What type of student is awarded the Dickinson and Rush scholarships?

Dickinson, Rush and Montgomery scholars are students who "lean into" their education and engage the Dickinson experience. They make a difference on campus and in the world.

Damian Glumcher ’08

A combination of academic scholarship funds has enabled Damian Glumcher ’08 not only to travel from his native Uruguay to attend Dickinson but also to do important research at Princeton University.

Glumcher, a biochemistry & molecular biology and neuroscience dual major and recipient of John Dickinson and Stafford scholarships, is passionate about both the study and practice of medicine.

He spent a summer gaining invaluable experience toward his career goals. At the suggestion of Associate Professor of Biology Mike Roberts, Glumcher applied for and was accepted to a selective eight-week program at Princeton University in 2005 and 2006.

“Princeton paid for my housing on campus, and my Stafford Scholarship provided me with a stipend,” Glumcher says. The research was funded through Research Experience for Undergraduates, which involves students in meaningful projects designed to support their education in the sciences.

Leading the research project was Jacques Fresco, Princeton professor of molecular biology. Their study focused on the breaking of certain DNA sequences and the reactions caused by the process.

“My project,” Glumcher says, “was finding all of the sequences in DNA that could break and trying to figure out the biological function of this.” In other words, Glumcher was beginning on his path to finding cures for diseases that afflict people around the world.

“After graduation I hope to get a dual M.D./Ph.D.,” Glumcher says. “I want to do both of the things I really like, medicine and research. I want to be involved in the studies that allow you to develop new medicines.”

Back at Dickinson, Glumcher has a very busy schedule. Aside from taking classes, he volunteers at the Carlisle Regional Medical Center, is on the board of Hillel and is a member of the Model United Nations.

Katie McClellan ’07

The biochemistry major also picked up the 2005 Wheel and Chain Leadership Award, studied abroad during her junior year at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, was a student project manager for The Clarke Forum and did an honors research project at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Maine with John Henson, Charles A. Dana Professor of Biology.

McClellan also spent two months in West Africa working with Malians to educate the community about family planning and other reproductive-health issues and was a New York City Department of Health intern at a large public hospital in the Bronx, working directly with emergency-room physicians on several public-health issues.

McClellan credits Dickinson with providing her a transformative experience. “There are so many opportunities here, and I just decided to grab hold of them, get out of my comfort zone and go with it,” she says. “If you open yourself up to the variety of things you can experience here, you will become more adaptive. By experiencing so many things here, you can clarify what you really want from life and then focus your energies on that.”

Instead of going directly to medical school, as many aspiring physicians might do, she is studying reproductive and sexual-health issues as she pursues an M.S. at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She was awarded a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, which provides $26,000 toward tuition at an English university.

“It’s important that medicine be understood in a social context,” she says. “I’m going to spend a year before going on to medical school learning about how community and public-health efforts can make medicine more effective.”