SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. -- Bringing in their own different reasons for contributing to a greater cause, Kamlyn Yosick '25 and Alexa Veliz '24 have participated in the Mount Holyoke swim team's efforts at the recently completed, annual Ted Mullin Hour of Power as long as they have been Lyons.
Every year for nearly two decades, the Ted Mullin Hour of Power has brought an ever-increasing number of college swim teams together across the time zones to raise awareness for sarcoma research. Team members sign up to complete a continuous 50-meter relay over the course of an entire hour, raising funds for the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital. The hospital is where Mullin, a former Carleton College swimmer, received treatment for a rare form of sarcoma, which eventually claimed his life.
The Carleton swim team held its first Hour of Power just months after Mullin's passing, in November 2006. The idea caught on with more and more teams, which now number more than 160 across the country. And since 2006, having raised over $1.25 million dollars with the Ted Mullin Hour of Power, the University of Chicago and the Ted Mullin Fund partnered to create an internship program for swim athletes who participated in the Hour of Power and have interests in science and cancer biology.
Head swimming coach Dave Allen has been leading Mount Holyoke's participation in the event every fall for over a decade, getting the entire Lyons team to participate annually.
Yosick participated in the Hour of Power last year, then applied for and was accepted to the internship program at the University of Chicago this past summer. On campus, Yosick works in the neuroscience lab and is "really into" behavioral neuroscience and molecular neuroscience.
"To see the level of science that was happening (at the University of Chicago) was really cool, and it was really great to have that shared background between myself and the other student-athletes in the program," she said. I would encourage everyone I know, specifically the athletes with science majors, to apply for the program because it's such a unique opportunity that you would rarely get anywhere else."
Veliz took advantage of the same internship program in the summer of 2022, after swimming in the Ted Mullin Hour of Power in November 2021. Like Yosick, she is a biochemistry major (also majoring in German). But as an international student from Mexico, the internship offered by the Hour of Power is particularly vital to her experience.
"Students who aren't US citizens don't get a lot of access to research internships -- those opportunities are very scarce," she said. "Here at Mount Holyoke, I do research with RNA binding proteins. It doesn't really have much to do with cancer biology. I want to pursue an M.D. or a Ph.D. in immunology with a concentration in either virology or cancer immunotherapy. I saw this opportunity and took a chance because of my deep interest in its research."
Veliz and Yosick both credit their time in Mount Holyoke's biochemistry courses, and Allen, as the driving forces behind their participation in the Hour of Power event and internship. "The Hour of Power is special, because it connects our team to a greater community that's bigger than Mount Holyoke, which is super important to have while we grow," said Yosick.
