Discover Rackham
Education That Knows No Boundaries
Spend more than five minutes with a doctoral student and you’re all but guaranteed to hear her utter the word ‘interdisciplinary.’ More than a recruiting buzzword, interdisciplinary work is increasingly a common practice for students across departments to collaborate...
Student Spotlight: Chen Feng
For his first two years in grad school, Chen joked with his advisor Professor Vineet Kamat that he only went to three places: his apartment, his lab, and Kroger. That was before his girlfriend, Shasha Li, a junior high school classmate who he’s been dating since their...
Meet the Bloggers: Jeff Lowe
Hello blog readers! I’m Jeff Lowe, one of the newest student bloggers. I’m eager to provide some new and exciting posts to this already vibrant blog. Before I do so, I would like to introduce myself. I am what my friends refer to as a “Michigan Man,” but not in the...
Student Spotlight: Bonnie Applebeet
“Graduate school is its own special world. Writing the dissertation is both a challenge and a blessing—you have to be in charge of your own progress. The day to day is up to you. Once I really get it down pat it will be a skill I’ll always use. It’s also really...
Student Spotlight: Margaret Fish
This Division I varsity swimmer from Harvard is used to doing laps. Laps take on a whole new meaning for Margaret Fish now as a graduate student driving the loop every day from her home near Central Campus to her lab on North Campus. Margaret is a doctoral candidate...
Student Spotlight: Nick Caverly
Nick is a second year sociocultural anthropology student researching what happens to vacant and abandoned buildings in Detroit. He asserts, “I want to know what happens when people take them apart; the lives of the scrappers and recyclers involved, how things make...
Student Spotlight: Ann-Marie Frankini
Graduate school has been a true labor of love for Ann-Marie. “I don’t believe in retirement. To me, retirement would be working part-time. I want to contribute back to the field in new ways, do basic research and find ways to improve patient care. At 57, completing my...
Student Spotlight: Kimberly Reyes
“Part of why I’m in grad school is to understand my own story and the stories of others like me.” Kim is the daughter of a Guatemalan immigrant. Her mother, trained as a nurse in her home country, came to Los Angeles with only a 6th grade formal education. Here in the...
Not Too Old for the Earth
Club doorman from the movie Knocked-Up: “I can’t let you in ‘cause you’re old as ****. For this club, you know, not for the Earth.” Every once in a while I get an e-mail from U-M that has my demographic information on it. Normally I don’t read the demographic stuff. I...
Student Spotlight: Joe Cialdella
Space has a big influence on Joe Cialdella. He finds himself gravitating to work, research and opportunities to explore connections to the environment around him. Hailing from Kalamazoo, he came to Michigan as an undergraduate in the Residential College (RC). “While...