Bennett Davenport

Honors Thesis: “Do Big Mouths Equal Broad Diets?: Ungulate Muzzle Width and Its Relationship to Carbon Isotope Variability”

“My plans currently are to apply next year to Ph.D. programs in paleoecology and/or paleontology. Before that I will take a gap year to work and gain further research experience, which includes (hopefully) publishing a revised version of my thesis as a paper in a high impact journal. I’m specifically interested in the ecology of mammal herbivores from our past. How herbivore behavior and morphology impact lineages of mammals and how they could be correlated to ancient environments. How prehistoric climate systems and geography might have shaped the forms of creatures I adore like elephant, antelope and giraffe is what I’d love to explore with an academic career!”

Melissa Schmuck

Honors Thesis: “In the Light of the Passenger’s Seat: A Novel”

“My post-graduate plans are to eventually go to graduate school to get an MFA in Creative Writing, followed by a PhD. The end goal is to be a university professor. I’m also intending to query my novel and write more fiction pieces both short and long form. As for the creation of my novel, the idea came to me a couple of years ago. I had dealt with mental health struggles most of my life and had been around a lot of people dealing with similar situations. A lot of these people who were struggling the most were people that were considered “intelligent” and “high achieving”. I wanted to create a story that was about mental illness in those people who are typically seen as “successful” and what factors led them to both their struggles and their successes— often born from the same influences. I also felt inspired early on to get a close perspective on mental health struggles more severe than common conditions.”