Kayla Zuiderveen Awarded the Barlow Trophy
Kayla Zuiderveen of Falmouth has been awarded the 2012 Barlow Trophy, Alma College’s most prestigious award for a graduating senior.
The award, which is voted on by Student Congress and faculty members, is presented to a graduating student in the top 10 percent of the senior class who has made incredible contributions to both the campus and the community.
A graduate of Northern Michigan Christian High School, Zuiderveen is the daughter of Don and Heidi Zuiderveen.
President Jeff Abernathy awards the Barlow Trophy to Kayla Zuiderveen.
Zuiderveen has participated in numerous academic and co-curricular activities during her four years at Alma College. She has been an active member of the Alma College chapel community, participated in service trips through Alternative Breaks, sung in the Choir and Glee Club, and volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Gratiot County.
Additional volunteer work in the Alma community has come through the local English as a Second Language Program and the Hispanic Coalition. She has promoted literacy in her role as an English tutor to a local Hispanic resident and is producing a documentary that examines the challenges the Hispanic community faces in central Michigan.
A biology major and Spanish minor, Zuiderveen also has served as a teacher’s assistant for the biology and Spanish departments and a student tutor for the biology, Spanish and chemistry departments.
Earlier this spring, Zuiderveen was awarded a post-graduate Fulbright Scholarship to conduct bacterial research at the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia. She will be part of a research group that will investigate a particular strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis — the bacterium that causes tuberculosis in humans — that has a genetic mutation affecting how it is transferred from one patient to another.
Following her yearlong Fulbright experience, Zuiderveen plans to pursue her doctorate in medical microbiology and immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
-mjs-
Posted: Fri, April 13th, 2012 at 12:50PM
