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View from the Hill
Experiential Education at UNH:
When the World is Your Classroom
The University of New Haven is taking the classroom out of the building, and the students into the field. UNH students are availing themselves of internships, research opportunities, and community service that bring them into contact with scientists, businesspeople, professional engineers, authors and more. Experience combined with education—aka experiential education—is moving UNH students into the future equipped to succeed.
Elizabeth Essinger-Hileman ‘08
A Summer of Research
Drives a Chemist’s Future
Elizabeth Essinger-Hileman spent her summer studying rubredoxins. Not a summer for everybody, but for a student who wants to make a difference in the lives of others – either by heading the Students Making an Impact on Their Living Environment club (SMILE) or by trying to aid electron transfer in the body – it was the right move for her.
A Chemistry and Forensic Science major who is minoring in Mathematics, Essinger-Hileman worked in a Computational Chemistry lab at Georgetown University all summer, studying the electron transfer properties of the rubredoxins. (Rubredoxins are a group of proteins that contain an iron-sulfur cluster that can assist with electron transfer in the body.)
While she might not have emerged much from the lab this summer, Essinger-Hileman is now back on the UNH campus, busy with SMILE, the Reformed University Fellowship, and the Undergraduate Student Government Association. She also is a chemistry and math tutor.
“I have enjoyed being involved in campus life at UNH,” she says. “During SOAR, they encouraged us to get involved in campus in some way. I took this to heart, and I believe it has helped make my experience at UNH one I will never forget.”
She took her interest in Chemistry and Forensic Science seriously as well. “My internship fueled my interest in learning about chemistry,” she says, “and in helping others understand it as well.”
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