Paging Dr. Fawole
Research award given to student
By: KATIE VALENTINE
Posted: 1/29/09
Opeoluwa Fawole has always wanted to be a doctor.

“It’s the only career I’ve ever considered,” she said. “My parents say that when I was little, and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I never told them anything different.”

Throughout high school and into college, this love of medicine has stuck with Fawole, and her dedication toward her dream of becoming a doctor has recently been rewarded. She has become the first University student to be chosen for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Exceptional Research Opportunities Program.

EXROP is a 10-week program in which students who have demonstrated exceptional ability in the medical field are given the chance to work in one of almost 200 research labs throughout the country.

Fawole, a sophomore honors student from Lawrenceville majoring in microbiology, does not yet know where she will be conducting research this summer. Her top choices include New York University and Yale, but her first choice is The University of California at San Francisco.

“UCSF has a really good medical school, and the people I have talked to who also went there for research loved it,” she said. “Plus it’s in California, which would be a great place to visit. And Dr. Locksley, one of the researchers there, is working with mammalian immunity, which is what I am currently working with at the University.”

Fawole has worked for the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases as part of the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities since her freshman year.

“My work in the CURO lab involves trying to understand how pregnant women acquire immunity to malaria,” she said.

Malaria is a widespread epidemic in areas such as Africa and Asia, and it is places like these where Fawole hopes to practice medicine.

“I want to work as a doctor in places that really need doctors,” she said. “In middle school, I read a book about surgeons that went to Africa to help fix cleft palates, and that’s when I became interested in being a doctor in underdeveloped countries. I’m getting a minor in Spanish, so I’m thinking maybe a Latin American country, or Nigeria, because that’s where I’m from.”

Fawole is looking forward to this summer’s program and the medical, cultural and social activities it will bring, and said she is grateful to those who helped nominate her.

“I want to thank Dr. Pamela Kleiber and Dr. Susan Wessler for nominating me and giving me this opportunity,” she said.

Pam Kleiber, associate director for the honors program and CURO, said that this is the first year that this opportunity has been available for University students. “The nominations for EXROP come from Howard Hughes professors, and Dr. Wessler, a professor in plant biology, has recently received that title,” she said.

Howard Hughes professors nominate one student from their institution for EXROP, and that student is automatically accepted into the program. Howard Hughes professors receive grants to help them work with undergraduates to integrate new research tecniques.

“I suggested Fawole as a nominee because the research she has done in the CURO labs makes her competitive among other students,” Kleiber said. “She has also presented her research in the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students in Orlando, which gives her a huge advantage.”

Christy Shultz, program assistant for EXROP, said the number of participants in EXROP has been increasing since 2003, when the program was initiated.

“This year we have 63 participants from all over the country, which is 10 more than we had last year,” she said. “This program enables students to conduct research with professionals and encourages them to continue with careers in academic science.”