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What would you do if you had 100,000 artifacts from a Neolithic settlement? Organize them, of course. That's what Lisa Fontes '09 (West Danville, Vt.) and Heather Otis '10 (Fort Mill, S.C.) are doing this summer, working under Visiting Instructor of Anthropology Nathan Goodale. The "teaching and reference assemblage" of artifacts forms only a small fraction of the 1.7 million artifacts discovered at the 12,000 year-old semi-permanent site of Dhra', in what is now Jordan. The students are spending the summer numbering, identifying, and re-bagging each artifact, as well as entering information about the finds into a database.

As an ecosystem, Green Lake in Fayetteville, N.Y. is a unique place. It was one of the first lakes discovered to be meromictic, meaning that it is divided into layers that stay separated all year long, with little to no mixing. The layers are kept distinct by different concentrations of chemicals. The top, or mixolimnion layer is oxygenic, and is separated from the deeper, monimolimnion layer by a chemocline, an area where the chemical makeup of the water changes drastically.

Maxwell Akuamoah-Boateng '09 (Winneba, Ghana/Syracuse, N.Y.) says that his work this summer is about "applying classroom skills to real-life situations." Akuamoah-Boateng is working in Portland, Maine, in the Minority Health Program (MHP), a division of the city's Health and Human Services Department. The Minority Health Program works to decrease disparities in the healthcare system by providing the city's minority ethnic groups with health services and information such as interpreting services, house visits to follow-up with patients, information services for patients, and any other needed aid.

Often the word "research" conjures up images of poring through books or staring through microscopes, sitting in a library or working in a lab. But research can also involve the most current issues affecting people's lives. Robin Joseph '09 (Watertown, Mass.) is taking the latter route, using her knowledge of women's studies and desire to advocate for women to a project investigating the issue of female mutilation.

Sometimes obtaining a Hamilton degree involves much more than just a student's experience on the Hill. For Kristin Webster '09, studying neuroscience has involved the entire spectrum of topics, from the research at the cellular level under Associate Professor of Biology Herman Lehman to classes on abnormal psychology and neuropsychology during a spring abroad at Oxford University. This summer, Webster is adding practical experience in neuropsychology to the list, interning at John Heinz Rehabilitation Center in Wilkes Barre, Pa.

The band Filligar, which includes Hamilton student Casey Gibson '09, has been chosen as a finalist in the competition to open for Coldplay in their upcoming concert in Boston. Currently fourth in the pool of 15 finalists, Filligar needs to be one of the top three vote-winners in order to have the chance to be chosen by Coldplay as the opener.

Frannie Carley '10 (Cumberland, Maine) is trying something totally new this summer. A rising junior, she has always had "typical summer jobs," she says, working in retail and in restaurants. This summer, however, she wanted to go beyond a summer job and find an internship that would allow her to work in a nonprofit, using her interests in philosophy and government. "I wanted to test the waters of a real job and do some career exploration," she says, "but I knew that I'd need Hamilton's help if I was going to get to explore the nonprofit sector."

When in doubt, look at what's right around you. Dan Rudel '10 (Metuchen, N.J.) knew he wanted to pursue a research project this summer, but was unsure exactly what to study. He thought about possibilities in the area: "I was looking for things that are interesting about Utica," he says. "I didn't realize how interesting it was until I started research."

Where did the American founders get their ideas from, anyway? Kaitlyn Bishara '09 (Lewiston, N.Y.) is investigating this question in a summer research project titled "Evolution or Revolution: The Role of the Classics in the Founding of America." Bishara is working in collaboration with Edward North Professor of Classics Carl Rubino on the project, which is funded by the Emerson Foundation Grant program.

While many Hamilton students this summer are heading to internships in various professions, trading in their jeans, textbooks and flip-flops for business suits, Lizzie Marris '10 is making a different kind of transition. "I think the prominent departure in this internship is not from academic to professional, but rather from privilege to disadvantage," she says of her job this summer. Marris, a native of Erieville, N.Y., is working with migrant children as a teaching assistant with the Cortland Migrant Education Outreach Program (CMEOP).