Cadence Chen ’26
Cadence Chen is a second-year at Grinnell. She is from Queens, New York. This is her first year as a Vivero fellow, and she hopes learn a lot and work with cool people. She appreciates a good fiction book and enjoys rewatching her favorite shows.
This year Cadence is working on the Women’s Studies Worldwide project with Dr. Clara Montague.
Chloe Kelly ’26
Chloe Kelly (she/her) is a second year computer science and studio art major. She has always been passionate about using technology as a tool for creating art and storytelling, and she is excited to use that technology for creating engaging forms of project research and sharing. In addition to Vivero, Chloe also works as a grader/tutor in the CS department and in the Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies scene shop. She enjoys drawing and playing video games in her free time.
This year Chloe is working on the Theatre, Dance, & Performance Studies Digital Archive with Kate Baumgartner and Erik Sanning.
Ekta Shaikh ’24
Hellos and Salams to everyone. My name is Ekta Shaikh. I am currently in my fourth year at Grinnell College with a double major in Anthropology and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies. This is my second year as a fellow for Vivero, and I have continued to work on Mapping Islamophobia with Professor Caleb Elfenbein. I am interested in questions of identity, particularly rooted in my South Asia and post-colonial studies. Besides this, I am working as a pedagogical partner with Professor Brigittine French to develop a feminist anthropology course for Grinnell College.
Ellen Hengesbach ’24
Ellen (she/her) is a fourth-year political science major and American studies concentrator from Chicago. She is excited to explore and build new skills in the world of digital humanities. Outside of classes, Ellen works as a writing mentor and plays intramural volleyball. In her free time, you can find her listening to political podcasts or spending time with friends.
This year Ellen is working on the Mapping Iowa Black History project with Professor Sarah Purcell.
Kailee Shermak ’25
My name is Kailee Shermak and I’m a current 3rd year at Grinnell College. I’m a sociology major with a concentration in digital studies, which has led me to my current position as a Vivero digital fellow. I enjoy the creative problem solving process that goes into digital projects and especially love when they overlap with anything sociological. When I’m not doing school work I’m usually at the pool either playing water polo on the club team, practicing or competing with the swim team, or lifeguarding.
This year I am working on Historical Landscapes of Grinnell with Professor Lacson and Professor Jakubiak.
Leo Bucks ’26
Leo is a second-year History major at Grinnell College. He studies modern American social and cultural history. For Vivero, he works with Professor Deborah Michaels on the Native History Project. Before transferring to Grinnell, he worked for the U.S. Postal Service and as a substitute teacher in Bowling Green, Ohio, his hometown. In his free time, he enjoys working out and listening to Dean Martin.
Lívia Stein Freitas ’25
Hi, I’m Livia (she/her)!
I’m a Computer Science and English major from Curitiba, Brazil. I love poetry, and recent favorites include Bestiary by Donika Kelly, Cornucopia by Molly Peacock, and Music for the Dead and Ressurected by Valzhyna Mort. This semester, I’m excited about reading contemporary novels for my American literature class, coding weekly mini-projects, and developing my jazz piano improvisation skills. As a member of the 2023-24 GrinTECH cabinet, I’m planning events that showcase interesting interdisciplinary concepts and digital humanities projects.
I’m thrilled to be a Vivero Fellow and grateful for such an amazing opportunity 🙂
This year I am working on the Sociology & Subcultures project with Professor Ross Haenfler.
Mahiro Noda ’26
Mahiro (she/her) is a new Vivero Fellow for the 2023-24 academic year, and a current sophomore intending to major in Biology.
She has developed an interest in using data and infographics for storytelling since childhood.
At Grinnell, she worked in Professor Fernanda Eliott (Computer Science)’s laboratory where she learned to design diagrams to explain the human decision-making process. She also performed extensive archival research on East Asian students on campus through the College’s early to present years, assisting Professors Jing Feng and Mariko Shigeta-Schimmel’s ongoing research project.
Her personal goal as a Vivero Fellow is to learn to use digital humanities tools to bridge science, society, and communities, by making complex scientific concepts approachable to the public. She is particularly passionate about healthcare access, science communication, community building, web design, and digital archives. In her free time, she loves to watch documentaries, read or watch Opinion pieces, and explore archived web content from the 1990s (her favorite decade).
She looks forward to assisting students working on digital projects while learning and applying digital skills to contribute to a long-term project.
This year she is working on the Virtual Titular Head project with Ashley Renstrom-Schaefer.
Mikey O’Connor ’24
Hello, My name is Michael O’Connor and I am a fourth year at Grinnell College. I am majoring in Computer Science and Spanish. I am currently working as both a CS mentor and a fellow in our Digital Humanities program (called Vivero).
In Computer Science, I have taken classes in Algorithms, Data Structures, and Object Oriented Program. The languages I have worked, in no particular order, with is C, Haskell, Racket, Java, C#. I have also worked with creating static websites in Jekyll and Hugo. I have done research with one of my Professors on Program Synthesis
In Vivero, I have worked on the rootstalk website, transferring data from the print versions to the website. In addition, I have learned to use various other tools like Omeka, and WordPress.
In my freetime, I play the Euphonium, try to create and play video games, and reading various mangas or books that I find.
This year I am continuing to work on Rootstalk with Professor Jon Andelson, Professor Mark Baechtel, and Mark McFate.
Princess Joseph ’25
Hello! My name is Princess Joseph and I am currently enrolled as a student at Grinnell College. I am pursuing a course of study in Environmental Studies in the Francophone World, which is a major that I created alongside my advisors. Through the Vivero Fellowship, I am looking forward to exploring the possibilities of Digital Humanities, as I anticipate taking all the tools I learn here into my future, both personal and career.
This year I am working on the Native History Project with Professor Deborah Michaels.
Fall 2023 Fellows
Feven Getachew ’24
I’m interested in pharmaceutical chemistry and medical sociology. While I am fascinated by the science of drug synthesis, I want to understand how socio-political and economic structures affect access and availability of quality of these drugs. I want to be a Vivero fellow because it gives me the opportunity to learn and practice how to use digital tools and connect with professors to assist in interesting research projects.
This year I am working on the Mapping Racial Trauma project with Professor Stephanie Jones.
Libby Eggert ’25
My name is Libby Eggert ’25 (she/her/hers) and I’m a third-year student at Grinnell College. I’m from Oak Park, Illinois. My major is Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies with a concentration in American Studies. I’m also studying Public Health with University of Iowa. Some of my interests are historical and contemporary research on HIV/AIDS; public history and museum studies; and historical/social GWSS theory. This summer I continued research on Edith Renfrow Smith ’37, the first Black woman to graduate Grinnell College, who’s still alive at 109, and the history of Black families in Grinnell.
This year I am working on the Edith Renfrow’s Grinnell: A Digital Walk project with Professor Tamara Beauboeuf.
Maddie Yu ’25
My name is Maddie Yu. I am a third-year art history major at Grinnell College. I am particularly interested in the ways that people can find and create belonging in a space through art. This interest is what led me to the Haitian Art Digital Crossroads (HADC), where I worked as a research assistant for one year. I found the experience of working on a digital humanities project to be both valuable and fascinating, and I am excited to continue to learn more about digital scholarship!
This year I am continuing to work on the HADC project with Dr. Petrouchka Moïse.
Ohana Sarvotham ’25
Hello! I’m Ohana, a 3rd-year student at Grinnell College. I am an Economics and Russian double major, but I also enjoy Math, History, Statistics, and Music.
I like photography, cooking, reading, and being outdoors!
This year I am working on the Historical Landscapes of Grinnell project with Professor Albert Lacson and Professor Cori Jakubiak.
Rajvardhan Jhanwar ’25
I’m Rajvardhan Jhanwar, a rising sophomore at Grinnell College—studying Computer Science, Mathematics, and Global Development Studies. Being born in Kolkata, India, and raised in a joint family helped me to inculcate the values of teamwork and the importance of respecting the diverse ideas that other team members share with me. These threads of my family and upbringing have guided me in my life path and experiences so far.
In Grinnell, I’m actively involved on and off campus, as a Class Ambassador, cabinet member of the South Asian Student Organization, associate for multiple Multicultural Leadership Councils, Weekend Coordinator (Student Activities Board), and committee member of TEDx GrinnellCollege.
This year I am working on the Grinnell & Anatolia: Across Sea & Time project with Karen Edwards & Georgia Proestopoulou ’01.
