The Douglass Houghton Scholars Program (DHSP) is a classroom experience and community for freshmen at the University of Michigan who are interested in majoring in math or science. In addition to Calculus 1 in the fall and Calculus 2 in the winter, students in the program enroll in a 2-credit workshop class each semester. In the workshop we do hard calculus problems in groups. The goals of the program are to help students:

1. See some interesting applications of calculus, and some beautiful mathematics, that are not in the regular calculus courses due to time constraints,
2. Do well in the regular classes, and
3. Form a community around doing math.

All of those goals serve to get students seeking a STEM major over the “hump” of calculus, which can be a significant barrier to success.

Background

DHSP was created by the LSA Dean's Office in 2006. Mark Conger has been the director of the program and the instructor of the workshop since 2007. Each year there are approximately 36 students in DHSP, divided into two sections of 18. Between 2007 and 2022, 449 students completed the program.

Who We Serve

Any incoming student who is ready for calculus may apply to DHSP and be accepted into the program. But we especially encourage and recruit students from groups that are underrepresented in STEM fields, namely

• Underrepresented minorities,
• Students with a low socio-economic income,
• First generation college students, and
• Students from an urban place or a rural place.

More Information

To read more about the workshop and the community, see the public DHSP website. Of note on that site are two pages of quotes by students about the program, here and here.

Outcomes

The quotes on the pages linked above provide evidence of the program's impact. Another measure of DHSP's success is the percentage of students who remain in STEM majors when they graduate. Among the six classes who completed DHSP between 2013 and 2019, 166 of 198 students (84%) went on to graduate with a degree in a STEM field.

DHSP Alumni

All students in DHSP are supported and valued, regardless of their potential and their achievements. That said, the breadth and depth of their accomplishments is impressive. So below are some standout alumni, divided into categories. They represent a sample, but by no means an exhaustive list in each category.

Click on a name or a picture to link to the profile the student has written about themselves.

Ph.D.s and future Ph.D.s

David McMillon received masters degrees in math and industrial and operations engineering from the UM, and then a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Chicago in 2021. He has a tenure track position at Emory University in the Economics Department, and a visiting scholar position in the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank.

Sierra Grant earned a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Boston University in 2021. She is a postdoc at the Max Planck institute in Germany. Emily King earned a Ph.D. in Medical Physics from the University of Wisconsin in 2022. She is now a resident medical physicist at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Chris Walters went to Penn and got a doctorate in Biochemistry, Kristen Amman finished her math education Ph.D. at Rutgers in 2022 and is now an Assitant Professor at Colorado Mesa University. Alexa Watson, Benancio Rodríguez, and Sanela Kalakovic are current Ph.D. students pursuing degrees in chemistry, molecular biology/immunology, and psychology.

Medical Doctors

Kelsey Danley is a resident in internal medicine and future cardiologist, Soobin Kim is an anesthesiologist, AJ Gobbo is a psychiatrist, and David Magno is a surgical resident at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Emma Herrman is a gastroenterologist, Ellie Lorenzana is an OB/GYN, and Christine Alvarado is an oncologist.

Lo Tamburro is a pathologist, Rachel Wilson M.D. is a faculty member at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and JP Kelly is a pediatrician who decided to pursue medical school after interviewing Rachel while he was in DHSP.

There are at least a dozen more DHSP alumni who are either doctors or current med students.

Others in medicine and public health

Hayley Marcinkowski (Baldwin), Kim McCarty, Eric Bickerstaff, and Taylor Wynn are nurses.

Abby Fenton received her Doctor of Pharmacy from Creighton University, and now works as a pharmacist in the UP. Anna Nevison and Lauren Quinlan work at jobs that help pharmaceutical companies bring drugs to market. Diamond Thomas was a chemistry major who started doing research as a high school student at Cass Tech in Detroit. She is currently a clinical research coordinator at Michigan medicine, looking to enter pharmacy school in the future.

Angie Miller earned a masters in public health and now has a fellowship with the CDC that has taken her to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Greg Foakes also went to the UM School of Public Health after graduating with a math major. He now works as a mathematical epidemiologist. Matthew O'Brien is pursuing a similar career at Boston University.

Emma Mantlo is a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas Medical Branch, researching the pathogenesis of the most dangerous viruses on earth. Bruce Schultz worked on HIV research in Germany for many years. Nicole Skehan works on COVID-19 contact tracing for the California Department of Public Health.

Donni Wilson graduated from the UM School of Dentistry and works at a community clinic in Los Angeles, Nikita Jaber is an optometrist in Grand Rapids, Alexis Puruleski is a medical dosimetrist in Cleveland, and Zack Conley is a physical therapist in Kalamazoo.

Actuaries, Financial Mathematicians, and Data Scientists

Gretchen Grade, Lauren Keina, and Jordyn Atiyeh were classmates who studied together for all four years of college, and all became actuaries. They work for Mercer, Towers Watson, and Deloitte respectively. (Gretchen and Lauren work across the street from each other in Detroit, and still study together for exams.)

Janine Lewandoski and Julian Carrasquillo were both actuarial majors at Michigan, and went on to get masters degrees in data science. Janine works at Kellogg's, and Julian works for Yellow Corp. Kyle Goldberg is a data scientist for Facebook.

Cammie Vercollone, Kristi Lewis, and Marissa Brodbeck were all math majors. Cammie is a senior data and analtics consultant at Ernst & Young, and Kristi and Marissa use their skills to manage logistics.

Other DHSP math alums work for Allianz, Merrill Lynch, Deloitte, and Hudson Bay Capital.

Teachers and Educators

Alex Giarmo, Dan Etz, Lauren Heide, and Noelle Boehm all teach high school math in Michigan.

Erika Binroth, Mariel Geron, and Natalie Blackwood all joined Teach for America after graduation.

Christine Cieslak and Katelyn Hicks are friends who joined the Peace Corps after graduation, serving as teachers in Mexico and Peru.

Camyrea Barnes is associate dean of Math Corps. Alaina Larkin is a park ranger whose main job is education. Famke Berendsen earned a masters in environmental biology at the university of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and now runs educational programs at the Amsterdam Zoo.

Programmers

Billy Cayo and Sara Frederixon work for Apple in California. Shay Figueroa and Noah Gilson work for Microsoft in Washington. Charles Buchbinder works for Amazon in Detroit.

Linh Le works for Capital One, Lea Harris works for JP Morgan, and Austin Gandolfi works for General Motors.

Becky Preib and Jannah Mandwee work for the federal government in various capacities. Dustin Stabinski works on software to run 911 dispatch systems.

Many, many more DHSP alumni are programmers who work for smaller companies.

Engineers

Erin Alderink Grashoff is a chemical engineer with Dow. Maria DeMuri is an environmental engineer in San Francisco. Brian Bekheet is an electrical engineer in the Detroit area.

Janera Martinez, Lauren Heibeck, and Anna Kemp are process engineers working for Nike, General Motors, and Black & Veatch.

Ralf Bejko is an aerospace engineer working for a military contractor. Catalina Garza majored in CLASP, and completed a masters in Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) for human spaceflight. She now works for Blue Origin in Seattle.

(With only a couple of exceptions, all students in DHSP start out in the College of LSA. But, naturally, since they are interested in STEM, a fair number transfer to the College of Engineering.)

Other Professionals

Ashlyn Harris and Christian Rios are architects. Michael Rawetzki works for the Army Corps of Engineers.

Jennifer Wardell and Danielle Boshers work for the USGS in Ann Arbor, as a biologist and an oceanographer, respectively. Mariela Hurtado Garcia focuses on high-throughput DNA and RNA extraction for gene-editing studies. Alex Elias is a Conservation Programs Analyst for the state of Wisconsin. Paige Wallery works as a chemist in the North Dakota oil fields.

Molly Morris, Nick Steiner, Robert Thomas, and Jacinda Green work for Ford, doing finance, marketing, metallurgical engineering, and software development, respectively.

Lauren Smith worked for PepsiCo for a number of years, on the Quaker Revenue Management team. She is now pursuing an MBA at the University of Chicago. Katie Karadjoff is a CPA who worked at PwC for several years before moving to Alvarez & Marshall, where she does financial analyses in preparation for mergers and acquisitions.