URI student wins top national honor society award

KINGSTON, R.I. -- February 14, 2000 -- University of Rhode Island student Kerri Nottage of Warwick is spending her senior year at Rhode Island Hospital. She's not sick. She's on her way to becoming a clinical laboratory scientist and then a doctor.

She attends classes, crams for exams, and participates in eight clinical labs as part of a year-long 32-credit internship in clinical laboratory science. During the weekend, she has a paying job, working eight hours in the hospital's coagulation lab. She is also one of six pre-med students accepted to Brown University School of Medicine who attends evening classes at Brown.

Nottage is well prepared for laboratory work since she will earn a bachelor's degree in clinical laboratory science from URI in May.

She has been an exceptional student, according to Dr. Gregory Paquette, director of URI's Clinical Laboratory Science Programs. He calls Nottage the best student he has had the honor of teaching. (He has taught more than 200 students in nearly 20 years.) He nominated Nottage for Lambda Tau's outstanding student award. (Lambda Tau is the national honor society for clinical laboratory scientists.) Despite tough competition, Nottage took top place and was awarded $200 and a plaque.

She is a natural leader: During her years at URI, she has served as a resident assistant and helped hire and train other resident assistants. As a new student orientation program coordinator, Nottage directed recruiting and hiring of other orientation leaders. She developed workshops for new students and helped supervise and evaluate 22 orientation leaders.

She is bright: She was inducted into the Mortar Board Senior Honor Society, Phi Eta Sigma Freshmen National Honor Society, Golden Key National Honor Society, Alpha Epsilon Delta National Honor Society, and the Lambda Tau National Honor Society.

She's a scientist: As a Student Fellow in the URI Sensors and Surface Technology Partnership, she designed the chemistry for a research project entitled "Chemical Modification of the Surfaces of Metals used in Prosthetic Devices." She was also a student assistant at the URI Health Services Laboratory, assisting in a variety of laboratory tests.

She's well-rounded: She also was a mentor for URI 101, a mandatory freshman course and was vice-president of the URI Dance team.

During the spring semester of her junior year, she was accepted into Brown University School of Medicine for Fall 2000.

"I've always loved science," Kerri said during a phone call. "I miss the people at URI. There is so much support there, especially from the faculty members like Dr. Paquette and Dean (Jayne) Richmond. The hospital seems so big at times."

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For More Information: Jan Sawyer, 874-2116