Courtney Gandy
Program Manager, Undergraduate Fellowship Office
Courtney Gandy is the Program Manager for the Undergraduate Fellowship Office. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2011 with a B.A. from the Program of Liberal Studies and Anthropology, and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs in 2025 with a Master’s in Public Administration Leadership. Her interest in cultural immersion and learning led her to the Peace Corps, where she served as a Community Education Specialist in Zambia until 2014. During her service, Courtney worked with educator counterparts to implement learner-centered methodology in the classroom, partnered with village stakeholders to build a grant-funded community library, HIV/AIDS and malaria education, and women and girls’ empowerment. Courtney joined Ohio State’s Lima campus in 2015 as an Admissions Counselor and was most recently a Program Coordinator at the Frank W. Hale, Jr. Black Cultural Center, where she focused on programming that connected students’ academic careers with experiential learning. She brings these interests to her work in the Undergraduate Fellowship Office, contributing to a campus culture of fellowships and experiential education.
Claire Sweigart, JD
Program Director, High Impact Practices
As Program Director for High Impact Practices Claire Sweigart oversees the work of the Undergraduate Fellowship Office. She has worked in advocacy and education since graduating from The Ohio State University in 2007 with a B.S. in Environmental Education. She completed a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 2010. After a fellowship with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Claire combined her interests in education and policy at the University of Cincinnati where she served as Sustainability Coordinator. In this role, Claire worked closely with students, faculty, staff, and community partners to advance environmental and social sustainability programs and create a campus culture of engagement. Claire returned to Ohio State in 2015 as the Program Manager for the Office of Service-Learning and has served as Program Director since 2019. In 2020, the Program Director role expanded to include Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry, and in 2022, the Undergraduate Fellowship Office joined Claire’s portfolio of high impact practices. Claire’s approach is informed by experiential education and high impact practices literature. She is particularly interested in the ethics of community-engaged work as well as the power of experiential education and reflection practices to help students find purpose and meaning in their academics and life.
Faculty Fellow
Thomas F. McDow
Associate Professor, Department of History
Professor Thomas F. McDow is a historian of Africa and the Indian Ocean world with a strong interest in the history of global health. He joined the faculty at Ohio State in 2011. He is the author of Buying Time: Debt and Mobility in the Western Indian Ocean (2018), and, with Edward A. Alpers, A Primer for Teaching Indian Ocean History (for a series at Duke University Press; manuscript under review). McDow is currently working on a history of HIV in Tanzania. He has written about the long history of HIV and given public lectures on the global aspects of this history. In addition to his regular classes, McDow has advised undergraduate research, led study abroad trips to Tanzania, overseen a research collaborative on African scientists, and guided summer workshops on applying for Fulbright awards and other fellowships. In recent years McDow has taught graduate courses on African history, Indian Ocean history, the African history of global health, and, with historian Sarah van Beurden, a history of collecting and empire. He has advised dissertations and been on the dissertation committee of students whose projects relate to African, Islamic, South Asian, and/or health history.
Office of Academic Enrichment
The Undergraduate Fellowship Office is a part of the Office of Academic Enrichment. Housed under Student Academic Excellence at The Ohio State University, the Office of Academic Enrichment promotes academic success and community engagement by collaborating with university partners to provide access to high-impact experiential learning opportunities for all Ohio State students.
Associate Vice Provost
Business Operations Manager
High-Impact Curriculum Expert
ePortfolio Specialist
Advancement Manager
Communications Specialist