Eberly College of Science Student Marshal Chosen

Rachel Nighswander, of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, will be honored as the Eberly College of Science student marshal during fall commencement ceremonies on Saturday, 17 December 2005, at the Penn State University Park campus. She has selected Mitch Price, a lecturer in the Department of Biology, to be her faculty escort for the commencement exercises.

Nighswander has conducted research in the laboratory of John Waters, a laboratory coordinator in the Department of Biology. Under his guidance she designed and wrote an electromyography (EMG) lab procedure for examining the function of skeletal muscle. The procedure, which will be included in both introductory and advanced physiology labs at Penn State, combines biomechanical models and electromyography in such a way that the students serve as test subjects, eliminating the need for animal subjects that were used in previous skeletal-muscle lab procedures.

Nighswander will be completing a major in biology with a vertebrate physiology option, and a minor in psychology. She has been on the Dean’s list every year, and has earned a 3.97 grade-point average. Her academic achievements have been recognized with a President's Freshman Award in 2003, a President Sparks Award in 2004, and a Penn State Evan Pugh Scholar Award in 2005. She has been a member of Kappa Alpha Theta fraternity for women, where she has served as philanthropy chair and ritualist deputy, and was recognized as a Founder Scholar by the Beta Phi chapter — the local Penn State chapter of Kappa Alpha Theta — in 2005. She was named a member of the Alpha Epsilon Delta Honorary Pre-medical Fraternity in 2005, the Phi Eta Sigma national honor society in 2003 and 2004, and the Phi Kappa Phi national honor society in 2004. She received a UPMC-Horizon Greenville Auxiliary Educational Assistance award from 2002 to 2006. She also received a scholarship from the Coalition of Higher Education Assistance Organizations from 2004 to 2006.

Nighswander was a member of the Eberly College of Science Enrollment Planning Team, where she worked with faculty members to devise strategies to increase the number and quality of students recruited to the college. She worked as an undergraduate teaching assistant for environmental-science, biology-laboratory, and physiology-laboratory courses. During the summer of her sophomore year, she also worked as a freshman scheduling advisor for the Department of Biology.

In addition to her academic activities, she has been actively involved in fundraising for the Penn State Interfraternity Council (IFC)/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (THON™) — the largest student-run philanthropy in the world — and has served on the THON communications committee. During her junior year, she participated in a "study abroad" program in Rome, Italy, where she had the opportunity to study some of the world’s greatest artwork firsthand. She says, "This experience allowed me to study art, language, and a completely different culture, and helped me stretch beyond my science-oriented studies." During her stay in Italy, she also was able to travel throughout Western and Eastern Europe.

Nighswander was the 2002 salutatorian at Hickory High School in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. After graduation from Penn State, she plans to attend medical school and is considering a career as a pediatric surgeon. She will be accompanied at graduation by her parents, Jerry and Angela Nighswander; her sister and brother-in-law, Emilie (2002 BA Liberal Arts — Journalism) and Kevin Gaffney; and her aunts, Dianna Liotti, Marie Hoeping, and Jeannie Berghorn.