Graduation Feature

‘Outstanding’ Cedar Lake student is ‘a lab dork’ and much more

By her own admission, Sarah Parrish is “a lab dork”—someone who relishes opportunities to gain knowledge by conducting scientific research in a laboratory.

For the 25-year-old Hammond native, Cedar Lake resident, Purdue University Calumet senior biotechnology major and aspiring university professor, knowledge has come alive through the various research projects she has conducted in the basement laboratories of Purdue Calumet’s Gyte Science Building.

“The research opportunities I have had have been outstanding,” she said. “They have helped solidify experiences that will allow me to become a better scientist. They have taught me how to be autonomous and figure things out.”

They also have been a springboard to her receiving the Purdue Alumni Association-Calumet’s Fall 2008 Outstanding Student Award. As recipient, she will offer the traditional “Response” on behalf of her graduation class at Purdue Calumet’s Fall Commencement Exercises, Tuesday (12/16). In her speech, she plans to share her perspective of how “college is about shared experiences.”

Yet when the 2001 Hammond Gavit High School graduate left Purdue Calumet seven years ago after just one semester for a cold calling, door-to-door job selling magazines in Clearwater, Fla., college experiences—shared or otherwise—seemed to be out of mind.

Though her outgoing, friendly and witty personality helped enable her to achieve success in her world of sales, the birth of her son, Randy, in 2005 prompted a change of perspective.

“I didn’t want to raise my son in that environment, and I also decided I wanted to go back to school,” she said.

Back home again in northwest Indiana, she re-enrolled at Purdue Calumet during the fall of 2005.

“I’ve always loved (natural) sciences,” she said. Such affection served to open research opportunity doors for her assisting Purdue Calumet professors. “When I started doing research with Dr. (Professor of Biological Sciences Charles) Tseng, I fell in love with genetics.”

The death of her best friend in 2007 of epilepsy, a chronic neurological disorder, “motivated me to want to learn more about it and how to fix it,” she said.

Additional research projects, resulting in various participation and success awards fueled her desire to learn. Under the mentorship of Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Radmila Sarac, Parrish received a National Science Foundation-sponsored Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Program (LSAMP) Fellowship for her work examining the structure and function of potassium channels.

“She started by learning how to design several mutant potassium channel subunits and then examining how these mutations affect the assembly of the channel,” Sarac said. “Sarah has mastered many molecular biological techniques and has already developed many of the skills necessary to propose questions, design experiments, analyze results and propose new questions.”

All told, Parrish has received three LSAMP Fellowships, two merit scholarships, has participated in several undergraduate research projects relating to cytogenetics, has been a mentor in the “Freshman Experience for Biology Majors” course and has held a part-time campus job as a supplemental instructor in chemistry. Income and stipends from those opportunities have provided a means of support for her and her son.

An honor student, she also has found time to serve as president of Purdue Calumet’s Honors Program.

“The more classes I took, and the more I got involved, the better my grade point average became,” she said. “Plus, presenting research at conferences has been such a great experience. I couldn’t have gotten such a good educational experience somewhere else. I love the fact I can go talk to a professor; that’s been the best thing for me.

“Purdue Calumet has provided me a diverse, interdisciplinary and strong foundation. It’s prepared me to go on to grad school”—where she plans to study neuroscience on her way to becoming a university educator and epilepsy researcher.

Said Prof. Sarac, “Between her studies, research in the lab, and mentoring roles, she has really prepared herself well for pursuing a graduate degree, handling the challenges of a Ph.D. program, and, ultimately, an academic career.”

News Release Date: December 12, 2008