USA Today honors Y students

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    By David Headrick

    Brittany Macdonald, president of BYUs Golden Key International Honor Society, helped motivate over 2,400 children in Utah County last March to live a healthier life.

    Macdonald, 22, a senior from Orem, majoring in dietetics, helped lead about 110 BYU volunteers who paired up to teach the third and fourth grade children in Provo, Orem, American Fork, Spanish Fork, Lindon, Payson and Lehi.

    The volunteers gave a 40-minute “BEST” presentation to the children, she said.

    “BEST is an acronym,” Macdonald said. “B is for building a healthy body through exercise; E is for eating right; S is for staying away from drugs and alcohol; and T is for thinking ahead, setting goals.”

    The teachers thought it was a good program, because it came from college students, Macdonald said.

    “The teachers said they were very impressed,” she said. “The children got very involved. I think it will motivate them to live a healthier life.”

    That experience, combined with her grades, honors and leadership, earned her a USA Today 2002 All-USA College Academic Honorable Mention, Wednesday, February 27.

    According to the 2002 All-USA College Academic Team Nomination Form, USA Today was seeking 20 students who could be “held up as representatives of all outstanding undergraduates in the country.”

    Judges considered “not only grades, honors and leadership, but also how nominees apply their intellectual skills outside the classroom and how that may benefit society,” according to the nomination form.

    Two other BYU students, Joshua Hicks and Charis Thatcher, also received Academic Honorable Mentions.

    Hicks, 23, a sophomore from Las Vegas, majoring in chemical engineering, has been performing biomedical research in the Benson Building through the Chemical Engineering Department.

    Hicks has been assisting graduate students with blood clot experimentation, he said.

    When performing heart surgery, the blood needs to be pumped out. Once out of the heart, the blood begins to clot. So, anti-coagulate agents are put in the blood to prevent coagulation. Problems sometimes arise when the host body denies the foreign anti-coagulate substance, Hicks said.

    “We”re working on a gel that will take out the clotting factor,” Hicks said.

    Among 20 other selected students from schools across the nation, Hicks said he is delighted with the honor and will continue to apply.

    “I wanted to prove that BYU students could butt heads with the some of the best universities in the nation,” he said.

    “I think it was worth while,” Hicks said. “I felt honored to be with a pretty elite group.”

    Thatcher, 21, a senior from Apple Valley, Minn., proved she also ranks among the elite.

    She went with eight other BYU students to the Dominican Republic last spring to help health workers to teach health education more effectively, she said.

    The group, organized through the Pan-American Health Organization and Laubach Literacy International, taught prenatal care and sanitation so that teachers could teach more effectively.

    She said she is flattered by the honor and will continue to apply.

    Thatcher said both her family and the cultural influence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are sources in her life that influenced her decision to involve herself locally and globally.

    “When you have the experience to do things internationally, it can create an awareness of blessings and opportunities,” she said.

    “I think the church wants us to be involved, to use our talents, and I”m grateful for both of those sources,” Thatcher said. “They kind of coerced me to dream.”

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