We Did It

The Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center (A-LEC) is one of the many support programs across campus solely intent on student success. Through the help offered by A-LEC and other centers on campus, students build confidence, develop sharper skills, and learn to navigate the rigors of their academic and social lives.

“I wanted to attend a school where I could play basketball and also get a business degree,” Jonathan Wilfong ’17 said about picking SMU. “I could have gone to a smaller school and played more, but I knew what I wanted to study and I knew where my future was.” But no one knew his love of basketball and business studies would lead him to found Coaching for Literacy, and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to get kids reading.

SMU students and alumni used their talents and vision to bring together communities across Dallas in an expansive and vibrant recasting of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.  Learn how the Meadows School, and eleven SMU undergraduates, put together “One of the best experiences I’ve had in college,” and united a community through art.

“It is overwhelming to be in the company of Winston Churchill, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jonas Salk and the ‘mother’ of my own discipline, Margaret Mead,” said noted SMU anthropologist Carloine Brettell as she contemplated her induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It’s an extraordinary honor, but well deserved. Read more about Professor Brettell’s research and accomplishments.

When Professor Eric Bing told SMU senior Dylan DeMuth he was not yet qualified to enroll in his global health class, he gave the premed student a challenge to “improve your grades and call me in a month.” Dylan did, and met with Bing a month later to report improvement—the beginning of a mentorship that inspired DeMuth to re-choreograph his life.

Adult illiteracy is not a problem to be toyed with—but Corey Clark began to wonder if it shouldn’t be. Read how Corey, deputy director for research in the SMU Guildhall game development program, led a cross-campus team of student and scholars to build a gamified app to teach literacy that is now a finalist in the $7 million Barbara Bush Foundation Adult Literacy XPRIZE.

Patricia Nance ’17 knows how to fight through a problem. She takes her inspiration and fighting spirit from her grandmother, who has beat back cancer twice. Through the support of the Hamilton Undergraduate Research Scholars Program, Patricia is able to focus on her research—synthesizing antibacterial polymers—and make the world better for her grandmother, and everyone else.

It’s no secret that travel broadens one’s horizons. Every year, SMU students strike out for far corners of the world to learn, experience and grow, becoming truly global citizens. Read their experiences here and discover how they made where they went part of who they are.