In This Section:
Change agent in action - Devorah Donnell '09 (CLAS)
Sailing through the past - Erica Whyte '10 (CLAS) & Logan Senack '08 (CLAS)

Devorah Donnell seeks challenges while learning about people

Photo by Sean Flynn

From an early age, Devorah Donnell ’09 (CLAS) has enjoyed initiating change, learning about people and helping others in any way she can.

A student in the honors program majoring in biological sciences with a minor in physiology and neurobiology, she has taken on academic and community service challenges.

Donnell, who is both a Nutmeg Scholar and a John and Valerie Rowe Medical Scholar, was admitted to the UConn School of Medicine through the combined B.S./M.D program.

Last winter, she worked with Joseph Crivello, professor of physiology and neurobiology, to organize a Pre-Medical Society for UConn undergraduate students. She is now president of the organization, which has more than 500 members.

“The purpose of the society is to reach out to the community, allow pre-med students to get medical experience and to help them with course selection,” says Donnell.

“It gives students a chance to understand what they’re getting into.”

Community work is also one of Donnell’s passions, and for the past three years she has been volunteering at the School of Medicine’s Migrant Farmer Health Clinic, which provides free health care for migrant farm workers from Jamaica, Mexico, Guatemala and Puerto Rico.

Doctors, medical students and undergraduates work together to diagnose and treat patients.            

“My curiosity is nonstop,” Donnell says. “I learn everything I can when I’m there.”

While working at the clinic she has learned how to take a patient history, measure vital signs, conduct physical exams and recognize several diseases, disorders and infections. She uses her ability to speak Spanish fluently to work more effectively with patients.

Donnell also volunteered in UConn’s Service Learning in the Dominican Republic program in May, providing HIV/AIDS education and teaching English, before participating last summer in UConn’s Summer Research Fellowship Program, where she assisted in conducting stem-cell research in a lab at the UConn Health Center.

“I cultured cells most of the day, and I learned a lot about lab technique,” Donnell says.

 “I love that medicine has both a science and a human component.”

Even with her busy schedule, she manages to seek other personal connections. She founded En Pointe, a ballet club at UConn with 50 members, and is a member of the UConn Honors Council.

“A lot of what I’m doing at UConn is learning about myself and my passions,” Donnell says.

“I have this drive to help people and understand the world around me. Hopefully, that will make me a well-rounded physician who can relate to my patients.”

— Kala Kachmar ’10 (CLAS)

Photo by Peter Morenus

The UConn Study Abroad program provides memorable experiences for students, but for Logan Senack ’08 (CLAS) and Erica Whyte ’10 (CLAS) their summer study program was unique.

They sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on the Amistad, the replica of the 19th-century sailing ship from Cuba that was commandeered by 53 Africans who were kidnapped for slavery in 1839 and freed by a Connecticut court.

After six weeks on board, sometimes sailing through squalls, Whyte and Senack learned to walk on a bobbing ship, swab the deck, climb the rigging, and, occasionally, crawl into the headrig, a hammock-like spot in the bow, to read books. They became sailors.

The reproduction ship — about 129 feet long and about 23 feet wide — is slightly larger than the original, based on historic records, in order to accommodate new technology, including a global satellite positioning device, electronics, and two diesel engines.

But for most of the journey, the ship was powered by wind, as it would have been in the 19th century.

The two UConn students were among seven college students — four from the United Kingdom and three from the United States — augmenting the professional crew who sailed the Amistad on from New Haven to England, on the first leg of its 2007-08 Atlantic Freedom Tour.

In the fall, a new group of students continued on to Sierra Leone and the Caribbean, replicating the triangular sea-route of the slave trade.

Two UConn students sailed last summer on the Freedom Schooner Amistad, at right.

AP Photo/Robert Rodriguez

Fundamental to their voyage was learning the detailed history of the transatlantic slave trade, the original La Amistad, and the slaves who eventually won their freedom in a Connecticut court.

Before setting sail, the seven students aboard visited locations linked to the Amistad uprising and the slave trade.

“Taking the time during class to have discussions about what we’re learning and how it relates to today’s world was great,” says Senack, an environmental science major.

“There are so many different viewpoints among the crew and the students that most of the conversations could have continued for hours.”

He says one of his best memories of the ocean voyage is seeing “a pod of 50 dolphins playing in the bow wave, almost close enough to touch.”

 Whyte was so moved by the Amistad story that she wants to relay to others what she has learned.

She developed her experiences into seven songs, including the “Amistad Sea Chantey,” which is being sung this fall by the crew of students on the second leg of the journey.

“I joined the Amistad America program because of my two darlings — coastal studies and African-American studies. After listening to and talking with a dozen bright and charismatic curators from different museums, I feel it is my turn to tell the story,” Whyte says.

“They were the mentors I needed to equip me with information to keep this remarkable story alive.” 

— Lucinda Weiss