Lauren Nieman is an NHS senior who is double majoring in Biological Sciences and Chemistry. In March, she competed for and won the honor to be the student speaker for the College’s Undergraduate Academic Scholar Awards Ceremony where she provided a motivating account of her time at UNC.

Nieman recounted her freshman year at UNC as a time that she was focused on her academics but during which she was afraid to venture outside of her comfort zone. She has since discovered that ―education is so much more than academics‖ and that ―without being involved, without going above and beyond the bare minimum, students are short changing themselves and not getting the education that they deserve.

Nieman has taken her own advice and is involved in many facets of the University community. She is a student ambassador for our college, a role that has allowed her to meet students, faculty and the community, a supplemental instructor for Organic Chemistry, Events Coordinator for UNC’s Pre-Health Professionals Club and an undergraduate student researcher working on a project to engineer an edible malaria vaccine from transgenic carrot plants.

Nieman will graduate this May and plans to attend the University of Colorado’s Child Health Associate/Physicians Assistant Program to obtain a Master’s degree. She credits the ―countless educational opportunities that UNC has to offer both in and out of the classroom‖ for setting her up for success and for helping her discover her true sense of self—―each of these experiences has shaped me, taught me something new and made me a more well rounded person.

Nieman now proudly says that she is a UNC Bear, and that she wouldn’t change it for the world.