Olivia Myers of Lexington, a senior biology major at Catawba College, was one of 10 members nationwide of Alpha Chi, the national college honor society, to be awarded a H.Y. Benedict Fellowship for graduate school in the 2014-2015 academic year. Myers, who has been accepted at and intends to enroll in the School of Veterinary Medicine at N.C. State University this fall, will apply the $2500 fellowship award to her graduate work.
Myers completed research during the summer of 2013 at Georgia Tech entitled "Temporal and Spatial Niches Affect Biodiversity in Evolving Metacommunities." She presented this work at the 2014 Alpha Chia National Convention held March 27-29 in St. Louis, Mo. Dr. Connie Lowery, chair of Catawba’s Biology Department wrote the required recommendation to nominate Myers for the fellowship.
This is the second consecutive year that a Catawba College senior has been awarded a national scholarship or fellowship from Alpha Chi. In 2013, Elizabeth (Lizzie) White of Salisbury, a chemistry major at Catawba College, was selected as one of 10 recipients of the 2013 Alfred H. Nolle Scholarship.
Two other Catawba students, Frank Villa Hernandez of Salisbury, a senior chemistry major, and Andrew McCollister of Rockwell, a junior writing major, also attended the Alpha Chi National Convention in March and presented their work. Villa’s project was entitled “Immunoprecipitations of Immunoglobulin Gamma-Transferrin Complex," and based on research he conducted this summer at the University of South Alabama. McCollister presented an original short story he wrote, "Dirty Laundry."
