April 3, 2003
EASTON, Pa. (www.lafayette.edu) - Lafayette junior Meghan Ramsey has achieved national distinction at Lafayette College as a recipient of a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship. Awarded for academic merit, the Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in the fields of mathematics, science and engineering.
The scholarship was established by the United States Congress in 1986 in honor of Senator Barry M. Goldwater. The award will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 in the next academic year. The announcement was made by Peggy Goldwater Clay, chair of the Goldwater Foundation.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Lafayette students have received Goldwater awards.
Others have recognized her excellence, as Ramsey has been accepted into a renowned undergraduate research program at the Mayo Graduate School in Rochester, Minn.
The Mayo Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program gives students an opportunity to hone their research skills in real-world laboratory settings.
Ramsey is one of the 60 to 70 students selected from a pool of 640 applicants. She will spend 10 weeks examining tumor biology under the guidance of Junjie Chen, assistant professor of pharmacology at the Mayo Clinic. She will also conduct her own research project and attend weekly seminars.
Ramsey, a neuroscience major, is among four Lafayette students to receive Goldwater Scholarships this year. Lafayette is one of only 12 colleges and universities in the nation to have all four of its nominees accepted, reflecting its national reputation for academic excellence and standing among America's top institutions. Only six of the 56 schools listed in Barron's Guide to the Most Competitive Colleges received four scholarships: Lafayette, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Duke and Georgetown.
Ramsey is a Verizon Academic All-American and All-Patriot League honoree on the soccer field. She has started all 55 of Lafayette's varsity games during her career, tallying four goals and five assists as a defender and midfielder.
She intends to pursue an M.D. or Ph.D. in medical research, with the goal of becoming a biomedical researcher in an academic hospital.
Ramsey has researched the structure and behavior of proteins - work with potential applications in understanding diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's - as an EXCEL Scholar with Yvonne Gindt, assistant professor of chemistry. She made a presentation on the research at last year's Intercollegiate Student Chemists Convention.
"When Dr. Gindt asked me to stay for the summer, I felt it was a great opportunity. I thought I could learn a great deal and help direct my career goals. Also, Lafayette makes the opportunity attractive by providing housing," Ramsey says. "I don't think I would have had an opportunity to do research like this at many schools."
