Montgomery College Student Named One of Nation’s Top 20 From Two-Year Colleges

Vanessa Coleman of Potomac Chosen for All-USA Academic Team Honor

 Montgomery College student Vanessa Coleman, of Potomac, Maryland, has been named to the 2007 First Team of the All-USA Community and Junior College Academic Team. The honor is given each year to only 20 students nationwide for their academic achievement and community and college involvement, and it carries with it a $2,500 cash award for each honoree. Another 20 students each were selected for the Second and Third Teams.

       At Montgomery College, Coleman has participated in two special programs—the Takoma Park Scholars, an honors program located at the Takoma Park/Silver Spring Campus, and the Biomedical Scholars, a program designed for students planning to pursue a career in the biomedical sciences.    Through the Biomedical Scholars program, Coleman secured a research internship at Virion Systems, Inc., where she worked alongside a prominent immunobiologist, performed research, and learned about infectious diseases. In fact, she was invited to give a presentation of her internship research at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students, sponsored by the National Institutes of General Medical Science, National Institutes of Health. Calling her internship “the defining experience” of her studies at Montgomery College, Coleman has decided to pursue a career in medicine, working specifically in the area of global health and infectious diseases.