Young Catholic scientists research blindness in program that ties together faith and science 

University of Mary SURVE students Ethan Emineth (left), Grace Dahl (middle), and Mariapocs Ruiz Martinez (right). Mariapocs “Maria” is demonstrating how media is removed from a culture flask so that the number of cells in the culture can be measured. She is using aseptic technique in the presence of a Bunsen burner so that the culture media does not become contaminated. / Credit: Mike McCleary/University of Mary

CNA Staff, Aug 10, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

At a small liberal arts college in Bismarck, North Dakota, Catholic science students have stayed over the summer to research the genetics of blindness in fruit flies.

Students attend daily Mass together, share community dinners, and discuss their vocations and how to follow Christ’s call in their lives — all as part of a University of Mary Summer Undergraduate Research Vocation Experience (SURVE). 

SURVE director David Ronderos, a neuroscientist and biology professor at “UMary,” says the program was designed to help students embrace both faith and science. 

The research itself — a decade-long project undertaken by Ronderos — is set to be published in just a few months.

Sophomore psychology student Margaret Talafuse has personal experience with blindness.

“I actually have a degenerative eye disease, so I am combating blindness right now,” she told CNA in an interview. “So to be part of this lab is really near and dear to my heart because it deeply affects me. It’s been really cool to be able to not have to sit on the side with what I’m dealing with and to actually be part of the research.”

SURVE is designed to train students in laboratory techniques and develop their understanding of practical science while also helping them to have “a holistic approach to one’s life, that’s a Christian life and also a scientific life” and “do God’s will in the world,” Ronderos told CNA in an interview.

“We started the program in 2017, and it was out of a desire to both offer students the opportunity to engage in the activity of doing science and also to do it in such a way that we could also offer them some formation as well,” he said.

“[We wanted] to form them to view this activity of doing science within a broader context: to see it as a way of living out a Christian vocation from God,” Ronderos added.

This year, there are four different faculty on SURVE leading their own independent research projects, with 15 students divided among them. Other topics of study in addition to the genetics of blindness include DNA repair, electrochemical characteristics of cancer progression, and angiogenesis and vein pattern.

Faith and reason 

Austin Link, a senior studying biology and psychology on the pre-med track, said the emphasis on both faith and science was “one of the most important reasons” he had for joining SURVE.

“I think what’s really nice about the SURVE program is that there’s deliberate time for conversation,” Link said.

These themes of faith and reason, purpose and vocation, come up often in weekly group discussions, Link noted.

“Every day, we make time for Mass,” Link added. “There’s never anything scheduled during the Mass time. To be able to do a morning full of research and then go receive the Eucharist and then go and talk about science in a Catholic perspective is an opportunity that we have every single day.”

Ronderos said this “broader theological perspective” in science can give it meaning and purpose. 

“You’re thinking about the spiritual, immaterial realities and also the sacramental nature of the world and of reality and at the same time, having an appreciation for the beauty and goodness of God’s creation as you seek to probe and understand the works of God in nature,” he said. “[It’s a] beautiful holistic approach and an integrated life that brings a lot of joy.”

“It really inspires me to take my faith into my career,” said Talafuse, who is studying on the pre-med track and hopes to be a psychiatrist.

“I think that a Catholic scientist has a very unique calling in the way they’re able to counter that movement [of modernism] without necessarily going all the way to the other side and being like, ‘Oh, faith alone,’” she explained. “The Catholic scientist has that unique calling where they’re able to say: We can have reason and we can have faith, but we need to have them both in union.”

SURVE helps lay the “groundwork” for integrating faith and reason, Talafuse explained. 

“I can integrate faith and reason; I can bring it into my career field, and I can actually help other people with this while doing what I love,” she said. “It’s been really great to be able to experience that here and to learn how to do it.”

Discernment at SURVE 

The 10-week retreat also highlights discernment and vocation during the weekly seminar discussions.

“If you figure out what God is calling you to, that’s where you’re ultimately going to be happy with,” Ronderos explained.

Talafuse said she hadn’t “really considered what it means to discern a career” until she attended SURVE.

“It really changed my viewpoint on discernment because it really showed me discernment is more than just marriage or religious life,” she explained. “You can discern a lot of the really small things in your life, the small decisions you make, and I think SURVE just showed me how to do that more practically, and I was really grateful for that.”

Link says that discernment is a “major thing” he learned over the course of SURVE. 

Link explained that he used to think of discernment as “something really deliberate, where you sit down and you meditate, think, and ruminate.”

“But oftentimes, that’s not the case,” he continued. “And being present in the moment every day when you come in to research and understanding these little things in life: where I feel gratitude, where I feel fulfillment, where I feel at peace with what I’m doing — that’s all part of this discernment picture.”

“To be able to put those pieces of the puzzle together over a course of 10 weeks where I’m integrated with science, and I’m confident that that’s what I want to do, it’s a really rare and unique opportunity,” Link added. 

Link’s experience at SURVE has helped him discern his future plans. 

“I’ve made some pretty big decisions on what I’m going to do with my life in the upcoming year, year and a half, where I’m going to apply to school, what I want to do,” he said. 

“And I feel, if anything, that the last 10 weeks of SURVE have really helped me realize that I was made for science and I was made for God.”