News release prepared by: Stephanie Jacques, 785-532-0101, sjacques@k-state.edu
Photo available. Contact media@k-state.edu or 785-532-6415.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
K-STATE'S JENNA KENNEDY FINDS SUCCESS AS STUDENT, RESEARCHER AND VOLUNTEER
MANHATTAN -- More than 100 seniors from the Division of Biology at Kansas State University will graduate Saturday, May 17, at commencement for K-State's College of Arts and Sciences.
Among them will be Jenna Kennedy, Hoxie, who is earning a bachelor's degree in microbiology. Kennedy has recently been named both the Division of Biology's Haymaker Award winner as its outstanding senior and a K-State Outstanding Graduating Senior Award for her accomplishments as a student, researcher and volunteer.
Kennedy, who is graduating with a secondary major in natural resources and environmental sciences, is leaving K-State with several noteworthy accomplishments. She was selected as the university's 30th Harry S. Truman Scholarship recipient in 2007. K-State leads nationally among all 500 public universities in Truman Scholarship recipients.
Kennedy also earned the Division of Biology Most Promising Student Award; was a Kansas State University Foundation, Dane G. Hansen and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research scholar; and received the Terry C. Johnson Center for Basic Cancer Research Undergraduate Research Award. She also did volunteer work with the Flint Hills Community Clinic and was a member of the K-State Proud campaign, Blue Key senior honorary and Alpha Delta Pi sorority.
"Jenna is the kind of student whom we love to teach, advise and interact with; and we have many more students like her," said Brian Spooner, university distinguished professor and director of the Division of Biology. "I expect great things from Jenna."
Kennedy credits her father for encouraging a campus visit to K-State when she was a high school senior, a visit that led her to choose K-State for her undergraduate degree.
"I think K-State does a great job of getting students on campus, allowing them to taste what the university experience is like, meet professors who are going to take a genuine interest in their learning and show them that by attending a 23,000-plus student university you are not just diving into the abyss," Kennedy said. "You're not going to get lost as a number, but you're going to be in classes where people really want you to succeed in that class and beyond. That's what I felt on that day and that's why I ended up here."
With experience volunteering at a hospital in Ghana and exploring the culture in China already under her belt, Kennedy is on her way of fulfilling her lifelong dream of helping people while traveling the world. After graduation she will complete a yearlong fellowship in the Office of Rural Health Policy, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in Washington, D.C., and then plans on going to medical school.