Posted on April 21, 2004 at 3:33 p.m.
BIRMINGHAM, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) senior Reesha C. Shah, 19, a native of Athens, Georgia, has been selected to receive a Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Fellowship Award for the academic year 2004-2005. She is one of 60 students across the nation and the only Alabama student awarded a graduate fellowship this year.
Students are selected based on academic merit, campus and community activities, graduate study prospects, an essay and letters of recommendation. The fellowship award of $5,000 covers the first year of graduate or professional study.
Shah is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in public health. She is a student in the UAB Honors Program and the Early Medical School Acceptance Program.
Under the guidance of Professor Etty Benveniste, Ph.D., in the UAB Department of Cell Biology, Shah has been participating in research on brain tumors such as glioma, which is the deadliest form of the disease. She has been working on her own project, delineating gene expression patterns of a particular gene to learn the role it plays and to help understand what makes glioma tumors so deadly. Shah’s efforts were rewarded recently when she won first place in the University of Alabama System Honors Research Day Poster Competition.
Shah will enter the School of Public Health this fall to pursue a master’s degree in public health. She plans to enter UAB Medical School in 2005.
In addition to her studies, Shah has been a volunteer with Rape Response in Birmingham. She also is president of the Pre-Medicine American Medical Student Association at UAB.
Shah is a 2001 graduate of Clarke Central High School in Athens. She is the daughter of Reena and Chit Shah.
The Phi Kappa Phi Graduate Fellowship Program, established in 1932, draws from a broad range of disciplines, including the sciences, engineering, political science, mathematics and psychology. In addition to 60 fellowships, the program presents 40 Awards of Excellence of $2,000 each for post-graduate study at accredited colleges and universities. All national nominees receive a one-year active membership in Phi Kappa Phi.
A student from Troy State University received an Award of Excellence from Phi Kappa Phi.