Omar El-Etr ’19 has always had a knack for technology. Growing up in Alexandria, Egypt, he was the unofficial family tech adviser, and his interest deepened with time.

When choosing a university, Bucknell offered El-Etr an opportunity he couldn’t pass up — a liberal arts education with diverse course offerings. “I chose Bucknell because I like the flexibility,” he says.

This flexibility proved essential when he encountered Professor Evan Peck, computer science, and became fascinated with his area of study — human-computer interaction. This emerging field focuses on how users interact with technology and led El-Etr to a computer science major.

During summer 2017, Peck and El-Etr paired up to research the accessibility of data visualization, and their paper, co-authored with Sofia Ayuso ’21, received a Best Paper award at the prestigious CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Glasgow, Scotland, this May.

El-Etr says he feels particularly honored knowing that even researchers with much longer résumés have yet to achieve such an award. The recent graduate plans to stay in the United States and hopes to make his mark in user-experience research or product management.

by Heidi Hormel

Theatre and activism are in Ibby Cizmar ’03’s blood.

As part of her Ph.D. program at Tufts University, Cizmar told her grandparents’ powerful story. (They defied the government in Soviet Hungary by using music to send coded messages.) Their story exemplifies the power of music and theatre — even in an oppressive regime — to find love, joy and happiness, she says.

Cizmar sees that theme in African American history, where there is joy and celebration despite oppressive conditions. She points out that the American economy was built on the “backs of slaves,” and the nation has not reconciled that. These issues need to be addressed and discussed, she says, and theatre is a place to have those conversations.

Studying political science influenced how she thinks about theatre, says Cizmar, who will join Vanderbilt University this fall as an assistant professor of acting and directing.

A theatre and political science double major at Bucknell, Cizmar earned an MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School/New School for Drama, then spent 10 years acting Off- and Off-Off Broadway as well as appearing in several episodes of Saturday Night Live.

by Heidi Hormel

Theatre and activism are in Ibby Cizmar ’03’s blood.

As part of her Ph.D. program at Tufts University, Cizmar told her grandparents’ powerful story. (They defied the government in Soviet Hungary by using music to send coded messages.) Their story exemplifies the power of music and theatre — even in an oppressive regime — to find love, joy and happiness, she says.

Cizmar sees that theme in African American history, where there is joy and celebration despite oppressive conditions. She points out that the American economy was built on the “backs of slaves,” and the nation has not reconciled that. These issues need to be addressed and discussed, she says, and theatre is a place to have those conversations.

Studying political science influenced how she thinks about theatre, says Cizmar, who will join Vanderbilt University this fall as an assistant professor of acting and directing.

A theatre and political science double major at Bucknell, Cizmar earned an MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School/New School for Drama, then spent 10 years acting Off- and Off-Off Broadway as well as appearing in several episodes of Saturday Night Live.