be essential to
develop some background knowledge of the authors that would become influential during the
inter-war era. I complemented this course with History of Jazz. I had no concept of how
important jazz was in the twentieth century, and learned exponentially in this course under the
amazing guidance of Dean Burgett. After taking Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, my
first art history course, I could make preliminary connections between music and art in the
1920’s and after taking American Moderns the connections became solidified. I learned about
how the simplistic style of Ernest Hemingway, use of cubism by Picasso, and concrete Brutalist
structures constructed in England after WWI were all artistic reactions to The Great War. I was
incredibly blown away by all these connections and how they were related to one another.
Additional courses have further shaped my understanding of this time period and the
impact it would have on generations to come. To this day we are still influenced by the
architecture, music, art, and literature developed during this time. My Take Five experience has
allowed me to gain a greater appreciation for artistic developments that I never would have
achieved if the University of Rochester did not support the program. I am incredibly thankful to
have had the opportunity to venture into this unusual realm of study, and work on my own to
piece together the connections. The professors were all incredible and contributed to my
learning to the utmost degree. I encourage all students to actively learn and pursue this program.
I feel l have benefitted not only intellectually, but also personally. I am constantly applying what
I have learned when I visit museums, attend musical concerts, and travel. This has been a
phenomenal experience and I will carry my appreciation for it no matter where my future takes
me.
Cultural Differences as Seen Through Language
Angelica Kanganis
Majors: Biology / Archaeology, Technology & Historical Structures
As a freshman, I entered the University of Rochester with a desire to explore subjects that
had not been previously available: so I started with American Sign Language. It was love at first
sight, literally. As a visual language, ASL truly challenged my ideas of how people
communicate, and how those different forms of communication affect the way each individual
views the world and their society. Unfortunately, I found myself unable to continue taking sign
language classes, so I started to research the Take Five program.
While learning American Sign Language, I was also able to get some insight into the
world of the Deaf community. Though Deaf Americans and Hearing Americans live within the
same country, each group has its own language, and its own culture. In fact, I found that these
two cultures differed from each other to a surprising degree. From there my interest was sparked,
and I decided that I needed to understand why our two cultures were so different when we all
lived in the same place.
The Take Five program has allowed me to study “Cultural Differences as Seen Through
Language” in a depth that would not have otherwise been possible. I have learned much about
language, culture, society, and how these seemingly different things are so interwoven that it is
impossible to separate them. The experience has been an extremely valuable one, and one which
I would highly recommend to any student with an aspiration to study a subject which would have
otherwise been outside of their grasp.
Exploration of Russian Cultural Heritage
Olga Karlinskaya
Majors: Biological Sciences: Neuroscience (BS) / Health & Society (BA)
As a Russian Immigrant, I have always been strongly drawn to the cultural roots of my
homeland. I left St. Petersburg with my family in the fall of 1993, and have since returned only
once. While I do not find myself feeling completely “American,” I have not been able to figure
out what it means to be “Russian,” due to my lack of knowledge of Russian culture, and history.
I was fortunate enough to study Russia’s rich, and proud cultural heritage through its classical
literature, such as that of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov. It was necessary to immerse myself
in Eastern Europe’s complex and difficult history in order to understand the writings of these
Great Russian authors. It was also crucial to explore Russia’s secretive nature in order to
understand the nuances, and background of the literature.
In addition, Russia is one of the most multi-ethnic and multi-confessional countries
existing in Europe today. Thus, I surveyed various religions to have a solid foundation in the
beliefs that the majority of the Russian people identify with. Ultimately, the Take Five Scholars
program has allowed me to fulfill my personal and intellectual goal of exploring my heritage. I
was given the opportunity to build upon the foundation of Russian Culture that I had acquired
growing up in a Russian household. The program has allowed me to gain the insight necessary to
view Russia from the perspective of my contemporaries back in Russia.
National and Ethical Conflicts in Contemporary Europe
Sarah Karp
Majors: Economics / Art History
Europe has long struggled with cultural conflicts stemming from varying beliefs on
immigration, religion, and national identity. My Take Five program proposal thus began with a
statement from German Chancellor Angela Merkel: “The approach of saying, ‘Well let’s just go
for a multicultural society, let’s just coexist and enjoy each other,’ this very approach has failed,
absolutely failed.” I designed my Take Five program by posing the following question in
response to Angela Merkel’s statement: With a group of countries that have such varied social
structures and levels of economic development, can there truly be one set of beliefs that unifies
Europe, or is this attempt to integrate cultures with clashing values, as Merkel claimed, a lost
cause?
During my study abroad program with the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, I
attended several plenary sessions that highlighted the inconsistency between the image of Europe
as a unified entity embodied by the European Union and that of Europe as a separate group of
nation-states often in conflict. After further travels in Europe and acceptance into the Take Five
program, I enrolled in a combination of history and philosophy classes with the goal of better
understanding how nationalistic viewpoints have developed over time and how they contribute to
many of the key issues confronting Europe today.
Celia Applegate’s seminar, “20th Century European Thought,” essentially defined my
Take Five program and I concluded her class with a research paper on the convoluted identity of
the Roma, or gypsy population, in Europe. While my research did not determine a national
identity for the Roma, just as we cannot yet determine a concrete identity for the EU and its
member states, it did reveal alternative solutions for the sort of multicultural society Merkel
severely discredited in her above statement. I undertook Take Five to expand upon my personal
experiences in Europe and the arts – a large part of my performance and fine arts background is
rooted in European history – through academic studies at Rochester; in addition to satisfying
these initial program goals, I have now developed a much deeper understanding of the
underlying factors contributing to contemporary European identity.
The Development of Africa: Impacts on Indigenous Life and Religion
Jill Kulla
Major: Biology
My goal in applying for Take Five was to gain a better understanding of the development
of Africa and how development has affected its native peoples. In the continent that is regarded
as the birthplace of humanity and civilization, what impact has modern development had on its
indigenous tribes and native religion? Many of the changes that have occurred in Africa over the
last two centuries can be largely attributed to Western and European interventions as well as the
introduction of Islam and Christianity, so I was interested to see how indigenous people have
responded to these influences and how this has shaped the continent’s development. I planned an
eight-course study, which included courses from multiple departments including history,
anthropology, and religion.
As my Take Five year approaches its completion, I have come to understand much more
of the impacts of colonialism and post-colonialism and the modern-day problems that the
continent faces. Although many African countries contain an abundance of natural resources, the
continent remains the world’s most underdeveloped and poorest. African nations are ill-equipped
to deal with many of their present problems, largely a result of the exploitation of their resources
and populations. Food shortages have posed a threat for some time, but more recently AIDS has
become a major health concern, causing the life expectancy in South Africa to fall from 63 years
in 1990 to 56.5 years in 2000.
While I had initially hoped to focus on the religious impacts within Africa, this area of
my Take Five remained largely incomplete due to course offerings and other conflicts. For my
final project, I am doing an independent study on Africa’s food economy and aid projects related
to malaria and HIV/AIDS to better understand how African countries have dealt with these
problems on their own and to learn what has been the impact of outside intervention. I am
extremely happy that I decided to complete a Take Five program. I feel that it has given me an
opportunity to branch out from my majors into a field that I would have never otherwise studied.
Understanding of the Renown and Universality of Stories and Storytellers
Daniel Lane
Major: Chemistry
Every story is a recount of progression, either of events or a person or a place, and the
story of my Take Five project fits well into this definition. Coming from a science background,
my goal was to examine the most famous and universally celebrated stories and storytellers and
determine what makes them so well renowned. Why is there a course on Shakespeare and not
Marlowe, why Nabokov and not Kosinski? Was there some sort of formula I could apply to
these works to explain why some stories are just better than others? Through a course of study in
both literature and creative writing, I set out on a journey to examine the minutiae of stories and
hopefully explain why the greats are, well, great.
As it turns out, the empirical facets that I set out to find were a little more slippery than I
had originally anticipated. Based just on what I had learned in high school, things like the
“Hero’s Journey” were in place, I thought, simply to guide a story through a series of
checkpoints needed in any compelling plotline. It would behave like a thermodynamic state
function, the path insignificant as long as the result is the same. It was then that I began my
course of study with fairytales and found countless versions of the Cinderella story, all minor
variations on the same plot, some clearly more resonant and beautiful than others. I was quickly
proven so wrong that I decided to abandon any previous conceptions I had on the subject.
My frustrations increased as I continued on my course of study. Examining epic and
some of the great histories and tragedies of Shakespeare, the idea of spectacle and great cultural
significance in a story could be a deciding factor. Then Hemingway can step up and make an
equally beautiful work in The Sun Also Rises that has no “wow” as he put it, and adds in Death
in the Afternoon as what seemed like a personal jab, “all bad writers are in love with the epic.” I
could tag along with Shakespeare and others who have the ability to create beauty through
intricate and complex language just to get blocked off by Don Quixote and Hemingway who can
accomplish what they have on simple sentences and a wealth of content in the subtext. Even in a
course on depictions of reading in literature, no two authors will agree on the degree of
ownership an author has in the process of reading and creation of feeling in the mind of the
reader, and I began to question even how much of literary greatness was even in the control of
the author.
I reached a point of enlightenment actually in very unlikely place, when a professor in a
chemical engineering course of all places equated writing to organic synthesis, saying, “One has
a vocabulary and a collection of idiomatic constructions, and all one has to do is put them
together in a desirable fashion.” This was the epiphany of my story as no matter whether these
works were magnanimous or minute in scope, emotionally intensive or detached, flamboyant or
reserved in their language the common construction was the author’s ability to manipulate their
language in a way that could elicit emotion from the reader and allow the reader to engage with
the story in whatever way they could. The progression of my own story became an appreciation
for the aesthetic of the story. I value my experience as a Take Five scholar because I can
appreciate the choice of word or placement of a sentence as I would a line of a sculpture, a color
in a painting or the warm chord of a symphony.
If I had to answer my original question in this project, I would say that the formula for
great literature is an extensive multivariable equation where plot, emotion, vibrancy of language
and other attributes can be adjusted to equal greatness, but a normalization constant of
meaningful language is always there to ensure that a reader can engage. As I finish my Take
Five year, letting Hemingway continually alter any conceptions of what stories can be, I consider
my program to be a great success in giving me a great appreciation for a new art form, and
another way to engage with writers or express myself through writing.
Chinese Culture, Language, and History
Sam LaRussa
Major: International Relations
The field of international relations is in the midst of a rare period of transition. The West,
whose technologies, ideologies, and institutions have dominated the international system for the
better part of the past 500 years, is in a state of decline. Slowly but surely, the global balance of
power is shifting away from the United States and Europe towards emerging states in the South
and the East, who possess vastly different histories and experiences than the West. As the
influence of these new powers grows, so may the consequences of their distinct worldviews.
The realignment of the international system makes this an exciting time period to be a
student of international relations and economics. I have had the extraordinary opportunity at the
University of Rochester to compare different political systems and ideologies, study theories on
the distribution of capabilities in the international system, and analyze data to build models and
make predictions. However, while I was acquiring great tools to assess international events
through political and economic lenses, neither of my concentrations in international relations and
economics had much to say about the roles of language, culture, and history. Therefore, I
designed my Take Five program to fill in this gap by investigating the language, culture, and
history of arguably the most important emerging state in the international system: China.
My Take Five program consisted of two semesters of Simplified Mandarin and East
Asian history, which culminated in a study abroad program to Beijing, China in the fall, 2011.
This curriculum not only challenged me to learn a difficult language and a complex history, but
also to reorient my perspective to that of China and its people. For example, while studying
abroad I conducted interviews with Beijing street vendors to learn more about their businesses
for a research project. I was then able to discuss what I had found during my interviews and my
points of view with my Chinese roommate, and listen to his thoughts. This exchange of ideas
was an immeasurable experience that helped me to better understand China’s culture and the
opinions of its people.
Now, after studying 3,000 years of history, over 2,000 Mandarin characters, spending 4
months in Beijing in a language- and cultural-immersion program, and eating more dumplings
than I can count, I have reached the end of my Take 5 Program. I am truly grateful for the
opportunity that the University of Rochester has given me to continue to pursue my interests in
this field. My only disappointment is that there is no Take 6 or Take 7—there are plenty of other
emerging countries out there!
Disease in Perspective: A Study of Infectious Disease from Two Directions
Seri Link
Majors: Mathematics (BS) / English (BA)
Over the course of my Take Five program, I hoped to learn how the influence of disease
changed the course of human history. After the two and a half years that I have spent taking
courses on this subject -- courses in Anthropology, the History of Medicine, Epidemiology, and
Sociology -- I absolutely feel that I have learned more about my initial question. I have
developed a keen appreciation of the ways that disease affects the economics and politics of
nations, the finances and relationships of individuals, and the dynamics of communities. My
Take Five program has changed the way that I look at the world.
Part of this transformation has been the result of my increasing awareness that health,
rather than disease, is the true mechanism changing history. Health - or the lack thereof - shapes
the goals and paths of nations, and it drives the lives of individuals. Poor health and social
inequality are tightly linked, one the expression of the other. Health should be much more than
whether you are currently sick or not; it should be an overall feeling of well-being, security, and
satisfaction that comes from being able to fully realize your potential.
In proposing my Take Five, I particularly wanted to learn more about the big picture of
disease. I feel like now I am aware of the complex ways in which the health of people and
nations affect the world I live in. I also am more angry: more angry that the things that I learned
are not common knowledge. Over the past two and a half years, I have come to realize that after
awakening to the inequities in health and opportunity all around me, I cannot help but try to
solve them. Thanks to my Take Five, I am determined to use all of the skills I learned at the
University of Rochester in order to make the world a more equal, healthy place.
Writing Through Different Mediums
Michelle Mammoser
Majors: Applied Music / Music Education – Instrumental (BM)
Although only two months into my short, one-semester Take Five program, I am
astounded at the depth to which I have been able to study. Part of this, I believe, is due to being
fully immersed in the study of a topic that I have never examined in such a broad way. I set out
on this path, never traveled by me before, in order to get a greater understanding of what makes
writing great. I knew what great writing was by how the words drew me in and captured me
emotionally, but I wanted to understand the science, or art behind getting to that place. Taking
all four English classes simultaneously made it impossible not to compare and contrast these
approaches to writing.
As the classes went on, I found that certain aspects were used and present in all four
classes. The one that springs to mind most readily is using old words in a fresh and surprising
way as your descriptors. This was initially made clear to me in Intro to Creative Writing (ENG
120), and as the weeks went on I also found it necessary as a tool to engage readers in nonfiction writing, Feature Writing (ENG 132). In American Literature, Origins to 1865 (ENG
115), I observed writers all the way back to Christopher Columbus using this literary necessity. I
discovered that in Public Speaking (ENG 132) it is more important for the reader to have an
absolutely clear idea of what you’re saying, and in many cases, you write the speech in order to
not need that piece of paper. When standing behind the podium, your word choices either
happen spontaneously or are tucked in your memory from writing the speech.
Overall, I found that these four classes played off of each other in a remarkable way. An
aspect of writing that one class might belabor was rarely touched on in the others, but still came
into play in every assignment of each class. I am enjoying my Take Five semester immensely
and have learned (I hope) how to be an even more effective writer.
Myth and Storytelling
Chelsea R Marsh
Major: Linguistics
When I applied to the Take Five program, I set out to learn more about the background
and method of story-crafting to improve my skills as an amateur writer. Of the classes I had
originally planned to take, three of them were not offered in the time that I was a Take Five
scholar. This is partly due to the lateness of my application—I applied in my senior year and had
to base my course choices on old information, so I knew that a few of them might not be offered.
However, I didn’t expect to need to choose four entirely new classes for the program in Spring
2012. In essence, I had to figure out what I should specifically look for to enhance my program
in the classes that I was able to find.
As I had hoped it would, “Creative Writing: Fiction” provided a good basis for writing
short stories in a variety of genres. I took two semesters of “Seminar in Fiction,” and in both
semesters I had the chance to work on chapters of a longer novel that I have been thinking about
and trying to write since my freshman year here. Both this course and the introductory course
allowed me to get feedback from other writers and develop a style of writing fiction that both
works for me and appeals to my audience.
“Myth and Fairytale” gave me a better understanding of the basis and prevalence of many
recurring themes and character types in folk- and fairytales throughout the world. Stories in
Chinese and Japanese folk history share similar elements to stories from the Middle East, Africa,
and Europe. The presence of certain tropes reveals cross-cultural expectations and beliefs,
showing just how interconnected we are as human beings.
“Classical and Scriptural Backgrounds” showed me the origin of the karma motif—no
action goes unnoticed by the universe. Readers of these epics wonder how much trouble the
protagonists could have avoided by being less brash, but their actions illustrate a classic basis for
a story: the main character does something stupid, things go wrong because of it, and he has to
spend the entire story dealing with it. I expected to learn about character types and story themes
common to classical and scriptural literature, but I did not expect to see structures so well-known
to modern readers appearing in ancient texts.
Similarly to my goal with the other courses focusing on classical literature, “Arthurian
Traditions” taught me about the themes and character types present in a certain area of literature.
The tales of King Arthur’s court and Round Table have influenced and inspired Western literary
and film pieces in every genre from sociopolitical commentary to drama and comedy, showing
that tropes from this area of literature can be used to communicate a wide variety of messages.
Many of the readings in “International Fiction” were modernist works in translation. I
had never read anything from modernism before, but it gave me a different perspective on ways
to write and communicate stories. Likewise, reading works in translation—which has not gained
very much popularity in the United States yet—made me realize how much good literature I was
missing out on, and I hope to hunt down more international literature that I can learn from in the
future.
“Machinima: Film and Art in a Virtual World” challenged me to tell a story using a nonliterary method, and I added to the challenge by deciding that I was not going to use dialogue or
text in my short films. I learned how to use colors and camera angles instead of words to convey
emotion and character. Many of the literature courses in my program taught me that recurring
objects and settings can be used symbolically to point out themes. Although I was unsure of it at
first, this course made use of many strategies I had learned throughout the rest of my Take Five
program.
Although half my program had to be reworked for me to complete my fifth year, I still
learned a lot to enhance my abilities as a writer. Even the classes that were last-minute additions
furthered the goal of my program. Overall, it was a rewarding experience and I’m very glad I
had the chance to study here for an additional year.
The Universal Language of the World is Math
Samantha Miller
Majors: Philosophy / English
The objective of my Take Five project was to develop and apply my problem solving
skills, cultivate knowledge of the history of mathematics and gain a deeper understanding for
how mathematics is an integral part of nearly everything in today’s society. I was eager to
become a more rigorous thinker and disciplined learner. To achieve these goals, I planned to
focus on the grounded applications of mathematics, logical reasoning and the historical and
artistic role of mathematics in various cultures.
With my Take Five year approaching its end, my fluency in the language of mathematics
and my level of mathematic comprehension have matured beyond belief. Not only has my ability
to work through rigorous technicalities greatly improved, but my overall perspective on the
world at large—from the realm of mathematics to that of politics, science, and psychology—has
blossomed in a way that makes me a more intelligent, open-minded and interesting human being.
For example, History of Mathematics has taught me how various cultures interact with their
surroundings to develop a basis for mathematics and make room for discovery. Each set of truths
is based on what has previously existed. Euclid’s the Elements is a clear example of this. The
book shows the Pythagoreans’ loose structure of number theory, which Theateus then made
rigorous through the use of proofs and definitions. This sophisticated improvement of the theory
is what we see Euclid include in his version.
Just as I value the material itself, I strongly value the opportunity to learn this material,
and the fact that I was able to improve my skills so immensely with an extra year of education.
Because of my experience with the Take Five program, I have a more leveled and rational
system of thought, and have become well-versed in the universal language of the world.
The Philosophies of Marx and Nietzsche: The Impact of Their Ideologies on German Culture
During and After WWII
Silvia Perucchio
Major: Chemical Engineering
As a student majoring in chemical engineering with a minor in mechanical engineering,
my curriculum was already decided through my senior semester of college. Although I loved my
major and minor, I had other interests and wanted to get the chance to pursue them, knowing that
once I left school I would never again have that opportunity. Because I applied and was granted a
Take Five Scholarship early in my college career, I was able to intersperse courses in history,
philosophy, literature, and anthropology into my last three years. I was also able to plan an
incredible study abroad experience in Berlin, Germany, as part of my fifth year.
As a high school student I was fascinated by philosophy, especially the authors whose
views would play such a powerful role in politics. Marx and Nietzsche, both German
philosophers, deeply influenced the politics and culture of their native country in completely
opposite ways, and I was especially interested in learning more about their legacy. Thanks to the
Take Five program, I was able to take classes with an in-depth focus on the writings of these two
philosophers, and to study the historical context in which their ideologies took root. I feel that
the semester abroad in Berlin completed my curriculum as I was able to personally experience
what I had learned about in Rochester, such as how Marxist philosophy affected gender politics
in Germany or the changes in conceptualizing class in light of WWII and the Cold War.
I am more than halfway through my Take Five year, and with my return from study
abroad in Germany I officially completed the classes for my program. However, I am currently
auditing a course on the philosophical background of Fascism and Nazism, and continue to want
to learn more about the relationship between thought and action, philosophy and politics. My
Take Five experience has enabled me to better understand the dialogue surrounding these topics
so that not only am I enriched by the knowledge gained, I am also now capable of learning in
new and different ways.
Polish Language and Cultural Studies
Timothy Pietras
Majors: Statistics / Music
In an effort to better understand my family roots, I studied Polish as a Take Five Scholar.
My study of all-things-Polish has involved taking courses offered by five different departments.
I began learning the language in September 2010 and have since taken five courses (much more
work remains before I can claim proficiency, however!). In Spring 2011, I participated in a
poetry class taught by a famous Polish poet, Piotr Sommer. Now under my belt are three history
courses (History of Poland, World War II: Eastern Front, and Europe Since 1945) and a Russian
studies course (which frequently incorporated into class discussions the Polish perspective
regarding the development of the Russian state). Most recently, I conducted independent
research on Polish folk music and transcribed and arranged a collection of pieces which the UR
Brass Choir performed in April on the campus of Syracuse University.
The real success of the program, in my opinion, has not been so much what I have
learned in the classroom as that which I have experienced through personal contact with Polish
culture and Poland itself. In July 2011 I studied at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków,
Poland, becoming the first person in three generations in my family to visit Poland (and the first
in countless generations to experience Poland as a sovereign state). Through school trips and my
own exploration with friends, I fell in love with the country (I will consider living there for a
portion of my life). Since 2010, I have attended most of the events sponsored by the Skalny
Center for Polish and Central European Studies. These events have ranged from films at
Rochester’s annual Polish Film Festival to piano recitals by award-winning musicians. In 2011 I
joined the UR’s Slavic Club and every now and then I attempt to create an authentic Polish meal
using cookbooks I bought last summer. The formal “Take Five” year has now concluded but I
am confident that my understanding of Poland and its language and culture has only just begun.
Understanding the Role of Government in Light of Economics
Jonathan Pinto
Major: Biology
My Take Five Scholarship project was to better understand the proper role of government
in society. My approach was to explore the fields of Economics, Philosophy and Political
Science in order to gain a variety of perspectives for such a complex issue. I was inspired to
pursue this project after taking introductory economics, where I learned that in response to
individual demands, vast numbers of people can implicitly cooperate through market interactions
to achieve their ends, and these interactions shift according to changes in those demands. The
topic caught my interest when it was demonstrated that often times, interventions that alter the
costs faced by individuals and firms in the market place can result in many unintended
consequences that could not have been foreseen by policy makers due to the complexity of
markets and interconnectedness of markets. These consequences can be worse than the problems
that the interventions were originally meant to solve, and thus the study of economics begs the
question: when is government regulation of market forces actually in our best interests? By
taking additional courses in economics, I gained an understanding of externalities and market
failures, which are important factors that make pure market outcomes suboptimal, and thus imply
the need for some sort of non-market solution. These courses also supplied a method for thinking
about how one might arrive at a sensible solution.
The question at hand could not be solved by economics alone. Studies in political science
and philosophy were necessary as well to expose me to the rationale current functions of
government intervention, as well as ethical questions that may pose good arguments to the
“laws” of economics. Specifically, in my philosophy courses I was able to study some different
views on what it means to behave morally, both as an individual and as a society. Understanding
this helped me to understand what arguments there are for obligations of one person to another,
and one part of society to another. Political science gave me background in what the functions of
government are, and how policy choices get made. This allowed for analysis of whether these
functions and proceedings are now or could ever be efficient, pragmatic and in the best interests
of society, and what would need to change in order to make bad policy better.
Overall, my Take Five Scholarship project was extremely enjoyable. I gained a much
deeper understanding of economics, political science, and philosophy and learned a great deal
that was pertinent to my project. Although the logic of basic economics is very sound, I
understand now that there are some very important exceptions to the conclusions to which that
logic leads. Government intervention is certainly necessary in situations were people are
insulated from costs and benefits, and therefore make socially suboptimal decisions. Also,
society must be conscious of those who simply lack any ability at all to participate and thus
benefit from open trade. Smart, objective governmental policy can remedy these outcomes and
create a more prosperous society. Although there are many barriers to that end because of
personal interests and biases influencing policy making, the goal is not unachievable, and my
pursuit of this project had been a fruitful one by giving me the tools to evaluate economic and
social issues and their possible solutions.
Photography and the Art of Urban Design
Alexander Pozez
Major: Brain & Cognitive Sciences
For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in photography and urban design
but never studied either. Now, after almost completing my Take Five year it is safe to say that I
am well versed in both.
In my first semester as a Take Five student I took Modern Architecture, History of
Photography, Creating Architecture, and an independent study in architectural photography.
Modern Architecture and Creating Architecture gave me a more complete understanding of the
function of buildings, how they are constructed, and designed. Through this new understanding I
think I am now better able to photograph urban environments from the perspective of form as
well as function. Taking History of Photography was also very beneficial to my growth as a
photographer; taking this class opened my eyes to a lot of different ways photography can be
used. After completing History of Photography I had a lot more ideas about perspectives to shoot
from and ways of presenting my work.
My second semester as a Take Five student has been even more enjoyable than my first. I
am currently taking Advanced Photo, Intro Drawing, Advanced Digital Art, and another
independent study in architectural photography. These classes have given me a good technical
background. I am now better equipped to use lighting, exposure, picture development and
camera angle to create and execute the right shot. In particular, Digital Art has been a very
valuable class. In the modern age of digital photography Adobe Photoshop® is an indispensable
tool to all photographers. Taking Advanced Digital Art has taught me techniques in Photoshop
that have given me infinitely greater control over the development process of photography,
making my pictures that much better.
Latin America: A Political, Economic, and Historical Perspective
Mara E. Pusateri
Major: Archaeology, Technology & Historical Structures
When I first began writing my Take Five proposal, I knew that I wanted to build off of
my study abroad experience in Quito, Ecuador. As I reflected upon both my experience in
Ecuador and the Spanish courses I had taken since high school, I realized that I was lacking
knowledge in the political, historical, and economic aspects of Latin America. While spending
time in Ecuador, I couldn’t help but notice the widespread poverty and income inequality
throughout the city, the countryside, and places in between. That being said, my main reason for
participating in Take Five was to find explanations for the social, economic, and political
disparities found in Ecuador and other Latin American countries today.
As my Take Five journey progressed, I was faced with the fact that some of the courses I
had originally planned to take were either cancelled or not offered during certain semesters.
Though Professor Niemi advised me about this when I first presented my Take Five proposal to
him, I was prepared and willing to take on the challenge of finding replacement courses. Despite
my disappointment when I found out that most of the courses specific to Latin America were not
offered during my Take Five year, I was fortunate to find alternate courses that not only met but
also surpassed the objectives of my proposal. For example, Professor Ray’s courses on Political
Violence and Democratization had a global and comparative focus but also covered cases on
specific Latin American countries like El Salvador and Peru. The course that surprised me the
most was the Cry Freedom course taught by Professor Cadorette. Before I took the course, I
thought that it would be more focused on religion than on Latin America. As the course
progressed, however, I learned that the main focus was not so much on religion but on social
justice in Latin America and around the world. What I enjoyed most about the course was
hearing Professor Cadorette talk about his first-hand experiences in Peru. I was also amazed by
how well my Take Five courses both related to and built upon one another. For example, I first
learned about Liberation Theology in Professor Cadorette’s course and I was so fascinated by it
that I wrote a paper about Liberation Theology in Nicaragua for one of my History courses. On a
similar note, I am currently researching the consolidation of democracy in Ecuador since 2000
for one of my International Relations courses.
At this point in time, I am midway through my last semester as a Take Five student.
Looking back on my Take Five experience thus far, I believe that I have learned so much more
than I had anticipated. Though my Take Five proposal was focused specifically on Latin
America, I have acquired much more knowledge and awareness about what is going on in the
world today from the global economic crisis to the Arab Spring. My Take Five courses within
the division of Social Science have taught me, an ATHS major, to think not only more critically,
but also with a more comparative and global perspective. This coming fall, I will be pursuing
graduate study in the fields of Public Health and Urban Planning and my Take Five courses have
inspired me to adopt an international focus. Last but not least, I would like to thank all those who
made Take Five such an enjoyable experience for me, especially the Take Five program board
and administrators, and the departments of Political Science, History, Religion and Classics, and
Economics.
The Clash and Coexistence of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism
Francisco Ramirez
Majors: Biology / Spanish
After my study abroad experience in the cultural melting pot, Granada, Spain, I was
blown away by the co-existence of certain major religions and ethnicities in this small yet dense
city. From the diversity of clothing and identities to the cultural blend of architecture and food, I
craved to understand and learn more about the reasons why these religions could live together in
peace and also in violence at the same time.
Take Five was an amazing opportunity to attempt to understand the interactions and
influences that Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all have had on each other. Although my interest
was sparked from the major religious juxtaposition resulting form the Muslim rule in the Iberian
Peninsula from 711 AD to 1492 AD, this tremendously complex topic goes beyond just one
unique setting and time period. Many classes during my Take Five experience have allowed me
to understand each of these three religions independently. Learning and understanding the roots
of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism along with their sacred scriptures gave me the resources to
branch out and understand how they have influenced and used each other to form a unique and
separate identity. Furthermore, my studies of language, literature, and history have helped me
understand the numerous similarities between these cultures and religions. For example, my
Take Five courses have taught me to recognize many patterns that could possibly help scholars
understand how and why conflicts occur between these religions.
Although my understanding of these religions and their coexistence will continue to grow
and develop, my Take Five experience has offered me new and numerous ways to approach and
think about various religious issues.
Humanism in Medieval Christian Thought
James Robbins
Major: English
The modern era is an age of enlightenment. It is an age that has for centuries been
dominated by a faith in empirical truths, and the attainment of those truths through the uniquely
human faculty of reason. However, as the 21st century begins, so this age of enlightenment ends
with the shattering of our empirical faith. Industrial dehumanization, the atomic bomb, and the
horrors of modern warfare have all demonstrated a failure in man's use of reason for world
betterment. As we enter a new historical age, it is perhaps best to understand our societal
changes in the context of the last great shift in Western thought between the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance. For my Take Five program, I sought to explore those humanistic elements within
the Medieval Catholic Church which spawned the modern era. Since Western civilization sits on
a complex humanistic foundation, I organized my program around the historical, philosophical,
and literary backgrounds to the heavily Christianized thought of the times. This background
culminated in an independent study of the humanistic elements within The Divine Comedy,
perhaps the most important literary work of the Middle Ages which inspired centuries of
humanists and served as one of the greatest contributors to modern culture.
Africa and the Global Economy
Megan L. Roberts
Major: Health & Society
The objective of my Take Five Scholars program has been to study the ways in which
changes in the global economic system have shaped the lives of Africans since the fifteenth
century. The inspiration for my program stemmed from the time I spent in Malawi, a country in
Southern Africa, as a part of the University of Rochester’s Malawi Immersion Seminar. A major
component of this seminar was to learn about the challenges facing Malawians. Our observations
were to include the effects of economic disparities on such vital issues as access to food, medical
care, and political participation. This program also provided an overview of the history of the
country from the time of its colonization to the present. I completed the program with a
heightened interest in the causes behind European colonialism and the profound impact that
European control exerted on African politics and economies. My Take Five program mirrors this
interest and included a semester of study in Cape Town, South Africa. Upon completion of the
Take Five program I hope to better understand the emergence of the modern world system and
Africa’s role in it, and to develop a greater appreciation of the political and economic histories of
Africa in general and of South Africa in particular. My coursework thus far has allowed me to
learn all of this and more.
Before the Take Five program, I was not knowledgeable in theories regarding the
establishment of the current world economic order and how this order has influenced our current
international political economy. I now know that many African countries participate in the world
economy that forces them to exchange their services and goods on unequal terms with the West.
This in turn has had an enormous impact on the social and political developments in Africa itself.
In South Africa I have seen how the world economic system can shape the life conditions in a
country. I am really grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Take Five program.
Music Cognition: Perception of Music in the Brain
Justin Rosati
Majors: Biological Sciences: Molecular Genetics (BS) / Statistics (BA)
The Take Five program has given me such a wonderful opportunity, which allowed me to
study music beyond what would have been possible in my first four years. My interest for music
stemmed back to before my undergraduate years. Although I had studied voice and violin for a
number of years, I was never given the chance to delve more deeply into the musical world. It
was when I began to become more involved in music on campus, both in academics and
extracurricular, that my curiosity began to grow. I began to notice both differences within music,
and differing reactions of the listeners of the music. I decided to create a program, which looked
into not only music, but its perception in the human mind. Music, no matter how universal,
seemed to affect each person differently.
Through my Take Five program in Music Cognition, I was able to learn an immense
amount about both music and sound perception that I would have been otherwise unable to in my
time as an undergraduate. My understanding for music has grown tremendously through my
study of the theory behind music and its application through both sight singing and piano. Now I
not only have the ability to discern whether something sounds right or wrong, but I can explain
why and even write out the notes on paper. In addition, I have a much better understanding of
the auditory system and how sound is processed in the brain. The complexities of music as a
sound translate into the complexities of how it is perceived. Although you may not realize it,
each time you are hearing music you are processing not only the pitch, but also other aspects
such as the rhythm and timbre. It is only when the brain interprets all of this information
together do we hear what we refer to as music.
I am still very much excited in continuing my learning about music perception. Although
I plan on entering the medical field, my Take Five program has allowed me to see other potential
uses for music. Music is now being used as a therapy for autism, Parkinson’s disease and even
pain management. My goal is to continue learning and always look for a new way in which I can
apply all the knowledge that this 5th year has afforded me.
African Studies: Modern and Historical Perception and Reality
Christine M. Rose
Majors: Anthropology / Studio Arts
The purpose of the Take Five program is to take time to study something simply because
the knowledge is valuable. I wanted my Take Five to be something both interesting to me
personally, and also something that would provide me with relevant and useful information about
the world. Based on that and my existing interests, I decided to study contemporary African
issues. I believe that travel is a very effective way to learn, and prior to my Take Five I had
already lived in Spain for a summer when I was sixteen; briefly visited Germany, Belgium, and
Italy; taken a winter theatre course in London; spent about five weeks backpacking in France;
and visited both South Africa and Egypt. These last two locations, the only two developing
countries on the list, had a unique influence.
My decision to study abroad in Ghana as part of my Take Five program was similarly
important. This four and a half months was the longest period I had spent abroad, and to spend it
in a developing country was extremely educational in a practical sense. This first semester of my
fifth year was incredibly valuable. It was almost entirely non-academic, since classes at the
University of Ghana were quite unchallenging, but this allowed me to experience a variety of
things I would otherwise not have had the time for. I learned some drumming and dance, as well
as some Twi language; I traveled to the Eastern, Western, Central, Asante, and Northern regions;
I stayed in a village in the Volta region and hiked mountains there; I volunteered at a school and
gained some insight into education in Ghana. All of this, and much more, informed my view of
Africa and the developing world, all the time complemented by extra courses and time with
professors at the University of Rochester. Had I not pursued Take Five, I would not have had the
time or resources to complete such a project. Regardless of what I do in the future, this year has
been a hugely important addition to my education, and one that I value.
The Science of the Earth
Adina Rubinoff
Majors: Computer Science (BS) / Linguistics (BA)
Thanks to the Take Five program, I have spent the past 2.5 years studying the Earth itself.
My goal was to answer, in a scientific manner, questions I have always had about this planet we
live on. Where did the Earth come from? How did it form and evolve? What is its role in the
galaxy around it? And how did it come to support life like me? I wanted to understand what was
beneath my feet, from the surface soils all the way down to the iron core. I also wanted to
understand the part our planet played in the much larger dance of bodies around our Sun and
through our galaxy and Universe.
Through geology and astronomy courses I have explored both the history and the makeup
of the planet we live on. I have learned about the Big Bang and the births of galaxies and stars
leading up to the formation of our planet. I have traveled across the country to examine the way
tectonic plates shift, and I have gone into Rochester’s backyard to see signs of glaciers. I have
learned to pick up a rock and tell you what it is made of and where it was probably formed. I
have stayed up into the wee hours of the night taking photographs of the moons of Jupiter, in
order to better understand how planetary bodies interact. Finally, this semester I am learning
about our search for life on other planets, and how life as we know it probably came to exist in
the first place. There is no question that I am emerging from this fifth year with a much more
thorough understanding of our planet, from the smallest processes affecting grains in rocks to the
gargantuan movements of our Earth around the Sun.
The Art and Design of the Guitar: History and Practice
Declan Ryan
Major: Political Science
In addition to my undergraduate focus as a Political Science major at the University of
Rochester, I spent my college years outside the classroom learning how to build stringed
instruments. My Take Five program, entitled The Art and Design of the Guitar: History and
Practice, set and achieved the goal of facilitating an enhanced understanding of the art of
luthierie. I am incredibly lucky to have had it as part of my college experience. My studies were
focused in the field of art history, and took me through a breadth of culture that transformed my
perspective on the field.
My program began in the spring of my senior year with two courses that provided an
essential framework to conceptualize my research. The Aesthetics course from the philosophy
department brought a critical history of the analysis of art, and a class in woodworking at RIT's
School for American Crafts allowed for insight into the medium and its strengths and limitations
as a design element.
The first half of my fifth year took me to Barcelona, a world capital of art and design
history. There I studied the history of art in Spain, its unique blend of visual cultures, and the
roots of Modernism. In addition, I had the unique opportunity to work with the Cremona-trained
luthier Lluíís Clapers, co-designing and building a Gaudinian electric violin, breaking new
exciting ground in the visual culture of the field.
My current and final semester has brought me back to Rochester, where I am working to
further my understanding of the cultural context of historical trends in the field. The course
Modern Art is another look at the art of the 19th century, into the 20th century, which allows for
insight into the development of contrasting movements in visual media. The Blues (MUR127)
follows the history of the blues, and specific to my program, the instrumentation and
arrangement thereof. The development of the guitar's changes in response to the demands of
musicians is of special interest to my independent study project, which presents a new look at the
origins and legacies of the prevailing trends in guitar design, and how it has shaped major
players in the industry.
The last year and a half has been an unbelievable experience. From hours of practice in
workshops, to an overseas cultural adventure, to a graduate-style research experience, I would
call the entire program a highlight of my time at the University of Rochester.
Photojournalism through the Lens of Media Studies
Sam Sadtler
Major: Mechanical Engineering
I applied for Take Five in order to explore the evolving world of photojournalism and
better understand the media industry landscape as it changes before my eyes. I was fascinated by
the effects of the internet on the newspaper industry and was curious to find a solution to their
mounting problems. In terms of photojournalism, I have been interested in photography since
High School and I was intrigued by the fact that professionals where being forced into learning
and utilizing multimedia techniques for online distribution. Initially, I set up my Take Five so I
could have exposure to both the media studies aspect of the industry and the history behind the
evolution of digital technology. The other part of my Take Five was designed to continue to
explore my interest in Photography, by taking a number of technical classes.
Now, I am delving deeply into questions about the impact of digital technology on our
society. With the introduction of tablets and smart phones, even more than ever, we are
connected. At the same time, we are leaving behind a trove of unwanted and unused gadgets,
which used to be at the height of technology. My primary focus is in mediums of dying
technology: TVs, kitchen appliances, and stereo equipment. My work seeks to give persona to
the technology we so willingly discard.
I find myself in two related subjects. First, I am learning how to create and manage
websites in my web programming class and, in a digital art class, about the design of online
content. Secondly, I am spending my fifth year in senior seminar at Sage exploring many key
questions about our trajectory as a society, through sculpture, video, and photography.
Studio Ghibli: Joe Hisaishi’s Music
Jungo Sasaki
Major: Computer Science
I grew up watching Japanese cartoons and was always fascinated by their accompanied
music because, in spite of the simplified drawings in the cartoons, the emotions to which I was
inspired were truly real and often exceeded the limits that the non-cartoon film pertained. I had
always wanted to take music and film classes to be able to better appreciate this culture;
however, being an engineer in undergrad, it left me with almost no time to take such classes.
This is how I decided to pursue the Take Five Program.
Throughout my Take Five year, I tried to stick with the original plan as much as I could. I
found one of the classes I took in the beginning to be really different from what I had expected. I
had expected to cover the Eastern Asian music, but because every year the professor changes the
areas of the coverage we skipped the chapters of the Eastern Asian music in the year I took the
course. I considered dropping the course, but my advisor strongly suggested that I should stick
with the class because it will ultimately help me build up a base for how to approach music. I
ended up sticking with the class and now I feel that, although I didn’t learn specific areas of
music I initially intended to learn from that class, I became adept at taking what I hear – whether
or not I think of it as music – and analyzing it with little bias.
Almost ending my Take Five year, I feel that this opportunity has given me a new
perspective. Before taking my Take Five courses, I didn’t pay much attention to the context of
the music I listened to. I never thought of why a certain kind of music was played or sounded in
a certain way. I learned throughout the courses I took that, in fact, music is often a product of the
culture in which it is involved. I would not say that I became proficient in describing music like
an ethnomusicologist, but certainly knowing the backgrounds and the meanings of musical
elements has helped me develop musical analytical skills.
I hope, by the end of this semester, I utilize these skills I have acquired and apply them to
analyze the influential musician, Joe Hisaishi, who mainly composes music for the Japanese
cartoons.
The Political Economy of African Nations
Andrea Sobolewski
Major: Art History
I have always had a profound interest in Africa and African politics. My curiosity
reached its zenith when I was lucky enough to travel to Cameroon at the end of my sophomore
year to do HIV/AIDS education and testing in the village of Foumban. Returning back to school,
I realized there was so much more I wanted to learn, and the Take Five program offered me this
opportunity.
The goal of my Take Five program was not to simply study African political atmosphere.
The West tends to look at Africa as one melded country full of chaos and poverty. I sought to
discover why so many African nations struggle with political unrest, unemployment, and AIDS.
Thus, my program was developed with the approach of “reading history backwards,” meaning
that I would look at historical events from the perspective of the present. The first course I took
appropriately entitled “The Political Economy of Africa” provided the groundwork for my
appreciation. In this class I critically assessed the relationship between Africa’s arbitrary
boundaries and political fragmentation, as well as the long-lasting impact that Imperialism has
had on the economic stability of many nations.
The knowledge I have gained through my Take Five program has been invaluable. I have
acquired a better understanding of the role of First world nations in Africa’s historical trajectory,
but more importantly, I now have the ability to look at the current political economic troubles
affecting African nations from a critical and historical perspective.
The Fossil Record: A Means to Investigate Climate’s Effects on Biodiversity
Dorota Stobierska
Major: Biological Sciences: Microbiology
At some point during our time here at the U of R, many of us find ourselves frantically
flipping through the pages of the course catalog, wondering how we are going to work all of the
biology, chemistry and genetics labs and workshops into our schedules. It was during one of
those times that I came across the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department section and my
eyes were immediately drawn to a single, completely unanticipated, word on the page:
Paleontology. Instantly, my mind journeyed to my childhood – who wasn’t crazy about
dinosaurs at one age or another? Images of vast deserts, strange skeletons, and bearded men in
sunhats rose before my eyes. I realized that, while engrossed in my premed course load, I have
failed to take full advantage of what this University has to offer.
Almost two years have passed since I finally decided to act on my childhood fascination
with fossils. I set out on a quest to familiarize myself with the geological disciplines, such as
paleontology, sedimentology and stratigraphy. My goal was to broaden my understanding of a
more current issue, climate change and its effects on biodiversity on Earth, by learning about the
evidence of such change in the rock record.
In doing so I opened myself to a world of natural science that I have never before given a
second thought. Being able to look at a rock or a rock formation and predict the conditions under
which that rock had formed, not to mention being able to tell one rock apart from another, is
surprisingly satisfying. Having the tools to critically think about the anthropogenic effects on
climate change or the knowledge to assess the plausibility of phylogenetic trees will definitely
come in useful in my future as a scientist. Finally, vertebrate paleontology provided me with
insight into the fields of embryology, functional morphology, as well as anatomy in general,
which have given me a unique perspective and will be invaluable in my future career in
medicine.
Finally, I can say with confidence that the Take Five year has made a lasting impact on
my life. During the summer after my senior year, I had the opportunity to go on a road trip to
Wyoming with no other but the paleontology professor, Penny Higgins. There, I attended the
TerQua Conference at the Tate Geological Museum at Casper College. The peculiar and friendly
people I met there, and the intellectually stimulating atmosphere, have convinced me that I want
to pursue paleontology as a hobby in the future.
Understanding Mozart: the Music and the Mind
Han Wool John Sung
Major: Brain & Cognitive Sciences
The goal of my fifth year at the University of Rochester was to study the mystery of
Mozart’s mind, connecting both music and the field of brain and cognitive science. Anxious to
indulge myself in music theory and brain and cognitive science rather than studying biology
subjects, I was quite excited to stay for an extra year. Although my Take Five program didn’t
exactly follow each and every class that I originally planned due to different course offerings, I
was still able to experience different aspects of the University of Rochester that I never got to
explore.
Understanding the ingenious mind of Mozart wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be;
nevertheless, I learned so much that I would have never encountered if I didn’t decide to stay
another year. At first, I had trouble taking music theory classes along with brain and cognitive
science classes. However, as the semester went on, I saw myself digging into the music theory of
fugue and the intricate mind processing of human and models. To explore further to answer my
questions, I took the Music and the Mind class, which turned out to be the most essential classes
for my Take Five program. Through that class, I was able to connect how the mind understands
music and complete the relationship of both music and the mind. In addition, I’m researching
about Mozart Effect in that class, which suggests that listening to Mozart’s music in early
childhood may induce a short-term improvement in the performance of mental tasks known as
“spatial-temporal reasoning.” This is definitely one of the crucial researches I will do to expand
the knowledge I have acquired this year and I’m definitely eager to find more on it.
As my Take Five year comes to an end, I hope I will have gained a better understanding
of both music and brain and cognitive science. I’m very grateful for the opportunity I have
received by getting accepted into the Take Five Scholars Program and I plan to use the rest of the
time at the University of Rochester to the fullest.
Sustainable Business Policy
Neil Suryadevara
Majors: Biology / Philosophy
When proposing my Take Five program, I expected to graduate with a clear idea of how
to best reconcile the growth of the economy with the preservation of the natural environment. It
seemed to me that the progress of one came at the cost of the other. As society develops, the
environment suffers. As we protect the environment, our economy slows. Opening up the
newspaper, I would see many references to environmental sustainability. Given my limited
understanding of the costs and benefits of environmental sustainability, I thought that it would
most certainly be in the country’s best interest to invest in environmentally sustainable measures.
Taking my Take Five coursework made me almost immediately skeptical of my previous
stance. After seeing a hydrogen power vehicle and realizing how many resources would be
required to make the vehicles mainstream, seeing the increased time and financial resources
required to make a building LEED certified, and viewing the relatively low efficiency of solar
panels, my eyes were opened to some of the challenges that act as a barrier for environmental
preservation.
Although I still acknowledge the benefits of sustainable practices, I feel as though I am
more cognizant of the costs of adopting these “green” practices. Now I feel as though before one
favors a particular “green” initiative, one ought to have a firm understanding of the expected
expenses incurred from that endeavor. Often times these initiatives are quite costly; this money
may be better used in some other arena. Ideally, “green” development aligns with economic
growth. We ought to search for more innovative opportunities where this is the case.
My ultimate conclusion is that there is no easy answer. It is quite apparent that human
development negatively impacts the planet. We ought to do our best to mitigate these damages
through implementing innovative environmental practices, always considering the delicate
balance between the economy and environment. I am thankful that I have had the opportunity to
realize this among other lessons through my year taking courses I have never had anything
similar to before.
The Effects of Language on the Culture of China
Jay Voris
Major: Optics
In this Take Five, I set out to explore the interaction between Chinese language and
culture. To do this, I studied linguistics and anthropology to attempt to understand how the two
subjects interact, and how language and culture can influence each other. I also studied the
Chinese language directly, to gain more than just an academic understanding of the language and
its structure.
Taking a Chinese anthropology class concurrently with elementary Chinese really drove
home some of the cultural differences between English and Chinese. In the process of learning
about linguistics, anthropology and Chinese, I found that there are a lot of far-reaching
implications of language. The political aspects of language reform, and how they interacted with
the cultural landscape of China, is one particular facet of the interaction of the language and
culture which exemplifies the unique environment in China and my Take Five has allowed me to
discover this and explore it in much greater depth.
Visual Culture and Contemporary China
Frances Wang
Major: International Relations
For my Take Five year, my proposed program was “Contemporary China and Visual
Culture.” I was interested in China since it was one of the fastest growing economies in the
world, and has undergone so much political and social change in the past decades, and yet it is
also a country filled with much controversy, in issues such as media censorship. I wanted to see
how Chinese society viewed their media and the censorship.
I had the amazing opportunity to go abroad to Beijing, China for my first semester of
Take Five. I attended courses at Minzu University, a university specially for ethnic minority
students and studies. It was a wonderful opportunity to be there, because I not only got to interact
with Han Chinese students who make up of the majority of the population, but also students from
various different ethnic groups. I got to have firsthand experiences talking to students about what
they thought about how the media works in China. The students broadened my idea of what
could be censored in China – it wasn’t simply about whether one could say whatever one wanted
or about saying things against the government. There were issues of media pertaining to ethnic
minorities – that they were portrayed always in a light that showed that conditions were getting
better for them, that it was always women in images dressed in exotic “ethnic” clothing. I saw
paintings of ethnic minorities along my school of each group in what seemed to be the
stereotypical view of them being more exotic and native. I realized the many complexities and
sensitivities about media in China, and then it wasn’t simply just right and wrong. Many of the
Chinese people I interacted with expressed their opinions about the media, and it wasn’t as clearcut as I would’ve predicted. I became increasingly interested in how media, and in particularly
photography, affected people’s mindsets and sense of identities.
Coming back to Rochester for the rest of my Take Five has allowed me to really analyze
my experiences that I had abroad. While last semester was a wonderful experience to do firsthand fieldwork interacting with Chinese people, this semester my goal is to take those
experiences and continue to do more research to learn more about the relationship between how
the media affects Chinese people, and how Chinese people view media. In one respect, it is
really hard because I feel like there was so much that I saw and started to get a taste of last
semester, and so much that I want to work with and focus in on. Yet, I’m excited for the rest of
this semester to focus and really get more in depth with my research. In that way, Take Five
helped me realize that I really have an interest in this subject matter, and it is something I hope to
work more with in the future as well.
Human Cognition
Robin Wilson
Majors: History / Biology
I took on a second major in history during my first four years as an undergrad at the
University of Rochester primarily because it was fun. At the end of a long day spent in the labs
and study groups that are endemic to biology majors on the pre-medical track, there was nothing
quite as relaxing as curling up with a book on Stalinist propaganda, or Tokugawa era culture.
However, the more I studied, the more I noticed certain social archetypes and behavioral
similarities – patterns if you will – that persisted between societies regardless of their
geographic, and temporal locations. This, combined with my studies in animal behavior, piqued
my interest in human behaviors and thought processes, so I used my Take Five year to delve into
the topic of human cognition.
Nearing the end of my studies, my program has given me new insight into the way the
human mind recognizes and executes patterns without our knowledge. I owe many thanks for
this to Dr. Davies, with whom I spent a lot of time working on the “Me and My Family Project.”
He introduced me to a new perspective on human behavior based on the evolutionary science I
already understood so well. According to his theories, humans are moving through a modern
environment with hardware that is evolutionarily adapted to a much different world. Certain
things that are seen as socially unacceptable, such as growing aggressive during an argument,
could be reactions that once provided such a fitness boost that they have become hardwired into
us. Dr. Deci taught me about the power of patterns on a more proximal scale by introducing me
to the Gestalt Theory of psychology. This theory states that we have learned patterns from a very
young age based on our relationships with others that sometimes cause us to react poorly to
situations without our even realizing it. The classic example of this would be the person with
authority problems because of their poor relationship with their father.
Everything I learned about the way the mind develops, conditions, and learns in BCS
classes also points to the overwhelming power subconscious patterns – both innate and learned –
have on the way we think and function. The way I approach literature, historical documents, and
other people has been drastically altered. Though I thought I would gain only facts during this
year, I have become much more effective in managing my personal relationships, extracurricular
commitments, and scholarly duties. I am able to recognize the patterns in my own thoughts and
behaviors, as well as those in others. For example, I have learned to identify people who once
might have offended me, and caused me to put up personal barriers, as people who simply have
different perspectives than my own. Brushing others off becomes difficult once you realize you
can teach them – or else learn from them – a better way. We will never be able to escape from
the patterns that drive our existences, but we can learn to identify the harmful ones, and replace
them with something better.
Imagining Worlds: Exploring the Creation of Setting
David Wituszynski
Major: Chemical Engineering
I built my Take Five project around the creation of space. How are we affected by our
environments? But then, how do we change our environments, presumably to change this effect?
Further, I wanted to examine literature as a primary means by which we did this. The creation of
setting in a story can have a big impact on both the narrative and the reader, and, besides, I
wanted to try my hand at this kind of creation as well. But I had no idea that I was about to learn
so much, not only about space, but about many other things as well.
Don’t get me wrong - I learned plenty about space and the construction thereof. Classes
in History, Art History, and Psychology have given me an introduction to the social theory of
space. I learned that my situation in space is much more complicated than it at first seems: I
perceive not only my physical environment, but my social environment as well, and often this is
the dominant presence. I’ve come to start thinking about how certain spaces influence social
interaction, and how to design ones that make this interaction better. Curiously, this came up in
some of my classes that I was taking outside of the program as well; in one class, we analyzed
the new Saunders research building using many of these concepts. At the same time, our
cultures, and even our personal identities, include spatial aspects as well, and I’ve only begun
understanding how we construct space and space constructs us.
Integrating literature and writing courses carried its own set of challenges, but they have
truly deepened my experiences. Experiencing the settings created by other authors has been
truly inspiring, especially considering the variety of ways in which they are constructed.
Additionally, I have had opportunities to try my own hand at creating settings in creative writing
classes. Not all of my settings have been in the foreground of their respective stories, but I’ve
noticed that all have played major roles, and have stretched my understanding of how places
matter to those who experience them.
Sometimes these classes have pushed me to think about subjects that at first seem
irrelevant to my initial proposal. However, not only has this broadened my perspective, but often
I see that space is related to the subject at hand after all. Truly surprising was one semester that
veered slightly off-course and ended up being predominantly about time. Space and time are
intricately related, not just because they need to be solved concurrently in Einstein’s equations,
but because we perceive them in a convolved fashion. I was able to examine how settings
implied temporalities, how changes in technologies had changed our perceptions of both space
and time, and how our temporal practices impact our lives. This was curiously concomitant with
my
attempts
to
tune
the
timing
of
my
own
short
stories.
Now, in my final semester, I am both reaching a satisfying conclusion and realizing how
much space there is left to traverse. If I had any illusions about being a full-fledged spatial
scholar by the end of this program, they have been effectively disbanded. But I am much more
aware of the way that I interact with my environment, which has given me not only a richness of
experience (I recently visited a graduate school and not only marveled at the experience of being
in an exotic locale, but also reveled in the comfort of returning to my familiar space at the
University of Rochester), but also a sensitivity to how my actions affect spaces which others will
use. Further, I feel like I have more of a background from which to pursue creative writing
projects of my own. I am excited to continue my personal creation of space in all its forms physical, social, and literary.
The University of Rochester’s Take Five Scholars Program is unique to
higher education in America. The program allows undergraduate students to
enroll in courses outside their normal degree programs to enhance their
educations. Selected students receive one or two tuition-free semesters to broaden
or deepen their areas of study and supplement their regular course requirements.
Students may apply to the Take Five Scholars Program once they have been
accepted into a major, up until the first term of their senior year. A review board
of faculty, administrators, and one current Take Five Scholar meets once each
term to weigh the intellectual merit of each proposal and grant admission to new
students.
The program is not an extra year tacked on to the end of college. In their
applications, Take Five Scholars propose specific courses of study, centered
around central themes or ideas. Once accepted, they integrate these Take Five
courses with the coursework required for their degrees. The resources of the
College, as well as those of the Eastman School of Music, the Margaret Warner
Graduate School of Education and Human Development, the William E. Simon
Graduate School of Business Administration and the School of Nursing are all
available to Take Five Scholars. In addition, some students incorporate a
semester of study abroad.
By the time these students graduate at the end of their ninth semester or fifth
year, they have expanded their intellectual horizons and broadened their
perspectives. For some Take Five Scholars, their programs represent their only
chance to study something in depth outside their majors. And for a few, their Take
Five experiences profoundly alter their lives.
Since the program’s inception in 1986, over 1,000 students have become
Take Five Scholars. Currently, 117 students from the College and the Eastman
School of Music are participating in the program. The Take Five Scholars
Program is unique to the University of Rochester, designed to enrich an already
first rate undergraduate education with additional opportunities to learn and
grow.