Kenny Nguyen
January 20, 2016
By Emma Alexander, Honors Communications Intern
To kick off 2016 and a new semester is our first student spotlight interview with Kenny Nguyen. Kenny, a sophomore from Hilliard, Ohio, is majoring in Neurobiology and Physiology with a minor in Psychology. He aspires to pursue an MD or MD/Ph.D. and become a surgeon. However, he also imagines the possibility of becoming a professor and PI at a university. Kenny says he chose Purdue in the first place for its unique biology major. In case you are unfamiliar, the biology major at Purdue is split into eight divisions, allowing students to specialize in the facets of biology which interest them most. In Kenny’s words, the Purdue biology major, “allows me to selectively focus on the brain and body while taking every facet of biology into consideration.”
Although only a sophomore, Kenny has already accumulated a laundry list of extracurricular activities and experiences. To begin, he does undergraduate research in the Hollenbeck Lab, where he has a publication pending for the Journal of Cell Biology. Kenny also had the opportunity to conduct research last summer as a part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) with the William H. Phillips Undergraduate Research Grant. Kenny will be interning at the National Institutes of Health with Dr. Zuhang Sheng this summer to conduct research on mitochondrial traffic and motility in Parkinson's disease.
Kenny is obviously very passionate about science; however, he is also involved in many entirely different organizations. He is the Executive Director of Programming for Purdue Student Government, the Director of Print Media for The Purdue Review, an Honors Ambassador for the Honors College, an active member of Circle K, and a member of the Purdue Chamber Trio. Through all of these incredible leadership positions, Kenny truly rounds out his impressive resume.
With regards to his experience in the Honors College, Kenny shared,
While in the Honors College, I have particularly enjoyed the interdisciplinary style of learning. Stem Cells (HONR 199) taught by Dr. Zahra Tehrani has been my favorite class so far at Purdue. [In that class] we took a look at stem cells from multiple angles, exploring many applications for these cells which I would not have thought applicable. A particularly memorable class was when we focused on stem cells in the cosmetic industry: we went on the Nordstrom website and analyzed the ingredients in $400+ stem cell face creams.
I know I feel truly blessed to be surrounded by bright, passionate individuals such as Kenny in the Honors College. Come back here every week to see a new accomplished Honors student featured.
