Owls Take Flight
This summer, Rice students expanded their campus view with enriching experiences across the globe.
Fall 2024
By Sarah Rufca Nielsen
With an abundance of programs and fellowships designed to facilitate global research and educational exchanges, Rice students from all academic backgrounds have more opportunities than ever to expand their knowledge. Here are a few examples from Summer 2024.
Jacob Williams ’27
Location: Niterói and São Paulo, Brazil
Program: Wagoner Research Pathway Scholarship/Rice in Country
Major: Natural Sciences
For Rice in Country’s 2024 summer session in Niterói, Brazil, Jacob Williams joined six other Rice students and Nathan Queiroz, a Fulbright teaching assistant, for an intensive Portuguese language program. Students also had cultural excursions and weekly classes in Portuguese from local university instructors in subjects ranging from soccer to the history of slavery in Brazil.
“The biggest highlight for me was visiting a quilombo, a historical site where escaped slaves would flee and could stay hidden. It’s now a cultural spot in the community,” says Williams. “That history means so much to the people of Brazil — it was an amazing experience.”
Juan-Pablo Cajiga-Pena ’26
Location: Paris, France
Program: Mary Ellen Hale Lovett Travel Fellowship
Major: Art History, Philosophy
Juan-Pablo Cajiga-Pena’s art history research is focused on Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși, whose work was featured in a summer 2024 exhibition at Paris’ Centre Pompidou. Cajiga-Pena spent weeks conducting archival research in the Pompidou’s Brâncuși archives. “Ever since I came to Rice, I’ve made it my goal to find opportunities somewhere new, doing something odd and interesting,” Cajiga-Pena says.
Zoe Wang ’25
Location: Dominican Republic
Program: Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies Summer Internship
Major: BioSciences, Global Health Technologies minor
By interning with the Dominican Foundation for Mothers and Infants, Zoe Wang gained insight into the Dominican Republic’s clinical infrastructure and collaborated with health care workers on strategies to reduce neonatal mortality. She and her fellow interns also assessed several Rice360 projects, including the Pumani bubble CPAP device, designed to combat severe respiratory distress in premature and young infants; and ScarStretch, a low-cost, automated massage device for children with burn scars.
“Having worked on [ScarStretch] over the past year, it was incredibly meaningful to discuss the prototype with pediatric surgeons who treat patients with scars and to hear their insights on how to improve the design to better meet patient needs,” Wang says.
Hanna Frampton ’24
Location: Salzburg and Vienna, Austria
Program: Arthur and Shelley Gottschalk Traveling Grant for Musicians
Major: Vocal Performance
After graduation this spring, Hanna Frampton traveled to Salzburg and Vienna to visit the homes of her favorite composers (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn and Hugo Wolf) before beginning a summer internship in Graz. “Some of my most likely roles in the future are written by the composers who lived in these homes,” says Frampton. “I wanted to see life as they had, to see where their inspiration came from.”
Mingo Almazan ’25
Location: Venice, Italy
Program: Amici Di Via Gabina
Major: Art; Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality; Museums and Cultural Heritage minor
As a junior, Mingo Almazan was involved in Fondren Fellows projects exploring the art of letterpress and creating comic art Risographs. The resulting printed artwork submissions from Rice students and community members were compiled and displayed at the Venice Biennale, a global contemporary arts mecca. Having played a role in its creation, Almazan felt drawn to see the exhibit for himself.
“I knew the Venice Biennale was large, but I had no idea how transformative the experience would become,” says Almazan. “I have so many new ideas for my senior show this spring, and I hope to graduate being able to use all I’ve learned about identity, physicality and experimentation from the Biennale to the fullest extent.”
Catherine Zhou ’27
Location: Chiang Mai, Krabi and Bangkok, Thailand
Program: Goliard Fellowship
Major: Computer Science; Philosophy and Biochemistry minors
The Goliard Fellowship enabled Catherine Zhou to spend a week traveling through Thailand learning about Buddhist culture. “My interest in end-of-life care has been enriched by new insight into Buddhist views on death and impermanence,” Zhou says. “These perspectives, which often contrast with Western medical approaches, offer a more holistic stance that I believe could enhance hospice and palliative care practices.”