Whether re-enrolling in Merrimack as a Double Warrior or returning to higher education after years of professional work, Merrimack’s graduate programs have all the resources to make sure students succeed.
Just ask Abby Dunn ’25, M’26 and Nate Wendt M’26, two students in the College’s applied chemistry graduate program. Dunn signed on for one more year at Merrimack after earning a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience, while Wendt is returning to higher education after a decade working in industry.
“I chose Merrimack because the chemistry graduate program felt the most serious,” Wendt said. “I didn’t apply anywhere else because I found their programs to be unappealing and fluffy. I saw what this program expected of me and I felt I could try it.”
After taking just one graduate class as an undergraduate student, Dunn knew Merrimack’s Master’s in Applied Chemistry was the right path for her.
“It was Brian Provencher’s class on instrumentation,” she recalled. “I thought to myself, ‘This is really a program I want to be in.’ I really enjoyed the material I was learning and with the goals I have in life, this was where I was meant to be.”
Ultimately, Dunn hopes to work in Alzheimer’s drug development in any capacity – “research, production, whatever.”
“Three of my four grandparents have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease,” she continued. “This has always been a personal driving factor for me in my education and why I want to work in pharmaceuticals.”
Dunn originally began her Merrimack journey pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Early on, however, she found a stronger interest in physical science.
“I switched my major to neuroscience,” she said. “The faculty were on top of things for me. I had Laura Kurdziel as an advisor for my neuroscience program. The first day I walked in to speak with her about switching, she mapped out all four years for me.”
Now, as a graduate student, Dunn said she has more time to focus on what she wants to pursue in the professional world. While Alzheimer’s research is still her top priority, Dunn said she’s enjoying learning everything chemistry has to offer.
“With the master’s program, I feel like my options are more open now,” she said. “You start looking at unique subfields of chemistry and you consider looking into it a little more. For example, food chemistry has been appealing to me because I feel like it would be a really fun job to have.”
Conversely, Wendt hadn’t set foot in a classroom since graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biology with an informal concentration in pharmacology from the University of Vermont in 2018.
“I applied (to Merrimack) thinking it would be a challenge,” he explained, “but because I really enjoy the work, it was really easy to take in the knowledge and apply it. There are things I’m refreshed on every day when I’m challenged to think about things I’ve not thought about in a decade. I’ve really missed learning in a class.”
His education here has given him the confidence to dream big with his future educational pursuits.
“I have been looking at doctoral programs to apply to for next year,” Wendt said.
Wendt has held several jobs since graduating from UVM. He first started at Test America when it was acquired by Eurofins, an environmental testing company. Then he got a job at a dental office in Lebanon, N.H. Afterwards, he finally landed a pharmaceutical job with Novo Nordisk.
“When I moved to Boston, I found it really hard to break into the pharmaceutical industry,” he said. “I did contract work for Sanofi, a French biotech corporation, on a year-to-year basis. But I couldn’t get my foot in the door because while my background was in chemistry, I had a biology degree. I went back to school because I can’t really work without a chemistry degree.”
Wendt is currently completing a three-semester intensive. When he’s not in class or teaching labs, he said he spends time conducting research under the guise of Provencher.
“I’m trying to see if I can extend known catalysts with more environmentally friendly solvents so we don’t have to use more toxic processes in the synthesis of medicines and chemicals,” he explained. “Dr. Provicher gives a lot of feedback and challenges you to think.”
All the while, Wendt believes working in industry has given him a bit of a leg-up on his graduate journey.
“There were definitely things I never thought about when I was an undergraduate that I learned later on in industry,” he said. “Now that I’m here doing research, I’m always thinking about making the cleanest processes, getting the best data and avoiding the little mistakes.”
