Passion Meets Purpose means something different for everyone. For Bethany Kreklow (‘24), it’s vocation through the church and her community and working with children, hoping to one day be a teacher. For Catherine Nelson (‘24), it’s the intersection of science and art to make both of them more accessible to everyone. For Morgan Fimreite (‘25), it’s working in cancer research with the goal of finding more efficient treatments with fewer side effects. For Earl D’Souza (‘26), it’s highlighting important historical events and their moral and philosophical significance. These presenters ventured to Dubuque, IA in early April to the Upper Midwest Honors Council with the theme: Passion Meets Purpose, and presented on their respective passions.
The first presenter was Catherine Nelson, who discussed the woodcut she worked on over the summer. The original piece stands over five feet tall and features numerous detailed illustrations. Cate shared photos highlighting specific sections of the work, each illustration with its own unique story and purpose. The illustrations she shared introduced us to several plant species, zooplankton, and fish. She also showed us a plant that mimics nectar without actually producing it to attract bees and taught us about water rice through a Native American legend her advisor studied in the Boundary Waters. In the Q&A, Cate confirmed that a frame depicting a bear was based on a real and quite frightening encounter.
Second, in the first poster session, was Morgan Fimreite, detailing her work in the Virology lab of Dr. Richard Vile at the Mayo Clinic. She studied an untreatable brain tumor with an extremely poor prognosis, a 5% chance of survival 2 years after diagnosis. However, these Diffuse Midline Gliomas are characterized by a mutation that might allow for better infection of a virus in order to kill the cells. With her preliminary data, she was able to prove their hypothesis that the virus infected, propagated, and killed the mutated cancer cells better than the wild type. For more information about Morgan’s research (and why it’s detailed so little in this article), check out her article Killing Brain Cancer with Viruses, also published on the Pulse.
Third, at the poster session on Saturday, was Earl D’Souza, discussing governments in collaboration with organized crime. Specifically, he focused on Japan and the Yakuza, the Japanese Mafia. He analyzed their relationship through a utilitarian point of view in a time where the police force wasn’t enough to keep people safe. Was this collaboration morally justifiable in order to help the most people?
Lastly, Bethany spoke about her vocation and what it meant to her. While vocation generally has a religious connotation, it really just means how well your job or desires suit you. Starting from a young age, she became involved in her church and volunteering. Knowing she wanted to become a teacher, Bethany worked as a camp counselor, helping campers develop a stronger bond with nature and their religion. She became involved in outreach through politics, educating fellow college students about voting and encouraging them to do so. Bethany made it clear that her passion was helping people and she was able to find a lot of diverse ways to do that on her path to becoming a teacher.
Besides presenting at Honors Conferences, we encourage students to attend to witness the range of topics that Honors students are passionate about. They are a great place to meet new people, discuss significant topics, and learn from one another and about other schools’ Honors programs. Keep this in mind as NCHC, UMHC, and other registrations open for Honors Conferences and we hope to see you there!
From left to right: Cate Nelson, Morgan Fimreite, Bethany Kreklow, Earl D’Souza, and KC Garania
