TNT Scholar Profile
Dr. Terence Thomas Scholar Profile: Autumn Mays
Autumn Mays is a 20-year-old rising senior at DePaul University. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Autumn grew up with a deep love for the performing arts, especially music. She began her own journey with music at the age of 8 with her participation in Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra’s (MYSO) “Progressions” Program. Spending 10 years in MYSO, she finished the program in their flagship orchestra “Senior Symphony”. Throughout her tenure with MYSO, she was not only molded into a classically trained violinist but was also granted multiple opportunities to develop her musicianship and leadership skills. These opportunities included performing alongside The Piano Guys, Black Violin, composing two orchestral compositions and co-creating the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center Student Advisory Board. Because of these experiences, it further solidified Autumn’s passion for the arts, but also made her further aware of the lack of accessibility for the arts in her community. With a newfound motivation to combat the disparities of arts accessibility, Autumn set her sights on majoring in Performing Arts Management and double minoring in Communication Studies and Business Administration.
As a Performing Arts Management student, Autumn’s coursework focuses on not-for-profit arts administration as well as commercial music management to prepare for the extensiveness of the performing arts industry. With her minors in Communication Studies and Business Administration, she can further develop her communication and entrepreneurship skills to support her knowledge in the performing arts world. To supplement her class and practicum work, Autumn is on the DePaul University School of Music Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Board as the sole student board member to bridge the gap between student and faculty/staff communication and encourage improvements that can be made regarding diversity, equity and inclusion values at the School of Music. Over the course of the summer, she has been interning with Elevated Chicago, a collaborative of residents, organizations, artists, city officials and philanthropists that work to promote equitable community and transit development. As the Arts & Culture intern, Autumn is focused on creating arts and cultural strategies that embody Elevated Chicago’s values, creating spaces for artists in the community and research to create arts resources in the city of Chicago.
In addition to her music and educational endeavors, Autumn’s interest in philanthropy encouraged her to found her own not-for-profit organization NoteWorthy Inc in 2020. As the Founder/CEO, she strives to grant financial resources and musical opportunities to underrepresented youth in her community in hopes of fostering a new generation of performers that will break down stereotypes. Furthermore, she was awarded the 2021 National Philanthropic Youth of Today Award for her work as the first vice-chair of the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center Student Advisory Board.
Autumn is grateful to be receiving the Dr.Terence Thomas Scholarship award for a fourth year as it has been essential to funding her academic career and goals. Currently, she is balancing being a full-time student, not-for-profit founder, musician, and model. After finishing her bachelor’s degree, she plans to either attend graduate school or directly work in both the not-for-profit and commercial sectors of the music industry with the ultimate goal of making music and the performing arts accessible to all.
Dr. Terence Thomas Scholar Profile: Jerrell Lovett
Dr. Terence Thomas Scholarship recipient Jerrell Lovett is 26 years young. He is a Milwaukee native and proud alumnus of Riverside University High School and Marquette University. Between both of his parents, he has 15 siblings. Jerrell’s father has ten other children, and his mother has five others. He says he feels blessed to have such a large family. Most of Jerrell’s life was spent with his mom in a house of six (at the time). His mother relied on pre-college and mentorship programs to keep Jerrell out of the troubled neighborhood where they lived. His interest in science was fostered by the Marquette Upward Bound Math and Science Program during his sophomore year of high school. At the time, he had a general interest in the role that eating, and exercise habits had on physical health. He was inspired to attend college because his family had multiple diseases ranging from autoimmune diseases to cardiometabolic disorders. Although genetic factors play a role, he believes extrinsic factors like eating habits, physical activity, and lifestyle choices have a greater contribution to disease. This inspired Jerrell to study physiological science at Marquette to understand how systems work.
While at Marquette, he gained a lot of research experience surrounding muscle biology. Jerrell’s mentor, Robert Fitts had a great interest in studying muscle cells on a cross-bridge level in various context. In other words, he was interested in looking at the molecular level where muscle contraction occurs. From his studies at Marquette, Jerrell earned a publication entitled “Contractility of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Cardiomyocytes with an MYH6 Head Domain Variant associated with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome”. In this study they collaborated with the Medical College of Wisconsin to study myofilament function in cardiomyocyte stem cells developed from skin cells isolated from infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and the unaffected parent. The long- term goal was to understand how MYH6 variant alters cardiac function which could lead to development of effective biological therapies. During his final semester at Marquette, Jerrell continued with this line of inquiry and developed an independent project that examined the cardioprotective effects of regular exercise training on heart function using Langendroff perfusion system.
Jerrell continued to explore his interest in muscle biology when he joined Medical College of Wisconsin’s Physiology Ph.D program. He joined the lab of Caitlin O’Meara, who has a general interest in identifying novel mechanisms of cardiac regeneration after heart attack. Jerrell’s project aims to look at the role of a protein called lethal giant larvae protein homologue 1 (Llgl1) in cardiac development and its role in mediating a regenerative response after cardiac injury. These studies have clinical significance because there is a lack of knowledge of how newly regenerated heart muscle cells or transplanted cells reintegrate into the functional myocardium. Jerrell’s success in progressing the field’s knowledge in heart regeneration has led him to present at multiple conferences. This past March, he was invited to present his research and give a talk in Long Beach California. He received a distinguished abstract in muscle biology award for my research.
After he finishes his Ph.D., he envisions being a Medical Scientist Liaison temporarily with the long-term goal of working in Healthcare Administration. He wants to have a say on how policy is being implemented on a larger scale, which will affect underrepresented groups. Beyond his career in Science, he has a long-term goal to educate, inspire, and empower other black youth to discover and achieve their purpose through a three-layered generational program. This program will consist of members from e.g baby-boomers, his own generation, and Gen Z. The goal will be to create Black Professionals through mentorship and representation. There will be a constant flow of knowledge throughout these generational groups so that Black people are not starting at a disadvantage. They will have similar resources as their counterparts when it’s time to attend post-secondary education for example.