{"id":1883,"date":"2013-06-25T10:23:50","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T14:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=1883"},"modified":"2014-06-02T15:00:15","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T19:00:15","slug":"april-berlyoung","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2013\/06\/25\/april-berlyoung\/","title":{"rendered":"April Berlyoung"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"_MG_0073\"<\/a>Thanks to Mrs. Higgins, April Berlyoung will be spending her summer conducting research in physical chemistry \u2013 and loving it. The holder of the Georgia Southern University Foundation\u2019s Bill Ponder Scholarship, Berlyoung credits her high school chemistry teacher with recognizing her potential to excel and backing that up with constant encouragement and assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Inspired\u2019 does not even begin to describe what she did for me,\u201d said Berlyoung, a rising junior from Alpharetta, Ga. \u201cShe struggled with me, helped me with problems and involved me in the National High School Honors Society.\u201d Her teacher encouraged and led her to enrich her experience and learning, working with her school\u2019s lab equipment that rarely found use in the usual coursework.<\/p>\n

Berlyoung has not narrowed her future field of research because has \u201cenjoyed all aspects of chemistry. I try to think of it as what don\u2019t I like, and I haven\u2019t found anything yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

She does, however, have definite plans for graduate school, a goal that will be bolstered by this summer\u2019s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) experience. The National Science Foundation-funded program is held at several university campuses around the country, and she was recommended by her Georgia Southern professors for the Georgetown University program. \u201cI really love my department,\u201d she said, \u201cand I really love my professors. They and the staff are always helpful and you need that help to do any science. I research with Dr. (James) LoBue. He has been a great mentor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berlyoung has been assisting LoBue with simulations of chemical reactions within cells in search of better ways to target chemotherapy to cancer. Ultimately, the goal is to reduce the negative effects of chemotherapy on healthy cells while maximizing their effectiveness on the target cells.<\/p>\n

Berlyoung has been a member of the University\u2019s Chemistry Club since she was a freshman and is now an officer in the club. She is also a member of Alpha Chi Sigma, the nation\u2019s only college chemistry fraternity and, with her colleagues, is working to elevate Georgia Southern\u2019s colony into an independent chapter. — David Thompson<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ponder Scholarship Winner Takes Her Research to a New Level<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[41],"class_list":["post-1883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foundation","tag-summer-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}