Awards: NOVA Award, Sly Prize and Campbell Prize
HMC Activities: Judiciary Board Chair, Academic Excellence Chemistry Facilitator and Student Phonathon Manager
High School: Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, St. Louis, Mo.

The Dorothy C. and J. Arthur Campbell Prize was donated by friends to honor Dorothy C. and J. Arthur Campbell. The Campbells' commitment to Harvey Mudd College began at the opening of the College in 1957. This prize acknowledges the great contributions of the Campbells and honors a senior chemistry major for his/her achievement and promise.  

According to Kalcic:
Mudd was my home away from home for a few years. Not only were the academics been challenging and fulfulling, but the community at HMC was amazing. The cooperative nature of the academic environment promotes interaction between students of all years, and I made great friends since the moment I arrived on campus. The students who I looked up to when I was a freshman graduated and scattered about the country, so I enjoyed my turn to be the fun and friendly senior. I embraced many opportunities to become involved in the Mudd community and senior year was no exception.

I was a chemistry tutor through the Academic Excellence Program. I worked as a grader and lab assistant in the chemistry and biology departments, and I ran the HMC Chemistry Club. I was a huge supporter of the HMC Honor Code and served as the Judiciary Board Chair. Additionally, I gave campus tours for the Admissions Office, and was a Student Phonathon manager for the Development Office. I was lucky to get to work with so many great people across the campus, and am sure that my ties to the school will remain strong.

My research with the Chemistry Department began the summer after my freshmen year and the project I worked on evolved into my senior thesis. I studied the excess thermodynamic functions of alkanol + alkane mixtures across a moderate temperature range. My work was classified as physical chemistry and it taught me to appreciate the relationship between empirical and theoretical chemistry. I presented posters at conferences in Anaheim, San Diego and Gaithersburg (MD), and participated in the ACS spring conference in Atlanta. The Chemistry Department majors, faculty and staff are best described as close-knit. We had a bond that only numerous afternoons in lab together can create. The thing that makes the HMC undergraduate chemistry program so unique is the hands-on nature of all the laboratory courses. As undergraduates, students have access to instrumentation that is utilized at most institutions by only graduate students and post-docs! My experiences in lab at Mudd reinforced my desire to work in a research environment.

My career interests are currently split between forensic chemistry and chemistry education at the high school level. I plan to go on to graduate school after Mudd, and am looking into Masters and Ph.D programs in forensic chemistry or with a research emphasis in forensics. While my specific interests are constantly changing, my dream job at the moment is to work as a forensic analyst in a crime lab specializing in either trace evidence or questioned documents. When I’m not working, I try to enjoy Southern California as much as I can. Whether it’s a museum, a beach or Disneyland, I’m typically out and about on the weekends. During my senior year, I acted as the coordinator of 5C club volleyball and enjoyed playing in beach and grass tournaments in the area. We expanded our open-gym group to include students from all of the five Claremont Colleges, CGU and even a few Mudd professors!

In general, HMC is a very special place. While the academic demands are challenging, the Mudd community has a lot more to offer. I found that what mattered most was making time to enjoy as much as I could in my four short years as a Mudder.