Scholar Development Ambassadors
OURSD’s Scholar Development Ambassadors (SDAs) serve as liaisons between Carnegie Mellon students and OURSD, and represent the office in a number of capacities across campus. SDAs have demonstrated interest and experience in research and/or fellowships applications, as well as a desire to assist their fellow students in securing research and scholarship opportunities.
SDAs are alumni of the HURAY program who are funded to continue active participation in research and to serve the campus community in a variety of ways, including:
- Serving on undergraduate research and fellowships panels in classes, student organization meetings, events, on-campus presentations, and Zoom webinars
- Representing and recruiting for OURSD programming at tabling events
- Contributing to the development of social media content and other promotional materials
- Developing and carrying out supplemental outreach projects based on individual interests to increase visibility of research and scholarship opportunities through OURSD
Student organizations interested in hosting ambassador presentations on undergraduate research or scholarship opportunities should contact OURSD-general@andrew.ballballu.com for more information.
Meet Our 2024-2025 Ambassadors!
Erin Choi, junior architecture major
Research area: I do research under Professor Sebastien Dubreil in the Department of Languages, Cultures, and Applied Linguistics. My research focuses on language learning games and curating an online archive of student-created games.
Other interests: I enjoy cooking, making random things, and collecting plants.
Lauren Fitzwater, senior materials science & engineering major
Research area: I do research in Dr. Sneha Narra’s EMIT Lab in the Mechanical Engineering department, which focuses on materials characterization of additively manufactured metals.
Other interests: I have had the opportunity to intern at NASA Jet Laboratory and Proctor and Gamble. On campus, I am the Vice President of Operations for my sorority, Tri Delta, and just served as the PR and Marketing Chair for Greek Sing.
Fun fact: I’ve had four different part-time jobs while in school, including Millie’s, Starbucks, the CMU Telefund, and (of course) research!
Christina Kwon, senior mathematical sciences major
Research area: I do research with Professor Aristotelis Panagiotopoulous, who was a postdoctoral associate at the CMU Department of Mathematical Sciences before accepting a new role as Assistant Professor in the Kurt Gödel Research Center (KGRC) at the University of Vienna. My current work focuses on the connection between descriptive set theory and differential geometry.
Other interests: I love getting groceries, exploring new coffee places, and baking with my friends!
Fun fact: I’m a big fan of farmer’s markets and I drink way too much coffee.
Joyce Lee, senior international relations & political science major
Research area: My research is a senior honors thesis on the semiconductor industry supply china and how it relates to the China-Taiwan conflict, which I’m completing under Professor Joshua Schwartz in CMIST. I’m looking at how other countries could help lower dependencies on Taiwan, mitigating supply chain disruptions in the case of escalation of tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Other interests: I play tennis and volleyball, and I love to travel!
Fun fact: I’ve driven across the U.S. in three days.