Wheaton College Norton, Massachusetts

Dancing for joy

Shanita Gopie Liu ’07

Shanita Gopie Liu ’07 with dance partner Julius Lim.





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Focusing on fruit flies, seeking insight





Paer, who is also interested in a medical career, started out as an assistant for Superson’s thesis project and was soon inspired to start  his own research testing memory in fruit flies. [Read more...]

On the cutting edge of tissue engineering

Tracie Payne Ferreira ’90As a professor in the bioengineering department at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, Tracie Payne Ferreira ’90 has her dream job. Not only does her work help to advance healing medical technology, but she also engages students with her passion for hands-on teaching.

Ferreira’s lab researches tissue engineering. “Basically, we want to be able to take cells and grow new organs to help people, since transplants are hard to come by,” she says. “Skin is also a tissue we can grow using cell therapies that can help people heal faster and recover from chronic wounds that won’t heal. We already can synthesize cartilage, so once we get it figured out in the lab we can get it into trials for patient use.”

She adds, “A big challenge in tissue engineering is this: while you are creating a specific tissue, what do you grow stem cells on? You need something called a scaffold to hold them in place, but at the same time as the cells grow into tissue, the scaffold should dissolve so you don’t have a strange material left in the middle of the new tissue.” [Read more...]

Taking a multicultural approach to therapy

sophomore symposium smile, Marguerite Pierre '11“There are so many things that we as humans overlook, such as having communication skills and the ability to express different emotions,” says Marguerite Pierre ’11. “I have realized that many people need additional support for the attainment of these ‘simple’ skills.”

Pierre, who works as an in-home therapist for the Multicultural Wellness Center in Worcester, Mass., works with families to help them develop the skills they need to be happy and healthy.

At the Multicultural Wellness Center, where she has worked since May 2012, therapists place an important emphasis on a family’s cultural background.

“It is critically important to be understanding of the cultures of the people I am serving,” she says. “There are many therapeutic approaches that aren’t appropriate for clients of certain cultural backgrounds. For example, I have families in which verbalizing emotions isn’t a part of their culture. As a counselor, I have to accommodate and respect the values of my clients.” [Read more...]