CHC Summer Adventures: Lucas Ruud, Sunny Hwang, and Nicholas McCurrach

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We asked and you delivered! At the Commonwealth Honors College, we were eager to learn about students' plans for Summer 2023. Whether you were spending the summer catching up on well-deserved rest or engaging in jobs and internships, we couldn’t wait to hear all about it.

While we loved getting a glimpse into so many students' summer experiences on our Instagram, we had the opportunity to learn in detail about the plans of a handful of students. Through one on one interviews, Lucas Ruud, Sunny Hwang, and Nicholas McCurrach elaborated on how they spent their summer. These students were spread all across the world, and we hope you enjoy hearing about what they were up to.

Lucas Ruud 

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Senior Lucas Ruud spent his summer testing out a new field of work. Although primarily focused on his majors in English and journalism, Lucas found his way to two positions at UMass Amherst where he's spent his summer working alongside engineers and scientists. 

Q: Tell us a little about your summer plans? 

A: I've been doing two internships at UMass this summer: one is with the Center for Data Science, and one with the Cybersecurity Institute. I'd say the project I'm most passionate about is within the Center for Data Science. They have a program called  Data Science for the Common Good where the faculty and the full-time staff run a summer program for PhD and master's data science students to work on public good projects. So, things that deal with social justice, the environment — projects that have to do with that kind of data.

But this year, they were also hiring tech writers — because they want people to work on the documentation  to make sure that the projects they finish could be open source. This means that anyone that has enough programming experience or industry knowledge can go in and also contribute to those projects. So, I've been working on the documentation with projects and lending some design insight as well.

Q: How did you go about finding your internship?

A: The professional writing and technical communication certificate program. I signed up for the certificate program. I took the first couple classes in the program and I realized that I really enjoyed what I was doing. I saw an email from the certificate program that the Center for Data Science was looking for interns so I decided to apply.

Q: How do you plan to balance relaxation and self-care with your summer activities? 

A: I'm one of those people, I'll just say yes to everything. But this summer I still say yes to everything, but I'm giving myself a lot more time. For example, I live a few miles away from the school, so I'll bike to school to the Center for Data Science and I'll also make sure I have time to actually go to the gym. I've been cooking a lot. I think just forming those good habits of just basic exercise and eating is really important. And I'm a huge proponent of just cooking for yourself, not even just for health reasons, just because such a great skill to learn. 

Q: What are you most looking forward to for the start of the semester?

A: I'm really excited to be the editor-in-chief at The Collegian. I absolutely love our community and it gives me so much of a sense of purpose to be able to actually engage with the UMass community. Being able to talk to other students, talk to faculty, you just learn so much about the university. It makes you feel really connected. So, I'm excited to lead the newspaper with some awesome people.

Sunny Hwang 

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A senior studying public health sciences on the premed track, Sunny Hwang was able to get plenty of experience in the healthcare field this summer.

Q: Tell us a little about your summer plans? 

A: I've been working full-time at a local primary care office as a patient care assistant. I've done this last summer and in the winter as well. I'm getting a lot of clinical experience and also I've been applying to a lot of research assistant positions for after graduation.

Q: What are you most excited about regarding your summer plans? 

A: I would say the diverse encounters that I get with patients and also the staff providers, our nurses, CNAs, and other medical assistants. It's so different every day. So I've been loving that diversity and the experience I get every single day.

Q: What are you most looking forward to for the start of the semester?

A: I'll be a senior and it'll be my last semester. So I have a lot of big projects coming up like my Honors Thesis,  and my final honors add-on where I plan to do a literature review. So I'm just really excited to see what I've learned so far and wrap things up and also spend time with my friends and the professors that I really care about as much as I can before leaving campus.

Nicholas McCurrach

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As a political science major with a minor in economics and another in Russian, Eurasian & Polish studies, Nicholas was able to put to use all of his knowledge during his summer volunteer experience in Poland.  During his time abroad he was able to help the people of Ukraine in their time of need. 

Q: Tell us a little about your summer plans? 

A: I am working with an NGO called Volunteers for Ukraine. They're officially an American NGO 501(c)(3) nonprofit, but they have ground operations primarily centered in Warsaw — which is where the CEO resides, as well as a lot of ground operations too.

Q: What type of groundwork are you doing in Warsaw?

A: We have a grant application pipeline for other, on-the-ground NGOs in Ukraine who can actually apply to our foundation to get funding. And then we partner with the organization, basically trying to support them in what they do. And I think the best example of this is this phenomenal NGO that works on the ground in eastern Ukraine called Aqueducts. They're on the ground providing water to those without access due to the Russian invasion. We have sent local volunteers to go work on the ground with Aqueducts teams in different areas of Ukraine, including Siverskyi, and most recently a town called Apostolove. And on top of that, we recently purchased and financed a water delivery truck.

Q: What are you most excited about regarding your summer plans? 

A: I'd say the most profound feeling is being able to have such an impact on people's lives, you know? When Russia invaded, it was a full-scale war, and people are suffering because of it. And so any amount of help that I can give to these people who are really in the worst of sorts is just quite impactful.

It really shows the power of an individual regardless of where you're from. If you have a desire to help, and the drive to do so and make an improvement in the world, then there's a place for you here.

Q: How did you go about finding this job? 

A: I'm actually here through funding with the Obama Foundation — I'm an Obama-Chesky Voyager scholar, The scholarship provides funding for public service immersion opportunities. Whether that be a work-study, internship, volunteer experience, really, whatever. And so I knew that I was interested in going out to help the Ukrainians in case of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. And I had reached out to a number of professors, and one of them, Charli Carpenter in the political science department, had done the groundwork in Poland before. She had some contacts that she provided to me, and then I reached out to this gentleman who put me in contact with Dane Miller, who's the CEO of Volunteers For Ukraine here in Warsaw.

Q: How do you plan to balance relaxation and self-care with your summer activities? 

A: You have to find what works for you, what keeps you going, what makes you happy and pursue it. I'm actually training to run a 30-mile race in September. And so one of the things that I'm doing is consistently keeping up on staying active. And that's something that I find really, really helpful for my mental state when I'm active. I was an athlete growing up, and when I'm able to use and exercise my body, then that's when I am the most happy.