Meet the Fusion Fellows

An experiment in "academic chemistry" is underway at IUP.

This year marks the launch of the Fusion Fellows Program, an initiative designed to pull students out of their specific departments and into the real world to solve complex problems through collaboration.

The program was made possible by a gift from IUP alumni Tim and Deb Cejka, Class of 1973.

This donation supports the program for its first five years, creating a bridge between the Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the College of Arts, Humanities, Media, and Public Affairs.

By pairing students from vastly different disciplines, the program aims to create projects that are truly greater than the sum of their parts.

Here are the projects:

From the Lab to the Lens

The team of Serena Aumick and Riley Whiskeyman is proving that science and storytelling go hand-in-hand.

Aumick is a biology/pre-vet major from Tunkhannock, and Whiskeyman is a Shillington native majoring in communications media. Their mission? To document high-stakes conservation efforts in the Bay Islands of Honduras.

While Serena provides the scientific backbone-focusing on the endangered Utila Spiny-tailed Iguana and local bat populations-Riley is capturing the narrative on film. Together, they are showing how media production can bridge the gap between technical research and public awareness, turning field data into a compelling documentary.

Unearthing Johnstown's Hidden Heritage

Meanwhile, closer to home, another team is digging into the "lost" history of western Pennsylvania. Madilyn House, an applied archaeology master's student from Orbisonia, and Jocelyn McCray, an applied anthropology and history student from Franklin, are examining the Laurel Hill Settlement near Johnstown.

Dating back to the 1820s, the site was a mostly Black settlement that has since been abandoned and erased from the map. The pair is using a high-tech "fusion" of ground-penetrating radar and oral history. By matching underground scans of farmhouse foundations with the personal stories of local descendants, Madilyn and Jocelyn are bringing a nearly forgotten piece of local history back to life.

About the Fusion Fellows: