At Florida Institute of Technology’s annual Honors Convocation in April, Brittany Reinard of Newtown was named Outstanding Senior for the 2011-2012 academic year.
She was chosen by a faculty committee from among those earning Outstanding Junior and Outstanding Senior designations within each academic area.
Brittany, a pre-medical biology major, is an athlete as well. She participates in varsity cross country, and track and field events, and recently completed the USA Triathlon Collegiate Race in Tuskaloosa, Ala. Her memberships include Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Kappa Phi national honor societies; and Tri Beta, the biological science national honor society.
She also participates in the pre-med club on campus.
Brittany received Florida Tech’s 2011-2012 Track & Field Female Scholar-Athlete Award and is on the Florida Tech Athletic Director’s Honor Roll for Cross Country, and Track & Field.
She received an Academic All-Regional Award in recognition of maintaining a grade point average that places her in the top 30% of the region.
Among Brittany’s research experiences have been a biomedical research internship at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Research Institute, conducting research involving the cultivation and identification of the symbiotic microbes in deep-water marine sponges and screening for the antimicrobial agent Leiodermatolide with the ultimate goal of discovering new therapies for diseases such as cancer for researcher Peter McCarthy.
At Florida Tech she has researched how a short-pulse laser could be used to ablate subcutaneous tumors with minimal thermal damage to the surrounding healthy tissue and investigated and helped with the training of wild Burmese pythons, both experiences in the laboratory of Professor of biological sciences Michael Grace.
An active volunteer in the medical field, she has worked in the Holmes Regional Medical Center emergency room in Melbourne and in the surgical recovery unit at Saint Mary’s Medical Center in Langhorne.
Her career goal is to become a physician’s assistant.
PHOTO CAP: Brittany Reinard
