May 15th has come and gone. Anika and Kate have now graduated and after posting about their graduation experiences, will no longer post regularly on Explore.Davidson.Edu. While we at Davidson will miss them, we realize that every year college campuses send an incredible number of students off to great new opportunities once they graduate. Other students readily jump in to take on what the graduates leave behind. One of the students who decided to join Explore and step in for Kate is Mark Angel, a junior from Illinois.
Mark has had some incredible experiences so far at Davidson and has some wonderful opportunities in his near future as well. I’ll let him explain:
“Hey y’all!
My name is Mark Angel, and I am a junior biology major and Spanish minor here at Davidson. I am from Glen Ellyn, IL, a small suburb about 40 minutes directly west of Chicago, and I attended a Catholic high school, Benet Academy. While I really enjoyed my high school and still love Chicago, I could not imagine a better place to spend my 4 collegiate years than at Davidson College. When I told my high school admission counselor I wanted to come here, she said that if she could go to college all over again, she would go to Davidson. That was my first indication that this school was a special place.
Mark and some of the 2010 summer ambassadors for the Office of Admission and Financial Aid.
Unfortunately, I only have 4 years here, so I have tried to become as involved as I can. I am the captain of the Club Tennis team, a group of some of the most fun people I know on campus. We travel all over the Southern region and compete against other colleges. I am also a tour guide, and worked in the admission office as a 2010 Summer Ambassador after my freshman year. Working closely with the admission office has been one of my greatest experiences as a Davidson student; I love introducing prospective students to the Davidson family. Additionally, I have served on the steering committee for Engage for Change, our umbrella service organization on campus; been the service chair for my fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta; played in the clarinet quartet on campus, the ‘Nets; and worked as a tutor in the Writing Center.
This summer, I received the Howard Hughes Medical Instutitue (HHMI) grant and am working in the developmental biology lab with Dr. Jennifer Round and Dr. Barbara Lom. As a biology major, this is an excellent opportunity for me to pursue original research directly with my professors as an undergraduate; no graduate students here! To help complete my Spanish minor, this coming fall I will be studying abroad in Valencia, Spain with the University of Virginia. Although I definitely will miss the Cookout milkshakes and the bio labs, I am excited to immerse myself in a different culture.
Come January, I will again be able to enjoy a Union Big Oak Beef Burger and fries from Tenders (seriously…so good). But until then…PAELLA!
Adios,
Mark”
Stay tuned for more from Mark this year – Webmaster