For the First Time, Two BME Majors are SEAS Outstanding Students of the Year
For every year there's been a Biomedical Engineering major, one of our students has won the Engineering School's top award for graduating students. But we've never had two BME Majors win at the same time!
The Natural Born Humanist: Monika Grabowska
Beckman Scholar, Raven Society, Jefferson Public Citizen, teaching assistant and peer advisor, journal editor, and 1st Place Historical Paper Award at the Virginia History Day State Competition.
From Monika's nomination letter
"Monika Grabowska has as much potential as any student I have taught. In all of my personal interactions with her, she has exhibited a high level of professionalism and personal maturity. Given Monika’s near-perfect academic performance thus far at U.Va., her superb extracurricular and research accomplishments, her unparalleled work ethic and motivation, and her thoughtful pursuit of high-impact service and teaching experiences, I offer my strongest possible recommendation for her as the School’s 2019 Outstanding Student of the Year. Monika exemplifies the qualities of the broadly creative citizen-scholar that Mr. Jefferson hoped his University would inspire in its students, and she is a credit to her School and University."
- Timothy Allen, PhD, Associate Professor of BME and Interim Undergraduate Program Director
The Bridge-Building Entrepreneur: Alexander Singh
Pike Entrepreneurship Fellow, President of Tau Beta Pi, teaching assistant and peer mentor, researcher in clinical neurosurgery, and CEO and Co-Founder of Minimally Invasive Spinal Technology (MIST), working to ensure better lives for children with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.
From Alexander's nomination letter:
“Alexander is committed to building bridges for younger student entrepreneurs. I have worked with many student entrepreneurs, and while they are incredible themselves, very few are able to give back in the ways and magnitude that Alexander Singh has. For example, this past fall Alexander spent at least 20 hours working with individual students to help them prepare for the Entrepreneurship Cup Concept competition, something that Alexander won in a previous year.
Alexander spends much of his time in our entrepreneurial lounge in Thornton Hall, room B218, working on his project and homework. We frequently have many different student entrepreneurs coming by to meet with me or work on their project, and Alexander makes a point to engage in conversation with each one and tries to offer them at least one point of advice or direction. His commitment has augmented my ability ten-fold to cultivating a tight-knit network of student entrepreneurs, and for that I will be forever grateful. Finally, this service has cultivated in an initiative called the Ripple Fellowship, which Alexander and a fellows fourth-year student entrepreneur initiated in order to help first year students who are interested in starting an entrepreneurial project.”
- Alex Zorychta, Assistant Director for Technology Entrepreneurship and Program Director for Works in Progress
BME's Outstanding Student Award Recipients
2019, Monika Grabowska, Alexander Singh
2018, John Panagides
2017, Naveed Tavakol
2016, Angela Liu
2014, Ethan Nyberg
2013, Jessica Ungerleider
2012, Hannah Meredith
2011, Kenneth Tran
2010, Jen Wilson
2009, Vinu T. Ilakkuvan
2008, Eliah Shamir
2007, Scott Robertson
2006, Marc Schwartz
2005, Carolyn M. Reed