2007 New Graduate Student Profiles

A Civil Matter
When most people hear the names Herman Melville and Walt Whitman they think of Moby Dick and Leaves of Grass. But something else comes to mind when Leif Eckstrom, a first-year English graduate student, hears these names—namely, the Civil War.

Music Magic
Through her volunteer work, first-year music graduate student Jean Foo brought the power of music to children living in rural China. For many of the children, it was the first time they had ever heard music.

For the Birds
Alexander “Sasha” Keyel has been interested in birds since he was five-years old. This interest has taken him from the hills of California to the beaches of Cape Cod. The bird enthusiast now finds himself at Tufts, where he is a first-year biology graduate student.

Summer School
First-year child development graduate student Michelle Boyd decided to take a year off after earning her bachelor’s degree in 2006. But she didn’t engage in the usual post-college rites of passages like a cross-country trip with friends or a series of interviews aimed at landing that first job after college. Instead, she went back to school.