TerryP
Staff
...off the football front, but it's worth posting.
Read more here from the Tuscaloosa News
For the fifth time in six years, the University of Alabama leads the nation in students selected by USA Today for its All-USA Academic Team.
UA students fill seven of the 80 spots on the team. One student, UA senior Renee Rivas, made the first team, which gets the lion's share of ink in today's edition of the national newspaper.
Along with a feature in the 2.3-million circulation USA Today newspaper, first-team members receive $2,500.
This is not the first time Richardson, Texas, native Rivas has been nominated, but it's the first year she's made the team. Helping her case was co-authoring on a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
'It's rare for an undergrad student to co-author any paper, especially a high-impact paper in a respected journal,' said Guy Caldwell, who oversees a biological research lab that has produced three USA Today first-team students.
Published in January, the lab team found genes that could protect against Parkinson's disease, a neurological disorder affecting about 1 million Americans. During the research, Rivas independently created an effective strategy to screen the genes, Caldwell said.
'It took our work to the next level,' he said.
In addition to doing research, she also is a mentor who tutors elementary school children.
Though grades are important to their decision, the USA Today team selects undergraduates who take what they learn beyond the classroom. About 500 students were nominated for this year's team.
UA has a first-team selection, three second-team selections and three third-team selections.
Yale University had the second-most selections with five students — two on the first-team, two on the second-team and a third-team member. In Alabama, only the University of Alabama at Birmingham had a selection with a member of the third team.
Read more here from the Tuscaloosa News