Senior Biology Major Garners $5,000 PKP Fellowship

Michelle Cornacchia, a senior biology major who was profiled in the February 2009 issue of TCNJ Magazine, is one of the 60 national winners of Phi Kappa Phi’s 2009 $5,000 Fellowship Award winners. Phi Kappa Phi is the nation’s oldest, largest, and most selective all-discipline honor society with 300 chapters at colleges and universities across the country and in the Philippines. Membership is only offered to the top 7.5 percent of second-semester juniors and 10 percent of seniors.

Since her sophomore year, Cornacchia has been busy engaging in research. She has worked with Anthony Uzwiak, associate professor of biology, to determine if plasticity exists in individual neurons in freely moving animals. She also researched potential risk factors for schizophrenia and autism at Robert Wood Johnson.

Even though Cornacchia loves research, her passion lies elsewhere. “Though I love the critical thinking skills one develops, the problem solving aspect of research, and the discovery of the unknown, I plan to focus my time and energy on clinical work.” She will attend Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, and then she hopes to volunteer for Doctors Without Borders or Paul Farmers Partners in Medicine.

To be selected for the fellowship, each chapter, comprised of a panel of professors and administrators, can nominate one student from the school. TCNJ’s panel contacted senior members and asked them to submit a draft application. From those who applied, Cornacchia was selected at TCNJ’s nominee. Since 2000, six TCNJ students have received the $5,000 scholarship while another student one the $2,000 Award of Excellence.