Madeline Eckenrode(2006)

College/Degrees

Current sophomore at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem,
North Carolina

Employer/Job Title

Student

Accomplishments

Carswell Scholar at Wake Forest (full scholarship plus living and research stipend) Recipient of a $5,000 Richter grant to study Islamic
charitable foundations during the summer of 2008 in Egypt and South Africa Presenter at the National Conference on Undergraduate
Research at the University of Wisconsin – LaCrosse to be held in April 2009 Undergraduate researcher in the lab of Dr. Susan Fahrbach,
an internationally recognized expert on insect neurobiology. Currently studying the “clock proteins” in the honeybee brain.

Testimonial

While at PGSS, faith was placed in my abilities to think critically and creatively – I was unleashed into an organic chemistry lab and asked to consider the mechanisms of the reactions is performed; I was asked to develop a project under the tutelage of a professor of physical chemistry even though I had never considered the Schroedinger wave equation; and I was given homework that was more challenging than any I had ever received. All of those things gave me the confidence to declare a major in chemistry and to approach a professor during my freshman year in college about doing research in her lab. Additionally, the fact that I had been accepted into PGSS and successfully completed the program was, for many people, a testament to my abilities as a student, and a valuable one at that (I received a scholarship worth about $250,000, meaning that I will be able to enter medical school debt-free). After I left my summer at PGSS, I was sure I wanted to be a doctor (and I was nearly as sure that I actually could be one, if I could cope with the loads of work and sleepless nights involved in PGSS). That was one benefit. Making many brilliant, interesting friends was definitely another. People I met at PGSS will be my friends forever. They inspire me and they encourage me to pursue excellence.