College of Science announces Outstanding Graduating Senior award recipient
Christine George, of Manassas, Va., has been named the 2008 Outstanding Senior in the College of Science for the 2007-2008 academic year.
George is expected to receive a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences in the College of Science in May 2008. She is a University Honors student and was recently named to the USA Today’s All-USA College Academic First Team, among numerous other awards and scholarships. She has served as an undergraduate research assistant in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences entomology department and with the Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.
In 2007, George twice traveled to Mali, West Africa, as part of a Virginia Tech faculty-led research group to study Mali’s people, agriculture, and public health systems and to learn about research to combat mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria. She has also been active with the American Medical Student Association, the American Society for Microbiology, and the Pre-veterinary Medical Association at Virginia Tech.
George continues to work with Mali government officials to help establish vector control, virus surveillance, and medical assistance efforts throughout the impoverished country. In addition, George initiated, organized, and led a fundraising project to benefit the Kona BikeTown Africa program, an organization that designs, constructs, and delivers bicycles to home healthcare workers in Africa to assist with transport of medical personnel and supplies between remote villages.
George is the daughter of Michael and Connie George of Manassas.
The Outstanding Senior Awards are presented at the Student Honors Day Banquet each spring. These awards are co-sponsored by the Virginia Tech Alumni Association and the senior class.
The purpose of the award is to recognize outstanding student performance in each college of the university. Students are selected on the basis of their quality credit average (3.4 or higher on a 4.0 scale) and outstanding performance in several or all of the following areas: academic achievement, extracurricular activities, leadership positions and contributions of service to the university and/or community.
The College of Science at Virginia Tech gives students a comprehensive foundation in the scientific method. Outstanding faculty members teach courses and conduct research in biology, chemistry, economics, geosciences, mathematics, physics, psychology, and statistics. The college is dedicated to fostering a research intensive environment and offers programs in nano-scale and biological sciences, information theory and science, and supports research centers—in areas such as biomedical and public health sciences, and critical technology and applied science—that encompass other colleges at the university. The College of Science also houses programs in pre-medicine and scientific law. Virginia Tech, the most comprehensive university in Virginia, is dedicated to quality, innovation, and results to the commonwealth, the nation, and the world.
Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech is the most comprehensive university in the Commonwealth of Virginia and is among the top research universities in the nation. Today, Virginia Tech’s eight colleges are dedicated to quality, innovation, and results through teaching, research, and outreach activities. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg and other campus centers in Northern Virginia, Southwest Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, Southside, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls more than 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 180 academic degree programs.
Written by Stephanie Haugen-Ray.
