2 Fayetteville grads get Goldwater scholarships

Two graduates of Fayetteville High School have been named Goldwater scholars, a nationally competitive honor for college undergraduates studying science, mathematics or engineering.

University of Arkansas, Fayetteville junior Olga Brazhkina and University of Tulsa junior Sarah Sullivan have won awards of up to $7,500 given by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation.

Goldwater scholarships are based on academic merit, with 211 awards given out for the 2018-19 academic year.

The foundation does not track the high schools of students winning awards, said Executive Administrator Lucy Decher. But she said having two unrelated winners from the same high school is "really an unusual occurrence."

Brazhkina is an honors biomedical engineering major who conducts research in UA's Cardiovascular Biomechanics Laboratory.

In an email, she praised the "wonderful teachers" at Fayetteville High School, where she and Sullivan shared many classes, she said.

"Teachers leave a significant foundation in their students that lead to successes down the road. This was clearly the case with Sarah and I, as we took advantage of most of the AP courses offered on campus, which led us to a high-achieving path in college," Brazhkina said.

In a statement released by UA, Brazhkina said the scholarship "will help me reach my eventual goals of creating advanced methods to solve some of the world's most complicated medical problems while motivating others, especially women, to engage in similar work."

Sullivan studies biochemistry and has done cancer-related research.

"I hope to have my own biochemistry laboratory and explore the role of protein glycosylation in tumor progression," Sullivan said in a statement released by the University of Tulsa.

Metro on 05/03/2018

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