{"id":65136,"date":"2009-11-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-biotech-student-awarded-fearless-scientist-scholarship-by-institute-for-immunology-informatics\/"},"modified":"2009-11-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-04T00:00:00","slug":"uri-biotech-student-awarded-fearless-scientist-scholarship-by-institute-for-immunology-informatics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2009\/11\/uri-biotech-student-awarded-fearless-scientist-scholarship-by-institute-for-immunology-informatics\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 biotech student awarded Fearless Scientist Scholarship by Institute for Immunology & Informatics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tPROVIDENCE, R.I. \u2013 November 4, 2009 \u2013 During a nearly 30-year career, Cranston resident Kathy Vachon has operated a foot press, sold insurance, worked as a diet aide at a nursing home, been a stay-at-home mom, and held jobs as a computer programmer and medical billing clerk. Along the way, she has been laid off three or four times.<\/p>\n


\n\tThis fall she enrolled in the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Biotechnology Manufacturing Program to begin a new career, and she has already been rewarded with the Polly Matzinger Fearless Scientist Scholarship.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe scholarship is all about women who have faced hardships in their lives and who have still made a career of science,\u201d said Vachon, who is raising two children on her own after her husband, mother and grandmother passed away this year. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to know that I\u2019m considered a fearless scientist this early in my career. I\u2019m pleased that they saw me as someone who had overcome a lot and was working toward becoming a successful scientist.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe scholarship is funded by Providence-based biotechnology company EpiVax, Inc. and was presented by the 溏心vlog免费B站 Institute for Immunology and Informatics, a research laboratory that uses cutting-edge tools to accelerate the development of treatments for immune-system diseases. Both EpiVax and the Institute are headed by 溏心vlog免费B站 Professor Annie De Groot. The scholarship is named for noted immunologist Polly Matzinger who also took an unconventional path to becoming a scientist.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cEpiVax hopes that the availability of scholarship funds will encourage more young women to consider science as a career,\u201d said EpiVax Chief Operating Officer William Martin. \u201cAlthough some advances in gender equality have been made over the years, Polly Matzinger’s achievements are particularly remarkable, in terms of her ability to create new scientific knowledge and challenge prevailing paradigms in a field dominated by men.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tAdded De Groot, \u201cIt takes all kinds of people, including women like Polly Matzinger and Kathy Vachon, to make great science. \u201c

\n\tThe scholarship was presented on Oct. 27 at the opening reception for the Institute for Immunology and Informatics in Providence.

\n\tVachon enrolled in the 溏心vlog免费B站 biotechnology program because she was in need of a stable income and her skills for other jobs were out of date. \u201cWhen I started looking into going back to school, I saw an ad for the biotech program on TV and I knew immediately that it was what I wanted to do,\u201d Vachon said.<\/p>\n


\n\tAlthough she had taken college classes before, she was a little nervous when she walked into the 溏心vlog免费B站 Providence campus on her first day.

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s like learning a whole new language and there\u2019s a lot of work involved, but because I like watching the forensic science shows on TV, a lot of what we\u2019re learning I\u2019m somewhat familiar with already,\u201d Vachon said. \u201cI love the challenge, and at this point in my life I really needed that. It\u2019s something that makes me get up and face the world every day.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nInitiated in 2003, the 溏心vlog免费B站 Biotechnology Manufacturing Program features a rigorous curriculum that prepares students to work in the biotechnology industry and leads to a bachelor of science degree. Classes are held in Providence and begin with two semesters of full-time study followed by a summer internship at a biotechnology company in the area. Coursework includes biology, chemistry, biotechnology methods, microbiology and physiology. Following the internship, most students go to work full-time in the industry at starting salaries of $30,000-$40,000 and complete their education as part-time students.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cEverything seems to be falling into place for me,\u201d said Vachon, who hopes to eventually earn a Ph.D. \u201cThere comes a time when you have to move forward regardless of your circumstances. I\u2019m enjoying myself, I\u2019m challenged every day, and I want to help people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pictured above<\/b>: Celebrating the awarding of the Polly Matzinger Fearless Scientist Scholarship are (l-r) Ed Bozzi, coordinator of the 溏心vlog免费B站 biotechnology manufacturing program, Polly Matzinger, immunologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, scholarship recipient Kathy Vachon of Cranston, and Nancy Fey-Yensan, interim dean of the 溏心vlog免费B站 College of the Environment and Life Sciences. (溏心vlog免费B站 photo by Michael Salerno)
\n
\n\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PROVIDENCE, R.I. \u2013 November 4, 2009 \u2013 During a nearly 30-year career, Cranston resident Kathy Vachon has operated a foot press, sold insurance, worked as a diet aide at a nursing home, been a stay-at-home mom, and held jobs as a computer programmer and medical billing clerk. Along the way, she has been laid off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}