Why Harvard?

—by Jared Brickman and Deven Tokuno

There must be something about Cambridge, Mass. that has Honors College at Washington State University alums wrapped up in Ivy – the League that is.

Four Honors students who graduated in the past three years are simultaneously attending the oldest institution of higher learning in the country this fall for advanced degrees.  This comes after two 2012 graduates decided to head east, both admitted into Harvard.

Omar Bayomy (’12 neuroscience and Honors) of Moscow, Idaho, and Jeff Davis (’12 biochemistry and Honors) of Everett, Wash. will join Alan Emanuel (’10 neuroscience and Honors) of Lakewood, Colo. and Derick En’Wezoh (’11 neuroscience, psychology, and Honors) of Kennewick, Wash. at Harvard.  Bayomy and En’Wezoh are attending Harvard Medical School, while Davis and Emanual are part of Harvard University’s graduate program.

Why has there been such a strong post-graduation draw to the “other” university proud of being crimson?  Each student has his own story of how he made the cut, why he picked Harvard, and what impact the Honors College at WSU had on his success.

Emanuel

The path to Harvard began for Emanuel long before his time at WSU.  In high school he was a member of the National Honor Society and the Tri-M Music Honor Society.  He also completed an International Baccalaureate program.

Once at WSU, Emanuel wasted no time finding work in a research lab.  As a freshman, he became part of neuroscience Professor Susan Ritter’s lab, which engages in anatomical, behavioral, and physiological experimentation to identify metabolic events in the body.

Emanuel served as vice president and president of the Neuroscience Club at WSU.  He was a part of the WSU Wind Symphony and began an outreach program to elementary schools to teach young students about the brain.  Graduating summa cum laude, Emanuel was a highlight student at commencement.  In addition, he passed his Honors thesis with distinction. He also attended the 2009 Western Regional Honors Conference hosted by WSU in Spokane where he presented his project, “The Ablation of Hindbrain Catecholamine Neurons Innervating medial Hypothalamic Nuclei Abolishes Glucoprivic Feeding but not Ghrelin-Induced Feeding.”

“The Honors thesis was the most directly relevant preparation for graduate school I had because I was given an opportunity to complete a thorough research project and discover something entirely novel,” says Emanuel.

Why Harvard?  Emanuel says it’s because of the lab opportunities at the school in his continued area of interest: neuroscience.

“They are pioneering new approaches and new answers to age-old problems and questions in the field,” says Emanuel.  “Given this quality, Harvard seemed like a logical choice.”

Emanuel has been at Harvard for two years in pursuit of a doctorate.  He plans to become a neuroscience professor at a major research university.

En’Wezoh

En’Wezoh was appointed by Governor Christine Gregoire to serve as the student member of the WSU Board of Regents in 2008-2009.  He was the youngest Regent but had one of the Board’s most important roles: he brought the students’ voice to the table at each meeting.  Having lost a cousin in the Virginia Tech campus shooting, one of En’Wezoh’s main emphases was campus safety.

In 2009-2010, he was elected ASWSU Student Body president and received the President’s Leadership Award.

A neuroscience and pre-med major, he chose to focus on the perceived effectiveness of a medical amnesty program at WSU for his Honors thesis and received Pass with Distinction for this work. His analysis and interpretation of the results of a student survey he developed had a direct impact on the adoption of a medical amnesty program at WSU.

En’Wezoh could not be reached to comment on his choice of Harvard because of his busy summer schedule.

Bayomy

Having recently completed his undergraduate work, Bayomy realized the stringent and sometimes fickle admission process of graduate schools.

“You might ask ‘why Harvard?’  But the real question is ‘Why Omar?’” he says.

The likely answer has to do with his time at WSU, where he did extensive research alongside James Krueger, Regents Professor of neuroscience.  His work landed him a place at the WSU Showcase poster presentations, as well as a pass with distinction rating for his Honors thesis.  He even presented his research findings at a national conference.

Bayomy accomplished much more than lab work, graduating summa cum laude and receiving WSU’s “Big 10 Senior” award for academics.  He also received both major Honors College recognitions at commencement, the S. Town Stephenson and Dean’s Awards.

Beyond academics, Bayomy served as a resident advisor and assistant hall director for Residence Life.  He taught freshmen in an Honors College seminar class and served on the WSU Sustainability Committee.  Still, he credits his time working on his Honors thesis as his proudest accomplishment, and was active in the Honors community.

“WSU has all it needs to produce excellent leaders,” says Bayomy.  “The Honors College has an elegant way of helping students find those resources.  It’s really for and by the students.”

Like En’Wezoh, Omar is at Harvard for medical school.  He says his major influences for heading east were the innovative program and financial assistance.

“They aren’t cutthroat in their program,” says Bayomy, “and they have an extremely impressive amount of opportunities on campus.  Current students say that the greatest difficulty at HMS is gaining the ability to sort through all there is to take hold of and find your niche passion.”

Bayomy says he still doesn’t know his particular niche or what his end goals are.  He does know one thing, however: he would like to use his education to work on humanitarian efforts around the globe for underserved populations.

Davis

Out of the Honors College alums now at Harvard, Davis is the only one who didn’t go through the WSU neuroscience program, though he entered Harvard with plenty of research background.  He received an Auvil Scholars Fellowship to support his work in the lab of Michael Griswold, Regents Professor of molecular biosciences.

Davis’ Honors thesis received a pass with distinction and garnered invitations to two international conferences.  This work was part of the Barry Goldwater Undergraduate Research Competition, a prestigious research scholarship program designed to encourage and support the top students in the sciences.

Graduating magna cum laude, Davis credits the preparation the Honors College gave him for working with others.

“Science is collaboration,” he says.  “You have to be able to express your ideas and projects to your peers, and I was glad to have a chance to practice that with the Honors thesis before going to graduate school.”

Davis works with regenerative medicine at Harvard, a solid program at the school.

“Harvard has arguably the strongest translational stem cell research program in the world, and it’s where I feel I will be the most challenged during my graduate career,” says Davis.  “I also really enjoy the area, and feel like the students and faculty there are really excited about what they do.”

Cell regeneration is an area of interest to Davis, who hopes he will be rotating in labs that study the pancreas using human embryotic stems cells.  His ultimate goal is to run a lab after graduation and continue to work in the field of regenerative biology.