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Senior Daniel del Portal is a Cellular
Biology and
Psychology major and a Bernard Ramsey Honors Scholar. Last
spring, he delivered the student response to Genelle Morain's
Founders' Day Lecture and won the Sigma Xi award for best
poster presentation at the CURO Symposium. This past summer,
he traveled to Uganda to perform research and provide medical
relief and he plans to attend medical school after he graduates
from UGA this semester.
Expected
graduation: December 2004
Degree Objective: B.S. in Cellular
Biology and B.S. in Psychology
University
highlights, achievements and awards:
Daniel del Portal's
achievements at UGA include being named a Courts International
Scholar, Bernard Ramsey Honors Scholar, National Merit Scholar,
Biomedical & Health Sciences Institute Research Fellow,
and CURO Scholar. He won the Sigma Xi "Best in Show"
prize at CURO Symposium, and was named a Richard B. Russell
Leadership Fellow. He participated in the Security Leadership
Practicum at the Center for International Trade and Security,
Student Health Advisory Committee, JURO@GA editorial board,
and the Academic Scholarship Identification Program. He was
also a Founder's Day lecture student respondent, and he is
presently a resident of the Spanish Language Community in
Mary Lyndon Hall.
High School: Isidore Newman School
Hometown: New Orleans, Louisiana
I choose to attend UGA because...
...I wanted to be at a large university that offers students
a wide range of opportunities regardless of their field of
study. The Honors Program gives a "smaller school"
feel and has been compared to an Ivy League education at a
major research institution. UGA was the affordable option
that offered the best of both worlds. Plus, Athens is the
best college town you'll find anywhere!
My favorite things to do on campus
are...
...lie on Herty Field or the North Campus quads and soak in
the sun, work out at the unbelievable Ramsey Rec Center, go
to jazz night at the Foundry Park Inn downtown, and of course,
watch the Dawgs in Sanford Stadium.
When I have free time, I like...
...reading, writing, exercising, listening to saxophone player
Stan Getz, and chatting in Spanish with the residents of the
Spanish Language Community in Mary Lyndon Hall.
The craziest thing I've done is...
...deliver a baby, who was then named Daniel, in a rural
village clinic in sub-Saharan Africa. With the support of
the Courts International Scholarship from UGA, I spent a month
in southwest Uganda with Dr. Scott and Carol Kellermann, medical
missionaries to the Batwa pygmies of the Impenetrable Forest.
Aside from the fascinating medical work we did, I also hiked
the infamous forest, camped with hippos, and rafted the Nile!
My favorite place to study is...
...Herty Field, because the noise of the fountain is a relaxing
soundtrack. When it's cold or the sun's not out, the Student
Learning Center is the spot. I either sit in the rotunda or
I find my own study room, where I can organize my thoughts
by scribbling diagrams on the board with a dry-erase marker.
My favorite professor is...
In the sciences, Drs. Marcus Fechheimer and Ruth Furukawa,
in whose lab I worked for sixteen months studying the physiology
of cellular inclusions found in Alzheimer's patients. They've
taught me how to think like a scientist while making me feel
like an important part of a research team. In the humanities,
Dr. Dezso Benedek is the man. He knows over a dozen languages,
and his stories of living as a field anthropologist with a
Stone Age tribe are incredible!
If I could share an afternoon
with anyone, I would love to share it with...
...Colonel Aureliano Buendia, who "organized thirty-two
armed uprisings and lost them all" before facing a firing
squad. Well, he's only a fictional character in the epic classic
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Nobel prize winner
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but I have never found a more intriguing
character!
If money was not a consideration,
I would love to...
...become a physician and travel the world, providing care
and learning about different cultures and studying their languages.
Eventually, I'd "retire" to a small town like Vernazza
on the Italian Riviera to reflect and write.
After graduation, I plan to...
...return to southwest Uganda for
several months to work again with Scott and Carol Kellermann
and the pygmies. Then, in fall 2005 I will begin medical school.
The one UGA experience I will
always remember will be...
...when the Dawgs won the Sugar Bowl in my hometown of New
Orleans. |
