Sarah Parrish “Top” PUC Graduate

The Department of Biological Sciences is pleased to announce that Sarah Parrish is the recipient of the fall 2008 Purdue Alumni Association – Calumet (PAAC) Outstanding Student Award.  This semester, Sarah will receive a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology with a focus in biotechnology.  As the award recipient, Sarah will receive a plaque and a $500 monetary award and will represent her graduating class as the student speaker at commencement.

Sarah has been very active on campus during her 3-1/2 years at Purdue Calumet.  Since 2006, she has served as a Supplemental Instruction Leader for Chemistry 100, 115, 116, and 119 and Biology 101 and 102.  She has also served as the president of Purdue Calumet’s Honors Program.

Sarah has received numerous awards for her participation and success in research.  These include the Math and Science Talent Scholarship; the Vice Chancellor’s Academic Honors Scholarship, spring 2006; and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Program (LSAMP) Fellowship in the fall of 2006, spring of 2007, and in the summer of 2008.  The LSAMP is a National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored program that awards stipends to science, technology, engineering and math undergraduates for working on a research project with a faculty mentor.  She also was recognized as an ‘Outstanding Student in Biological Sciences’ during the Annual Purdue University Calumet 2008 Outstanding Student Recognition Reception.

Sarah participated in several undergraduate research projects.  In the Biological Sciences, she worked with Dr. Charles Tseng on  cytogenetics projects examining the effects of radiofrequency on sister chromatid exchange (fall 2007), one on bacterial source tracing using Ditag libraries and DGS (spring 2007), and another involving the hepatitis B small surface antigen gene (spring 2007).  Sarah was also involved in a project examining the structure and function of potassium channels with Dr. Radmila Sarac.  In Chemistry-Physics, she worked with Dr. Anita Katti on a project involving the HPLC analysis of amino acids (fall 2006).  

Sarah presented her fall 2007 LSAMP work, "The subcloning of the hepatitis B small surface antigen gene: a new technique in DNA vaccine development", at Indiana University Bloomington.  She presented her summer LSAMP work entitled, ‘Mutational Analysis of Kir2.1 N and C Termini Residue Interactions and Their Role in Channel Function’ last week at the NSF-LSAMP conference at Purdue West Lafayette.  Sarah won second place in the undergraduate oral presentation category of this conference.

Sarah has also served as a role model for other students. She is currently a mentor in the BIOL 107 ‘Freshman Experience for Biology Majors’ course.  In this class, student mentors meet with students to give them guidance and encouragement.  Mentors also do all the grading and follow-up with students to make sure they finish assignments in a timely manner.

Sarah would like to pursue a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at John Hopkins University and eventually become a professor conducting research on epilepsy.