Science, Finance, Law, Art: Geoffrey Canada Scholars' Summer Jobs

By Bowdoin
Bowdoin's first cohort of Geoffrey Canada Scholars is interning and working in Maine and across the country this summer, pursuing diverse fields from science to law.
Geoffrey Canada Scholars
The 2018 Geoffrey Canada Scholars with Geoffrey Canada ’74, the program's namesake.

Last summer fifteen incoming first-year students arrived at Bowdoin six weeks before the academic year began. As promising first-generation college students from underprivileged backgrounds, they had been selected to join the Geoffrey Canada Scholars program, a new academic-enrichment program designed to introduce students to college-level academic work before semester classes began.

The program is part of the broader Bowdoin initiative called THRIVE, which aims to help all students—no matter their background—succeed and have a positive experience here.

After a successful first year, many of the inaugural Geoffrey Canada Scholars are now pursuing summer internships and jobs to extend their learning beyond the classroom:

  • Usira Ali ’22 has a funded internship grant from Bowdoin to intern with Portland Housing Authority in Maine
  • Journey Browne ’22 is interning with Literacy Partners in New York City
  • George Marin ’22 has an internship with a New York City law firm
  • Ayub Tahlil ’22 is working at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art
  • Gabriela Melendez Quan ’22 has a job with Bowdoin's audio/visual department
  • Ryan Britt ’22 is interning with Summit County's chief of staff in Ohio
  • Tuan Tran ’22 is using his Chamberlain scholarship from Bowdoin to volunteer in Vietnam

We got in touch with three of the scholars to learn more about their particular summer pursuits.


Finding a Cure

Adedunmola Adewale ’22
Adedunmola Adewale ’22

Adedunmola Adewale ’22 is continuing her research project in the lab of Bowdoin Associate Professor of Biochemistry Danielle Dube, a position she began last September. The lab is investigating the pathogenic bacterium H. pylori to potentially open the door to a new treatment for the pernicious bug, which can cause ulcers and stomach cancer and is increasingly resistant to antibiotics.

Adewale's specific goal is to find the genes required for the biosynthesis of the sugars that coat the bacteria's proteins. These sugars show promise as potential targets for drug therapies. "I've always wanted to do research," she said, but added that her high school (Kipp Academy in Lynn, Massachusetts) didn't have the adequate lab instruments.

She received a fellowship from the Maine Space Grant Consortium to fund her summer research. While she loves working in a lab, Adewale said her dream is to become a heart surgeon one day.

The best lesson she's learned from her first year at college—and particularly from her laboratory job—is to not get discouraged by setbacks. "As first-generation students, we are so scared to fail," she said. "But failing is a good opportunity to learn and move forward."

Favorite class so far: Differential Calculus with Christopher Chong, assistant professor of math

Favorite new activity: White-water rafting in Maine rivers


Funding a Dream

Espoir Byishimo '22
Espoir Byishimo '22

Espoir Byishimo '22 is spending his summer as an intern with Bowdoin's investment office. "It's pretty fun to see behind the scenes where the money for our endowment comes from," he said. He spends his days poring over reports from the College's financial holdings and keeping up with day-to-day research about current and prospective funds. 

Byishimo is interested in economics and decided to apply for his position to develop a deeper understanding of the stock market and its inner workings. "I read the news and [the stocks] are kind of difficult to understand when you're not working with them. At my job I can see the real impact and what the numbers say," he explained. 

But there is another motive behind his summer work: he wants to learn how to make and save money to help others. "For a long time I've wanted to build a home for homeless kids," he said. And he wants to introduce them to music. "I want to give them a home, but I also would like to help them learn [to play] musical instruments," he said. Byishimo, himself, is learning to play the piano with lessons offered by Bowdoin's music department.

Favorite study spot: Second floor of Kanbar

Favorite new activity: working with Girls who Code, a nonprofit that encourages school girls to learn programming


Revisiting his Roots

Marc Muro ’22
Marc Muro ’22, in the gray shirt, with Upward Bound students

Marc Muro ’22 is working as a language teaching assistant for Upward Bound, the program that catalyzed his journey to Bowdoin. Across the US there are more than 800 chapters of the federally funded program, which helps first-generation and low-income students obtain a college degree. Bowdoin's chapter started in 1965 and works with almost 200 students every year from fourteen high schools in Maine.

Muro attended Upward Bound through his school, Sunnyside High School, in Tucson, Arizona, and loved it so much that he wrote his application essay for Bowdoin's program about his personal experience with it.

"I want to help the students the way the program helped me. I guess it's my way of giving back," Muro said. This summer he is assisting in Chinese, Spanish, and French classes, as well as leading a film analysis workshop. 

Muro said he had a fulfilling first year at Bowdoin, and cited several faculty and staff members as important influences. "[Director of THRIVE] Jessica Perez—I love Jessica. [Director of Writing and Rhetoric] Meredith McCarroll, she had us over for Black Friday and we baked cookies and brownies—that was really special. [Professor of English and Asian Studies] Belinda Kong [who taught all the Geoffrey Canada Scholars in a first-year seminar]—she's so funny and relatable . . . and there's a whole bunch of other people but I can't name them all!"

Favorite thing to eat on campus: Smoke House Burger from Magee's Grill

Favorite class so far: Improvisation with Davis Robinson, professor of theater