体育菠菜大平台生物学M.S. student Blase Rokusek awarded Graduate Student of the Year

在以最优等成绩毕业后 内布拉斯加大学科尔尼分校 两年前, Blase Rokusek has now earned his Master of Science degree from 体育菠菜大平台 with a new honor: 2023 Graduate Student of the Year. 
 
内布拉斯加大学科尔尼分校 最大的菠菜的平台学习和学术推广 created the Graduate Student of the Year award in 2022 to celebrate outstanding students, 像Rokusek. 
 
“We are thrilled to recognize Blase Rokusek as the Graduate Student of the Year,” Dean of 最大的菠菜的平台学习和学术推广 Dr. 马克·埃利斯说. “Blase was a standout student in the Biology M.S. program and will be attending medical school at UNMC in the Fall.” 
 
Rokusek graduated from 体育菠菜大平台 in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychobiology. He added to his growing collection of diplomas on 五月 19 when he graduated with a 生物学理学硕士.  
 
“Dr. Kim Carlson proudly boasts that Blase was the best graduate student she has ever mentored,” Dr. 艾利斯说. “That makes us feel proud in the Office of 最大的菠菜的平台学习 & 学术推广. 我们在体育菠菜大平台提供高质量的最大的菠菜的平台课程, and Blase's academic success is a perfect example of how 体育菠菜大平台 can prepare our students for careers in medicine and beyond.” 

 
Dr. Kim Carlson is a Professor and Co-Chair of the Biology Department. She was also Rokusek’s advisor and primary thesis mentor.  
 
“I can’t say enough good things about him,” Dr. 卡尔森在她的提名中写道. “It is obvious that all the Biology Department faculty like Blase. 他就是这个奖项的真正意义. I can’t think of a graduate student who is more deserving or one that will be more missed than Blase.” 
 
It is obvious that the appreciation goes both ways between the two. 
 
“Dr. Carlson was always available if we ever needed anything,Rokusek说. “她办公室的门总是开着的. I stop in there pretty much every single day just to either talk, or ask questions, or anything.” 
 
Dr. Carlson was also the professor who persuaded Rokusek to pursue his master’s degree in biology. 
 
“大四的时候，我跟着布朗博士选修了遗传学. Carlson and as soon as I took it, I was like, ‘I want to do some research in genetics.’ That is kind of what made me stay at 体育菠菜大平台 and want to do a master’s degree here,Rokusek说. 
 
体育菠菜大平台 's Biology M.S. program provides students like Blase Rokusek the “best of both worlds” with a focus on student research and quality teaching. 

 
“The 体育菠菜大平台 Biology program has a ton of amazing equipment and a lot of amazing professors at our disposal,Rokusek说. “The research we do here is really quite amazing. 这是两全其美的. As a primarily undergraduate institution, all the professors here are very geared towards teaching. So you get professors that are really good at teaching but also we have the ability to do really cool research.” 
 
确实是很酷的研究. Rokusek has published a research article from Dr. 卡尔森的实验室oratory studying heat tolerance in fruit flies. 
 
“我们研究果蝇, not because we're particularly interested in fruit flies themselves, but because they're a model organism for genetics,Rokusek说. “I don't want to overstate it, but most of what we know about genetics comes from fruit flies. We share roughly 75% of disease-causing genes with them. So if we find something in fruit flies, we can generalize it to humans.” 
 
除了他在Dr. 卡尔森的实验室, Rokusek has published five scholarly articles, 今年夏天还会有更多, 在心理学中, 教学教育学, 和生物学. He has taught undergraduate biology courses as a 最大的菠菜的平台助教, 做过实验室准备助理, and volunteered as a Supplemental Instructor for Anatomy and Physiology, 以及多个科学日, 科学展览评审, and assisting with overall needs throughout the department. 

 
体育菠菜大平台 's Biology M.S. program has provided Rokusek with many opportunities, but his passion is research and teaching. 

“He loves teaching and interacting with students,” Dr. 卡尔森写道. “The students said that he was passionate, understanding, and extremely helpful. He went above and beyond to assist his students, in and out of the classroom.”  
 
Rokusek’s passion for teaching is what caused him to be “leery” of accepting the position as a Lab Prep Assistant, 博士. 卡尔森说，这是一个“令人垂涎的职位”.” He hopes to be able to continue both teaching and research in his future. 
 
“As of now, the plan is to do psychiatry,Rokusek说. “I'd like to be able to teach and do research in some capacity as well as practice. I don't know exactly what that'll look like, but as of now the plan is something in psychiatry.” 

 
While he’s looking toward the future, Rokusek looks back fondly on his time at 体育菠菜大平台. With the university and the people there having such a large impact on his life, it makes being named 体育菠菜大平台 Graduate Student of the Year all the more meaningful to him.  
 
“I'm very honored to be awarded it,Rokusek说 about the award. “体育菠菜大平台对我来说意义重大. I'm a very different person than I was when I started six years ago as an undergrad, but I'm very happy with the trajectory that I'm on in terms of just everything, 就我个人而言, 专业, and 体育菠菜大平台 has been a huge part in all of that. The whole place just means a lot to me, so to have 体育菠菜大平台 recognize me, it's really kind of cool.”