At a time when Northeast Texas Community College sophomore Presidential Scholars have been winning unprecedented prizes, Kayleah Cumpian of the freshman class has registered an unmatched series of wins as well.
Cumpian has recently applied for and won a scholarship to attend a workshop at Duke University entitled ?Applications of Mathematics to Physiology and Medicine.?† Cumpian will be one of a select group of scholars from around the country to win this opportunity, supported by the National Science Foundation, this May 21-28.
Cumpian?s competitive resume made her a finalist as well for an internship at Texas State in San Marcos for the coming months of June and July.† This summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program dedicated to bio-chemical research and entrepreneurship is an interdisciplinary opportunity with trips, research, and special lectures.† Cumpian noted that she is especially excited about being able to participate in the many facets of this program, and to do it in picturesque, central Texas.
Dr. Mary Hearron, NTCC?s Honors Biology professor, who has supported Cumpian?s candidacies with letters has noted:
?Kayleah is a highly motivated student who has exhibited a sincere desire to seek out research opportunities related to her expressed interest in pharmacology and biomedical sciences. †Her ability to apply mathematical solutions to biological issues will serve her well as she continues her education. †It is a privilege to work with such a fine young woman. †I know that she will excel in all she pursues.?
Meanwhile, Cumpian?s† scholarly work from her first semester at NTCC has been winning critical acclaim.† She is the second scholar in the history of Northeast Texas Community College to have won both the Boe and Caldwell Essay Awards.† During the March 28-30 meeting of the Great Plains Honors Council in Fort Smith, Ark., Cumpian received one of the three Boe awards for essays written by students with less than sixty hours of collegiate work.† For this she received $200 and a plaque.† NTCC Honors will also receive an additional $500 for this effort.
As announced earlier, Cumpian also won third place in the State of Texas Caldwell Awards.† For this she received $150. Cumpian?s essay on Wright Patman, the fifty-year Congressman, of Northeast Texas, has gathered high praise for its challenge to the traditional chronology of populism.† Cumpian shows that Patman experienced the destitution known to nineteenth-century populists, and embodied the traditional values of the movement.
Kayleah is the daughter of Lorny Cumpian, and a graduate of Mount Pleasant High School.
