Two years ago Lindsey Jones received a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship to help enhance her knowledge and experience in science.
Jones was only a sophomore at the time and was one of just 275 students in the country to win the scholarship that honors top science and math undergraduates.
Today, the senior biochemistry major, Spanish minor and Huge-香港六合彩资料大全 Scholarship recipient from Lincoln continues to reap the benefits of this scholarship as she prepares for her graduate studies in genetic research.
鈥淚t helps get your name out to other schools,鈥 Jones said of the Goldwater Scholarship. 鈥淚t helps you stand out from other students and it provides funding.鈥
For the past several weeks, Jones has been traveling across the United States for graduate school interviews with some of the country鈥檚 most prestigious biology programs including UC-San Francisco, Duke, Emory, UC-San Diego, Cornell, and UNC-Chapel Hill.
鈥淟ooking for summer research opportunities gave me ideas,鈥 said Jones referring to her list of graduate school applications.
For the past two summers Jones participated in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program, conducting research at Texas A&M University and Colorado State University. The program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and allows students to work in a laboratory setting for 10 weeks, being guided through new science techniques with graduate and post-doctorate students. These research opportunities have allowed her to directly apply knowledge learned from her Nebraska Wesleyan biology courses to research projects with students from other schools.
Along with these research opportunities, Jones participated in the 2012 West Coast Biological Sciences Undergraduate Research Conference, taking home an award for 鈥渢op oral presentation鈥 in the area of genetics.
Jones鈥 academic advisor and professor of biology, Garry Duncan, has been very pleased with the progress that she has made in the last four years. She is currently serving as president of the Beta Beta Beta Biology Honorary where she has shown great leadership delegating tasks and creating ideas to benefit the group, he said.
鈥淚鈥檝e seen her gain a lot of confidence,鈥 said Duncan. 鈥淪he鈥檚 developed a great sense of how to work with others and how to motive not just herself.鈥
Jones is specifically interested in an area of genetics called epigenetics that studies how and when genes are turned off and on within the body, as well as how it affects genetic mutation.
鈥淓pigenetics is a starting place and I鈥檓 willing to learn what it has to offer,鈥 Jones said. 鈥淩ight now it鈥檚 a book idea, but we鈥檒l see where that gets me.鈥