The fellows’ majors span the breadth of Clark’s academic departments, according to Professor Nancy Budwig, who directs this cornerstone program. The Steinbrecher Fellowships began in 2005 with a gift from the friends and family of the late David C. Steinbrecher ’81. David’s parents, the late Phyllis and Stephen Steinbrecher ’55, endowed the program to provide funding for Clark undergraduates to pursue original ideas, creative research, public service, or enrichment projects, with each cohort presenting the results of their work to faculty mentors and members of the Steinbrecher family. 

This year’s fellows are:

Preeti Bachu ’27 

Major: Psychology

Minor: Education (teaching certification) 

How Caregiver Emotion Dysregulation Shapes Child Aggression Through the Lens of Pretend Play

Bachu will examine how children who grew up during the COVID-19 pandemic express socio-emotional themes in solitary pretend play, how these expressions relate to peer aggression, and how caregiver emotion dysregulation contributes to these patterns. The research will involve 50 pairs each of a caregiver and a 4- to 8-year-old child. 

By the end of the summer, Bachu will produce preliminary analyses and a parent-friendly infographic summarizing practical strategies to support children’s emotional expression and regulation. The projectaddresses the need to understand how pandemic-era environments may have shaped children’s emotional development and interpersonal functioning. 

Gage Dexter ’27

Major: Media, Culture, and the Arts + Health Science and Society

Minor: Music 

Linking Arts to Health: Building Foundations for Social Prescribing in Worcester

Dexter will explore and advance social prescribing — a community-centered public health approach that connects individuals to non-clinical resources supporting health and well-being. Through independent study and applied fieldwork, he will examine the value of social prescribing, map existing community assets in Worcester, and build relational networks between community organizations and health-adjacent stakeholders. 

Dexter’s project combines research, outreach, and public-facing deliverables, and will result in a community asset map, visual arts materials (e.g., flyers, social media assets, etc.), and reflective analysis linking community engagement to health outcomes. Through this work, Dexter will contribute to public health practice while developing his own practical skills in communication, outreach, and community engagement.

Fae Kitchens ’27

Major: Biology 

Hybridization Between the Golden Oyster Mushroom and the Pink Oyster Mushroom

The golden oyster mushroom, Pleurotus citrinopileatus (Pc), is a cultivated Asian mushroom now invasive in North America. The pink oyster mushroom, Pleurotus djamor (Pd), is a non-native species of the same genus. These mushroom populations often overlap in Massachusetts. In his project, Kitchens will test Pc-Pd hybridization potential, which could impact their competitive ability against native species. 

This lab research follows up on hybridization evidence from a semester project in the Introductory Mycology course and will develop important lab skills for Kitchens’ future career, including creating and following procedures, performing microscopy, and synthesizing results with past research. Kitchens plans to present this research at ClarkFEST in the fall. 

Michael Schiumo ’27

Major: Finance

Minor: Management minor (business data analytics concentration)

Bounded Autonomy in Practice: Human Judgment and AI Decision Structures in Lean Public-Serving Organizations 

Schiumo will investigate how small startups, nonprofits, and municipal offices structure their human oversight of AI-assisted workflows when AI outputs shape public-facing decisions. Existing AI governance research centers on large technology firms while this study focuses instead on resource-constrained organizations where oversight occurs in real time under deadline pressure. Through short-term embedding in a New York City-based AI startup, structured workflow mapping with a Worcester public-serving institution, and cross-sector interviews with additional lean organizations, Schiumo will document delegation thresholds, escalation triggers, override mechanisms, and accountability structures in real-world settings. 

Schiumo plans to produce a bounded autonomy casebook, a Human-AI authority map, and an autonomy evaluation rubric for small public-serving organizations, which will all help translate abstract AI ethics into operational governance designs rooted in lived decision environments. 

Manny Torto ’27

Major: Business Administration

Minor: Music

How Much AI is Too Much: The Perception of AI in Creative Production

This project will center on testing variations of a song to determine the lengths to which AI can be used in creative art, accompanied by a structured marketing campaign and research analysis. The work will combine studio production, carefully chosen AI tools, audience analytics, and social media strategy to study how listeners perceive the tension between human-made art and AI-assisted content. The project will investigate ethical and artistic questions raised by AI’s growing role in the music industry, through the lens of an independent alternative pop artist navigating platform algorithms and creative labor. 

The project will deliver a single and a video for the most popular song selected by a test group from among a selection of songs using various amounts of AI.

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Three student teams walked away prizes:

• 1st Place: Prakriti Manandhar and Nirva Radadiya (Business: Diyo); $4,000
• 2nd Place: Gina Baez (Business: FuelBox); $500
• 3rd Place: Kai Cecil (Business: Breakout Brands): $500

Varvara Maltseva ’27, with her business, It Takes a Village, won the Marketing Pitch competition and was selected to represent Clark at the collegiate WooTank competition. The data science major/finance minor earned second place in the citywide contest.

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The School of Professional Studies recently concluded the PM Challenge, a multi-round competition that brought graduate students together to develop practical, executable project plans that maximize results with minimal budget and resources. 

The competition was sponsored by the Master’s in Project Management program, which is accredited by the PMI Global Accreditation Center for Project Management Education Programs (GAC). The program is also STEM-Designated.

The challenge involved creating fundraising solutions for The Mustard Seed, a Worcester nonprofit that provides meals and food assistance to vulnerable community members, including older adults, people experiencing homelessness, veterans, and individuals in need. Teams were asked to create low-cost, community-driven fundraising strategies that could be implemented within six months, while also addressing outreach, donor engagement, sustainability, and the human side of food insecurity.

By working with an existing nonprofit, participants applied project management skills to a real-world community issue with direct local relevance. Their ideas aimed to help strengthen The Mustard Seed’s capacity so the organization can continue purchasing food, expand its reach, and better serve Worcester residents facing hardship.

“The PM Challenge reflected Clark’s commitment to experiential learning, community engagement, and student-led impact,” said Mary M Piecewicz, MSPM program director. “It also showcased how graduate students can use project management not only as a professional skill, but also as a tool to create meaningful change.”

The PM Challenge was managed by MSPM students Abhishek Rajendra, Singh Janu, Faith Akello, Manjari Gupta, Romain Kiragoulou, and Karanveer Singh.

The Challenge judges were Mike Beneditti, house and volunteer coordinator at The Mustard Seed; Ray Davis PMP, assistant director of engineering at the city of Worcester and a member of the MSPM Advisory Council; and Aakash Garg, CFA, PMP, program manager in the Enterprise Project Management Office at Commonwealth Financial Network and a member of the MSPM Advisory Council.

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Qualitative research is increasingly part of the methodological repertoire of scholars who study families. In this article, Goldberg and co-author Katherine Allen (Department of Human Development and Family Science, Virginia Tech) examine contemporary trends, tensions, and possibilities for the interdisciplinary enterprise of qualitative research on and about families, while situating their collaborative approach as critical family scholars who pursue social justice work.

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Dunham will also be conducting more research on Frelinghuysen as part of a history capstone directed study, exploring what the legends around his participation in the Battle of Trenton can tell us about how the Revolutionary War has been remembered.

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Problems of Practice courses are issues of consequence impacting a community, profession, or discipline; such courses enable Clark students to collaborate with alumni and experts at local and global organizations — from theatre groups, historical societies, and media outlets to government agencies, Fortune 500 companies, and NGOs.

“At a time when many students are being asked to demonstrate professional experience before graduation, Project IMPACT is designed to help Clark students develop and apply the core liberal arts capacities that matter most in a changing world — critical thinking, communication, problem solving, collaboration, and ethical judgment — through sustained, real-world practice while they are still in college,” says Laurie Ross, associate provost and dean of the college.

Project IMPACT builds on core elements of The Clark Experience: close faculty mentorship, meaningful engagement, and the integration of classroom learning with work in the world beyond campus.

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The event’s theme was “Creating Cultures of Care: Advancing Belonging, Wellness, and Safety in Schools.”

In a LinkedIn post, Ward wrote, “What an honor and pleasure to meet so many educators, counselors, social workers, and administrators wholly dedicated to the well-being of our students.”

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The paper addresses the global teacher shortage, a persistent challenge that has become more acute since the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in STEM subjects. The MassTeach program, developed using ten years of statewide higher education enrollment data, coordinated efforts by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education and faculty across the community college (2-year) and state university (4-year) systems to increase participation in the STEM teacher workforce. 

Recognizing that enrollment at community colleges reflects the socioeconomic makeup of their surrounding communities, which are underrepresented in the STEM education pipeline, MassTeach coordinated supports to facilitate student transfer from 2- to 4-year institutions toward earning a teaching license in a STEM field. Tracking MassTeach participant data enabled visualization of individuals’ progress within this statewide context. In their paper, Hanselman and her co-authors note that data showed that support from the MassTeach program facilitated participants’ progression from community college to teaching licensure; however, no single support was identified as sufficient. The coordinated supports of MassTeach highlighted the importance of intentional efforts to engage with all students and the flexibility required to respond to their ongoing needs in pursuit of their career goals.

MassTeach is supported by the Robert Noyce Scholarship Program of the National Science Foundation.

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The conference, which was presented by the MACBA and the Barcelona Center for Contemporary Culture (CCCB), convened voices from across disciplines, geographies, and political histories to explore the collective experiences of Black people living in urban environments. Through discussions of everyday urban tactics, global struggles for autonomy, and the practice and potential of Black imagination, participants asked what sorts of emergent futures could be held in Black districts across the globe, especially in the face of unprecedented political and ecological instability.

The conference included a performance by Saul Williams, a Grammy-nominated poet and actor who most recently appeared in the film “Sinners.” 

Best and co-organizer AbdouMaliq Simone collaborated with MACBA and the Barcelona Center for Contemporary Culture on a video explaining Black urbanism and the urgency of opening conversations about it. Watch on Instagram »

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The City of Worcester, with Clark University acting as a research partner, has once again received grant funding from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through the Sen. Charles E. Shannon Jr. Community Safety Initiative (Shannon CSI). The grant supports evidence-based efforts that prevent and reduce youth and gang violence in communities across the state.

Clark has served as the research partner of Worcester’s Shannon CSI since the grants were first awarded in 2006; Professor and Dean of the College Laurie Ross and Professor Jennifer Safford are the program’s investigators, working in partnership with the city, the Worcester Police Department, the Boys and Girls Club of Worcester, Straight Ahead Ministries, the Worcester Community Action Council, and the Worcester Youth Center, Ross and Safford provide strategic research support and program evaluation of city-wide gang violence prevention and intervention.

Worcester was awarded $946,588 for the city’s Shannon initiative. Clark, as the local research partner, received $45,704.

The Senator Charles E. Shannon Community Safety Initiative (Shannon CSI) supports regional and multi-disciplinary approaches to combat gang violence through coordinated programs for prevention and intervention. Working in partnership with the City of Worcester, the Worcester Police Department, the Boys and Girls Club of Worcester, Straight Ahead Ministries, the Worcester Community Action Council, and the Worcester Youth Center, Professor and Dean of the College Laurie Ross and Professor Jennifer Safford-Farquharson serve as the Shannon CSI Local Action Research Partner for Worcester, providing strategic research support and program evaluation of city-wide gang violence prevention and intervention.\

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