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Mele Kaneali'i ’27 is Hamilton’s latest — and fourth ever — recipient of the prestigious Harry S. Truman Scholarship, a graduate fellowship awarded to college juniors pursuing careers in public service. After graduating from Hamilton, the government major intends to pursue a J.D. and a master of urban and regional planning in housing policy.

When Audrey Alix ’25 sits down at her desk in Utica’s City Hall, she’s greeted by the familiar sight of her class binder from Hamilton’s GIS for Geoscientists course. Occasionally, she will thumb through its pages, searching for techniques she learned on the Hill. On her computer, Alix keeps data that she created during an Emerson Grant project mapping the parks and trees of Utica. Every day, she is reminded of the work she put in to get to her current position as a city planner in Utica, N.Y.

The buzz of a GroupMe notification may become a Pavlovian response following the introduction of the Hungry Hamilton initiative, the Environmental Protection, Safety, and Sustainability Office’s (EPS&S) newest endeavor to reduce food waste on campus.

Connie Halporn K’78 fights both on the mat as a 6th degree judo black belt and in the nonprofit sphere as chair of the National Women’s Martial Arts Federation. Halporn’s judo journey began in high school and continued to blossom at Kirkland College, where she first started leading judo classes.

Victor Maldonado ’86 has no plans to retire from practicing immigration law anytime soon. In fact, he’s pushing himself harder than ever. Last summer, Maldonado swam the English Channel, a course considered the “Mt. Everest of Open Water Swimming” — and he’s not stopping there.

As a research hydrogeologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, Michelle Walvoord ’93 is forging new frontiers in studying the impact of changes and instability on groundwater.

For Katie Veasey ’17, golf is all about the greens — and we’re not talking about the putting area. As a golf sustainability consultant at WM, formerly Waste Management, she works with some of professional golf’s biggest tournaments to make their events eco-friendlier by reducing waste and carbon emissions.

As a senior fellow, Julia Afsar-Keshmiri ’26 has amassed a network of scientists to further unravel the mysteries of brain development and neurodegenerative diseases. Through her fellowship, Afsar-Keshmiri has the opportunity to devote her entire senior year to her project, giving her a taste of life as a professional researcher.

This summer, Levitt Center student researchers Luke Hanson ’26, Delaney Patterson ’26, Samuel Low ’28, and Ton Somnug ’27 joined forces with Griffiss Institute CEO and Hamilton alumna Heather Hage ’02 to investigate the holistic impact of federal spending on the local economy. In November, the Griffiss Institute released findings from the research study.

Organic Chemistry is a course with a reputation, striking fear in the hearts of pre-med, biology, and chemistry students due to its notorious difficulty. However, Associate Professor of Chemistry Max Majireck is bringing a little light into the dark trenches of “Orgo” through a most unlikely medium — song lyric parodies in assignment emails.