MRC Student of the Month - December 2002

Kim Daniel

(Junior - Biotechnology)

James Allen is noted for saying, “For true success, ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now? ” With this mindset, it is impossible for people to curb my appetite for success since I, Kim Daniel, feel that it is all I have to look forward to in my future. After graduating from The Pennsylvania State University with a B.S. in Biotechnology and minors in Microbiology and English, I plan on attending the Educational Program in Medical Technology at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City, where I am originally from. After the twelve months, hopefully, I will proceed to medical school to pursue an M.D. and specialize in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Until then, I will continue to aspire to reach that point and make the most of my collegiate career. As aforementioned, I am majoring in Biotechnology which is a fairly new major and can best be defined as the manipulation and employment of microorganisms for commercial use. Within the Eberly College of Science, I am involved with the Microbiology Club as the committee chair of the reading room and I am on the advertising committee in the Eberly College of Science Student Council. During my freshman year, I was in WISER (Women in Science and Engineering Program) and worked in a Nutrition laboratory with Dr. Rebecca Corwin. Although I am a third year student involved in science, my interests stretch beyond the college of science. I am also a member of NSBE, HPA Club, MANRA, and B.O.T.H. In addition, for the past three semesters, I have been a sexual health peer educator for Healthworks. During the summer, I interned at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in the area of quality assurance.

My high school guidance counselor nominated me for the most distinguished award I have been given which is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Foundation recognition as a budding student in the field of medicine. This program allowed me to travel with sixty other American college students to Australia (Cairns and Sydney) and New Zealand (Wellington and Auckland) this past summer and explore their healthcare systems and compare them to that of the United States. We studied Australia and New Zealand's rainforests, animal life, governments, and native tribal medicinal traditions. I valued my experience with the Australian Aboriginals and the Maori of Aotearoa (better known as New Zealand) because it allowed me to come in contact with groups of people whose medical practices had not changed for generations and who have kept nature as a key component in their daily lives, particularly their health. Of everything that I learned, I found it most fascinating that people with less knowledge of scientific methods were able to treat diseases with remedies passed down by centuries-old oral traditions, while we have spent billions of dollars on research to accomplish the same things. I was impressed by their ability to make due with what little funding and professional help that is available there. Their efforts inspired me to stay within the health field and hopefully, one day I will be able to return to Australia and New Zealand to offer my services to the Aboriginal and Maori communities as a doctor. Being able to have this experience further puts into perspective why I am at Penn State and where it will take me and how it can impact others.

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