As with many seniors graduating from Texas A&M University, biomedical engineering student Amanda Rakoski has much to look forward to as she prepares for her upcoming graduate program at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University next fall.
Over her time at Texas A&M, she has definitely had many achievements, including becoming involved in the Clare Boothe Luce (CBL) Program, the Biomedical Engineering Society president and the TAMU Orchestra Club’s vice president. Among all of them, Rakoski has found that her commitment in the Clare Boothe Luce Program has truly enhanced her educational passions.
The Clare Boothe Luce Program offers women monetary support to grow as researchers and find projects that hold value to them. For Rakoski, this was her 3D cell culture model for breast cancer. She was able to utilize different chemistries and bio-instructive peptides in gels to emulate breast cancer cell behavior and develop a model for breast cancer that can be used to test different drugs.
“I am eternally grateful as the program has given me the opportunity to pursue research and has only strengthened my passion to earn my Ph.D. in the future,” Rakoski said.
As one of eight students on campus to be in the Clare Boothe Luce Program this semester, she wants to become someone who could shape the program and be an example to other women to show what they could do in their time at Texas A&M.
“Being awarded something for my enthusiasm for research as I contribute to my field of biomedical engineering has shown me that research is a career option,” Rakoski said. “I want to support other women to find their passion in research as well.”
Following her success, she has also been admitted into the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program that supports graduate students by granting them over $35,000 in the realms of scientific innovation. Additionally, in this endeavor to make research her career, Rakoski applied to 12 graduate programs because Rakoski said she felt that she did not stand a chance among so many other applicants.
“I was nervous and knew that what I wrote in my personal statements and CV (curriculum vitae) would need to prove what I had done research-wise, where I wanted to go in the future and that I deserved a chance to go to their school, so I wrote with all my heart and left it ‘all on the field’,” Rakoski said.
From this feat and in addition to her accomplishments as a student, she was accepted to many top programs on her list, including Carnegie Mellon, MD Anderson, Rice University, Texas A&M, the University of California-Davis and Johns Hopkins University.
“It felt surreal when a professor from Johns Hopkins offered me a research fellowship before I even got the email that I was invited to their invitational,” Rakoski said. “I felt so blessed for the opportunity, I couldn’t believe that they wanted to recruit me.”
Rakoski said that she decided to continue her academic career at Johns Hopkins because she found that their research is something that she could work on for the rest of her life.
“My experience has truly changed my life and showed me what I love to do. I cannot thank the Clare Boothe Luce Program enough for giving me the opportunity to find my passion in my undergraduate career,” Rakoski said.