Berry College has named three students as 2016 Kirbo Scholars.
Juniors Kellie Soafer, a biology major from Roswell, Ga; Danielle Penk, a chemistry major from Dacula, Ga., and Sarah O’Carroll, a journalism major from Rome, Ga., have each received $1,250 to carry out research proposals and present at the annual Berry College Symposium on Student Scholarship.
For Soafer’s research, she will take samples from rodents they captured last year and test for Trypanosoma cruzi, a parasite that causes Chagas disease in humans.
“Usually you don’t know you have Chagas disease unless you get it at the first site of when the [parasite’s] kissing bug kisses you,” Soafer said. “Symptoms of Chagas disease include heart failure and gastrointestinal problems.”
Penk’s proposal is to form compounds called “chiral piperidines” because they have medicinal usefulness to treat arthritis, ADHD and narcolepsy.
“If a molecule is chiral this means that the molecule has two forms in which one is the mirror image of the other,” Penk said. “This chirality allows the piperidines to have medicinal usefulness to treat arthritis, ADHD and narcolepsy.”
O’ Carroll will create a documentary on the dance traditions of the Gullah and Geechee people living in Savannah, Ga.
“The purpose is to preserve, celebrate and show the world what they have been doing for years,” she said.
Scholars will continue working with their faculty adviser to complete the project, which must be completed before the end of the spring term of their senior year.
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Written by E-communication Services Social Media Assistant Saif Sarfani
