Tate Shannon will graduate from Rice University this May with a B.S. in Bioengineering. He has helped develop a microparticle-based cell and drug-delivery system for cartilage engineering, studied the biomechanical effects of hydrogel properties on intestinal enteroids, and helped develop milifluidic intestinal enteroid-based platforms for drug and viral permeability testing. He's never had an internship or summer research project. Instead, he's spent his summers teaching students from low-access and low-resource backgrounds and camping in the mountains of the Chihuahuan desert. He's on a lot of committees and boards at Rice, in his clubs, at his church, and in his hometown. He's particularly interested in community outreach and uplifting the oppressed even while he sings in choirs, plays the organ, and reads in his spare time.