Hudnut Scholarship provides internship opportunity for O’Neill students to take their careers further

Posted on January 8, 2024 by Leslie Wells

A man stands in front of a mirrored pyramid. He's wearing glasses and smiling. — O’Neill Sustainable Management and Policy major Evan Wood was selected as a Hudnut Scholarship recipient in 2023.

Evan Wood was on a walk with his brother and one-year-old daughter when he got the news.

“I was really shocked and excited that I was actually going to get this opportunity,” he recalls. “It was a great moment to share with them.”

On that walk, Wood received an email that he was selected as the recipient of the 2023 Hudnut Scholarship in Public Leadership, one of dozens of scholarships available through the O’Neill School in Indianapolis. The Hudnut Scholarship is open to undergraduates majoring in public affairs, with preference given to those in policy studies, civic leadership, and sustainable management and policy. The amount given ranges from $1,000 to $2,000 for one academic year.

But this scholarship comes with more than a financial reward—it also includes a semester of invaluable hands-on learning through an internship with the city of Indianapolis. Recipients work with city officials to find a program that fits their interests and other obligations. As a Sustainable Management and Policy major, Wood wanted to see what it was like to work on the public side of the sustainability field.

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Dumortier part of nationwide report, Midwest symposium on removing and reducing CO2 in the United States

Posted on December 11, 2023 by Leslie Wells

Text Graphic that says Roads to Removal and includes photos of key speakers from the event.

Jerome Dumortier has been studying carbon management, agricultural emissions, and bioenergy since he first began working on his Ph.D. in Economics. Now, he and his research are part of a large-scale nationwide report highlighting opportunities to remove large amounts of carbon dioxide in the United States.

“This is the culmination of the last 15 years of my research,” he says.

Researchers from all 50 states contributed to the Roads to Removal report from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, providing a pathway for the United States to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as part of a broader plan to become a net-zero greenhouse gas nation by 2050. Now, the O’Neill School is working with LLNL to host a Midwest Roads to Removal symposium based on the report and specifically focused on how Indiana and the Midwest can play an integral part in moving the country forward.

The free two-day event will bring together experts from around the nation, including EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe, Indiana State Representative Carey Hamilton, Hoosier farmer and former U.S. Ambassador Kip Tom, and other leaders in carbon sequestration and storage to discuss the opportunities and implications of carbon dioxide removal for the Midwest.

“There has always been a patchwork of people working on these topics,” he says. “Having all those people and their work together in one report is very exciting to me.”

In the report, Dumortier and his coauthors collectively outline different ways in which each region and state can help address carbon dioxide levels in the United States.

From forestry management in the Southeast to wind energy in the West, underground carbon storage across the country, and agricultural management in the Midwest, the report examines land-based methods to remove what authors predict to be at least 1 gigaton—that’s 1 billion tons— of carbon dioxide equivalents per year.

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Experience new cultures, locations, and lessons with O’Neill International study abroad

Posted on December 5, 2023 by Leslie Wells

Image of multiple hands in a circle with paint on them in various patterns. — On Olivia Ellenwood’s last night in Njawara, Gambia, the women of the village painted students’ hands with henna to celebrate their time together.

Studying abroad isn’t just about traveling. It’s about growth—in knowledge, in world view, and in how students view themselves.

O’Neill International offers students multiple program options for both Spring Break and Summer Break, alternating some locations from year to year. The destinations and programs are all unique, focusing on a different area of study, from cultural management to conservation, homeland security, healthcare management, and more.

Olivia Ellenwood considered many of those options. She’s a double major in Civic Leadership and Global and International Studies, with a special focus on African Studies. When she heard about the program in Senegal and Gambia, she jumped at the opportunity to pack her bags and fly to Western Africa.

“I think this program in particular is just really special,” she says. “It was once in a lifetime opportunity for many of us.”

Oftentimes, students assume they can’t afford a study abroad program. There’s tuition, travel expenses, and spending money to think about. But Ellenwood took advantage of scholarships from O’Neill and the university that are available to all students to help offset those costs.

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Dena Carson: Working to reduce youth gang violence

Posted on November 20, 2023 by Leslie Wells

A woman wearing white stands in a brightly lit hallway with windows. — Dena Carson, O’Neill Associate Professor and Director of Criminal Justice and Public Safety programs

Stories about gangs and gang violence are often fodder for movie and TV scripts. O’Neill Associate Professor Dena Carson says she watched those shows growing up in a small town in southeast Kansas. True crime television is what sparked her interest in criminal justice.

Now, she’s using her research skills to look beyond the portrayals that plague movie plots and news headlines. She wants to learn more about the young people involved in gang life.

“A large portion of my work really focuses on understanding the impact of these individuals on their communities and in schools,” she explains. “Some of my work with interviewing young people who’ve been in school with students involved in gangs generally finds the kids who are in gangs just don’t have that much impact on the day-to-day life of other students.”

She adds that while gang members do behave differently than other students, they also have many similarities.

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Internship keeps students on forefront of digital forensics

Posted on November 13, 2023 by Leslie Wells

A woman wearing a pink sweater sits in a low-light room at desk looking at a computer screen. — O’Neill’s Nichole Reatherford is a digital forensics intern with IUPD and IMPD.

As O’Neill Criminal Justice major Nichole Reatherford walks into the crime lab, she starts checking bags filled with electronics—things like phones, computers, smart watches, and more. The devices are evidence—and she’s looking for someone’s digital fingerprints.

“Everyone’s physical fingerprints are important, but our digital fingerprints are just as important,” she explains.

She reads the case warrant carefully, making sure she knows exactly what she can—and cannot—look for or through on each device.

“You always have to make sure you have a detailed warrant for each device,” she says. “Not following the warrant can literally set a guilty person free.”

She opens the evidence envelope, pulls out the devices, and arranges them neatly on her desk, taking meticulous notes as she goes. Organization and documentation, she says, are critical to what she does.

Then she gets to work. She plugs in the devices to the department’s forensic tools and uses software to scour apps, text messages, and call records—anything that might be of use to detectives.

“I like to think I’m like an undercover agent,” she chuckles. “That’s always been the joke in my family—that I could track down almost any information, digitally.”

Reatherford is one of two interns currently working with the Digital Forensics Unit, a partnership between the IU Police Department and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. IUPD Detective Sarah McKalips leads the internship and helps introduce students to the world of digital forensics.

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