Compassion Cohort

Isabel Gameros

Liberal Arts Honors, History, Humanities

My first year on the 40 Acres truly highlighted how vital balance is to me. From coursework to extracurriculars to growing my community, I found motivation and calm within the Dedman Distinguished Scholars Program. From biweekly meetings with the Compassion Cohort to hours spent with scholars from others, I found an anchor and guiding light with Dedman. Beyond community and friendship, the beauty of Dedman is in the encouragement offered. It was through DDSP that I found the courage to experiment with my extracurriculars, academics, and even a double major. Dr. Musick’s encouragement to explore an honors major to pursue my interests was vital in my academic journey at UT, while my fellow scholars were instrumental in my personal life.

Throughout my first year on campus, I valued the opportunity to explore academics, from Philosophy of the Arts with Dr. Higgins to Sociology of Fertility and Reproduction with Dr. Glass, I broadened my horizons and ventured to take classes I would have never dreamed were options. It was through these courses and the resonant advice of my Dedman Community that I developed my own major through the Humanities Honors Program, intending to analyze the relationship between political thought and the media we consume. Melding my interest and experience with the Film Industry and Political Sociology exemplifies the balance I seek out in all I do, a balance DDSP emphasizes.

Outside of classes, I enriched myself through extracurriculars, joining Texas Mock Trial and travelling to Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, and more throughout the Spring and Fall competitive seasons. Working with Mock Trial necessitates an ability to balance responsibilities, adapt to ever-changing circumstances, and take charge of situations. I look forward to managing Social Media and Communications for the Organization this year while also Captaining a team in the Fall. I’ve always been a firm believer in stepping out of my comfort zone, which led me to joining an organization I’d never considered before; Student Government. Working with a fellow Dedman, Kiera, in FLO, UT’s First-year Leadership Organization, was a wonderful experience that helped me explore environmental initiatives I was passionate about. Off-campus, I spent the year working with the Dallas Subcommittee of the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee of the Texas Supreme Court, investigating cases of individuals alleged to have participated in the unauthorized practice of law. Working with the UPL committee deepened my understanding of the legal world I hope to explore post-grad.

This summer, I’ve continued to expand my horizons, both intellectually and literally. Travelling to Los Angeles, Massachusetts, and London while working as a summer internship at a law firm, Vartabedian Hester & Haynes, in Dallas. It was in this role that I continued to break down and understand what it truly means to serve the community through Legal Work, my ultimate goal in life.

I am eternally grateful for the community and friendships UT and the DDSP have provided me and I cannot wait to get back on campus and with my friends and fellow scholars this fall.

Evelyn Lee

Plan II Honors, Chemistry

Dhroov Pathare

Plan II Honors, Neuroscience

The wind on Norway’s Lofoten Islands has a habit of erasing the trail.

Just enough that every few minutes, I stopped looking for a path and started searching for the next cairn, a small stack of stones left by someone who had walked there before me. None stood much taller than my knee. But on long stretches of exposed rock, they became the only reassurance that I was headed the right way.

I did not realize until I returned home how much that hike had come to resemble my sophomore year.

The year carried me through places that seemed to have little in common: a crowded emergency department, a cancer therapeutics laboratory, a research journal office, and a stage at Stanford. Only later did I recognize the question that connected them: how do we build things that leave people stronger, more independent, or simply better supported than we found them?

I encountered that most directly during my shifts as an emergency department technician intern at Methodist Dallas Medical Center and as an EMT with the Lewisville Fire Department. In emergency medicine, a person’s life can be reduced quickly to numbers: pulse, pressure, oxygen saturation, pain score. I learned to collect those numbers accurately, but I also began noticing everything they failed to capture. The way a patient watched the doorway for a family member who had not arrived. The embarrassment in someone’s voice when they needed help with something they once could do alone. Those details were rarely the most clinically urgent, but they often stayed with me the longest.

That perspective followed me back into the Maynard Lab, where I continued helping engineer pH-sensitive monoclonal antibodies and T-cell receptor therapeutics for cancers that are difficult to treat. Our work examines how these molecules can cross the blood-brain barrier and respond to the acidic conditions around tumors while limiting activity in healthy tissue. Questions this complex are humbling. Results do not always resolve what you hoped they would, and months of work can lead to a more complicated question than the one you began with. Yet this year also brought milestones for which I am deeply grateful: co-authoring two published papers, presenting our work at the College of Natural Sciences Technology and Science Undergraduate Research Forum, and receiving the Barry Goldwater Scholarship.

One of the most exciting parts of my year came through PhoroVis, the low-cost, portable vision-screening device our team developed for communities where traditional phoropters are too expensive or difficult to transport. After months of work, we flew to California for the Stanford Center on Longevity Design Challenge and won first place. I had been looking forward to the trip long before we arrived. Once the presentation ended, we crossed into San Francisco, stopped at Ghirardelli Square, and ate enough chocolate to make dinner unnecessary. It was nice to know that, for once, there was nowhere else we needed to be. Altogether, it became one of my favorite memories of college.

Back on the Forty Acres, I will continue serving as editor-in-chief of the Texas Undergraduate Research Journal, working alongside our authors and editing teams to carry each volume from manuscript selection to publication. This fall, I will also begin serving as a STEM Fellow in the Plan II office. After years of learning from professors and mentors who shared their time and guidance so generously, I am grateful to step into roles that allow me to extend that same care to others.

When I think back to Lofoten, I remember the cairns more clearly than the summit. Someone had paused long enough to choose a stone, balance it carefully, and make the route easier to recognize for a stranger they would never meet.

The Dedman community has offered me that kind of direction throughout my time at UT. I am deeply grateful to the Dedman family, to Dr. Mason and Dr. Hoelscher for the thought and care they bring to this community, and to my faculty mentor, Dr. Pikus, who has helped me think beyond the next accomplishment and more carefully about the life I am building around it.

I still cannot see the entire trail ahead. This year, I have become more comfortable with that. For now, I am grateful for the people who have marked the way and for the chance, wherever I can, to leave a few stones of my own.

Ronak Sheth

Plan II Honors, Asian Studies, International Relations and Global Studies, Government

What an exciting and meaningful year it has been. I am incredibly grateful for the Dedman community and for the many experiences that have allowed me to grow as a leader, student, and person over the past year.

One of the greatest highlights of my year was serving as Vice President of Texas Mock Trial and recently being elected President. Mock Trial has become one of the most important parts of my college experience, and this season was especially unforgettable. Our season ended in a way that still feels surreal: we placed second at the national championship and became the first team in Texas Mock Trial history to advance to the national final round. Of course, coming so close has only made us hungrier. As President, I am excited to build on that momentum and am confident we can win the national championship this year.

I was equally proud of the work we did outside the courtroom. Over the past year, we raised around $60,000 to help lower the cost of competing on the team. Mock Trial requires students to travel across the country, and those expenses can quickly become a barrier to participation.

Helping make the team more accessible has been one of the most meaningful parts of my leadership, and it is something I hope to continue prioritizing as President.

This year also brought me into Student Government, where I now serve on the executive board as Financial Director. It has been especially exciting to take on this role alongside three fellow Dedman Scholars: Kiera, our President; Jaden, our Vice President; and Devon, our Chief of Staff. Working with people I already admire and trust has made the experience even more exciting. We have ambitious plans for the year ahead, and I genuinely believe we have the opportunity to do some incredible work for students across campus.

In a completely different corner of my life, I have begun writing a Broadway-style musical about the Partition of India with a friend. The project brings together my background in composition, knowledge of Indian classical music, and interest in Partition history. Because this story has rarely been explored through musical theater, the opportunity to create something new, meaningful, and culturally grounded has been incredibly exciting. We’ve never written a musical before and honestly have no idea what we’re doing, but it’s a project that we both want to see through and I know it’ll turn into something wonderful eventually.

My interest in attending law school has also continued to grow. This summer, I had the privilege of interning in the chambers of Senior United States District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal. The experience gave me an extraordinary look into the work of the federal judiciary and the care that goes into resolving difficult legal questions. Conducting legal research and contributing to the drafting of judicial opinions was particularly eye-opening. I saw how strong legal writing requires not only precision and analytical rigor, but also a deep awareness of how the law affects the people standing behind each case. The experience strengthened my interest in law and gave me a much clearer understanding of the kind of work I hope to pursue in the future.

Looking back, this year has been wonderfully unpredictable. I have had the chance to lead a nationally competitive team, expand access to an activity I love, serve students across UT, work inside a federal courthouse, and begin turning a major historical event into music. These experiences may seem unrelated, but each has allowed me to tell stories, advocate for others, and work with people toward something larger than myself. I am deeply thankful to the Dedman community for giving me the confidence and support to chase all of those possibilities—and I could not be more excited for what comes next.