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Summer is a time of exploration and discovery. Whether studying abroad, conducting research, or interning at businesses and nonprofit organizations, Loyola University Chicago students continue to grow and evolve even as the academic year ends and the days grow long.
Here’s a glimpse of the summer experiences of three curious Loyola students.
Cate Riely (BSN ’27, BA ‘27)
Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, College of Arts and Sciences
Majors: Nursing, French
Cate Riely’s dormitory in Paris’s Montparnasse district looks out at the majestic wrought-iron lattice work of the Eiffel Tower. For the Loyola junior who is pursuing a dual major in nursing and French, it is just one of the pleasures of a bohemian summer abroad, which has seen her indulge in buttery croissants at a neighborhood boulangerie, sketch masterpieces displayed at the Louvre, and study French cinema, grammar, and culture.
“Paris and Chicago are two sides of me, and they’re almost two sides of the same coin,” Riely says. “I don’t want to lose a second, so I’m prioritizing both studying and exploring.”
Coordinated in partnership with David Posner, an associate professor of French and comparative literature who chairs the Modern Languages and Literatures department, and associate professor Eliana Vagalau, the six-week program is administered by the nonprofit IES Abroad. It offers Loyola students the opportunity to earn transferable degree credits while immersing themselves in French language and culture.
Every day is a little different, Riely says. Typically, she wakes early; packs her books, sketchbook, and watercolor set; and journeys into streets lined with cafes, fish stands, and flower shops. In her morning film class, she learns about framing techniques, such as mise-èn-scene, while deconstructing French classics like Francois Truffaut’s directorial debut The 400 Blows and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s whimsical romance Amelie. In her French grammar and culture class, she refines speaking and writing skills, already well-honed at Loyola. Later, in the afternoon and early evening, she enjoys French cuisine and explores the cultural life of Montparnasse, a storied post-World War I gathering place for artists like Pablo Picasso and writers like Gertrude Stein.
“My French courses have taught me a lot,” she says. “I can discuss Molière’s plays for hours. But it’s different when you’re in a crowded shop and someone asks you something very quickly. The stress of the moment tests you more than any 10-page exam. And one thing about the French is that they will correct you.”
Eman Rana (BS ’27)
College of Arts and Sciences
Major: Psychology
Infants tend to gaze longer at faces of their own ethnicity than those of other ethnicities. Why? And does the observed phenomenon, known as the other-race effect, apply to multiracial infants in the same way it does to single-race infants?
These questions loom large in the mind of Eman Rana, a psychology student of South Asian and European descent who identifies as multiracial. Rana has spent the summer working with Maggie Guy, an associate professor of developmental psychology and neuroscience, to investigate these questions and create a face database for further study.
Many researchers believe the other-race effect has to do with the degree of exposure infants have to unfamiliar faces. There is strong evidence that, at nine months of age, babies can discriminate among faces of their own race; by gazing at new faces, they form neural pathways that strengthen their capacity to recognize and remember them. But because infants tend to look comparatively longer at faces of their own race, their ability to differentiate among same-race faces occurs at an earlier age and with greater discernment. Far less understood, Rana says, is how the other-race effect influences early socialization and what that might imply for education and public policy.
“We definitely look at social in-groups and out-groups,” Rana said. “So, when kids develop, how are they creating friend groups? Who are they excluding? Even as adults, who do we exclude without even realizing it?”
In her research role, Rana has split time between the cognitive development lab of the Center for Research on Child Development and her family’s home in St. Louis.
The lab’s research occurs in two principal ways, she says. In some cases, parents and caregivers representing a range of zip codes submit videos of children observing people of dissimilar races. Children’s gaze patterns are analyzed and mapped against geographically localized demographic data. Other times, recruited participants bring their children to the lab for in-person studies; accompanied by their caregivers, infants wearing electroencephalography (EEG) nets watch videos as researchers assess their gaze patterns and brain activity.
Rana says her summer experience has been inspiring and increased her appreciation for research. “It made me realize that research isn’t just a one-person sprint. It’s very collaborative, very supportive. There are about a dozen undergraduates working in the lab, and the fact that Dr. Guy wants us all to work together makes the research more fun and, honestly, much better quality.”
Hollis Kolb (BA ’28)
College of Arts and Sciences
Major: Theology
“Science isn’t always just applied to machines. Science is also applied to humans,” says Hollis Kolb, a pre-med student who is “passionate about work that has a direct human impact.”
Kolb spent the early part of his summer as a lab assistant volunteer at The Milk Bank, a regional nonprofit that provides human milk for vulnerable babies across the Midwest. Alongside a team of specialists working in an aseptic lab, he spent many mornings carefully pouring bags of screened, donated breastmilk into flasks. He then worked closely with the production team to catalog, pasteurize, and bottle the milk for distribution to neonatal intensive care units in regional hospitals and outpatient clinics, where it is in short supply.
For ill or premature babies, human milk can be lifesaving, Kolb says, supporting the nutritional needs of fragile newborns whose bodies have difficulty breaking down the proteins in formulas derived from cow’s milk. That claim is echoed in an explanatory YouTube video featuring Jami Marvin, the production director at The Milk Bank, and supported by a large body of research, including a recent study in the journal Breastfeeding Medicine, which found that the exclusive use of human milk to feed low birthweight infants reduced their mortality by 75 percent.
Kolb’s interest in The Milk Bank’s neonatal care mission owes, in part, to a course he took with Anna Marie Vigen, an associate professor of Christian Social Ethics at Loyola. Concerned by the relatively high U.S. infant mortality rate—at 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births, the U.S. lies near the bottom of a list of 38 developed countries — Kolb, a theology major with minors in bioethics and American Sign Language, sought to apply his interest in medicine at an ethically minded organization working to improve outcomes.
He, apparently, chose wisely. According to a 2024 impact report, The Milk Bank’s donations supported nearly two million feedings for fragile infants across 11 states. “I’m learning a lot,” Kolb says. “The biggest thing is how important it is to be meticulous and detail oriented because every step in the process can have a domino effect.”
