From cancer research to musical composition, two ASU undergraduate students are showing the nation what they're made of.
USA Today honored ASU fine arts senior Scott MacIntyre and recent bioengineering graduate Jared Niska as two of the top undergraduates in the nation. The newspaper named the two students to its 2005 All-USA Academic Team.
The two students join a growing list of ASU undergraduates who have won the award.
USA Today has recognized at least one ASU undergraduate as a top student every year for the past five years. Eleven ASU students have been on the All-USA Academic Team, the most from any public university.
MacIntyre was named to the newspaper's first team and received a $2,500 award, while Niska was named to the second team.
"[The award] means the world to me," MacIntyre said. "Not only to be one of the top-20 students, but also to be considered a productive member of society."
MacIntyre, who entered ASU when he was 14, will be graduating in May at age 19. He will then study classical music for two years in the United Kingdom.
He is also a winner of the Marshall Scholarship, a Rhodes scholarship semi-finalist and is one of three finalists for the Fulbright Scholarship.
"When it rains, it pours," MacIntyre said.
Niska graduated in December and plans to attend medical school in late summer. His focus is studying aggressive cancers.
He also won the Goldwater Scholarship, which is awarded by the Excellence in Education Foundation.
The national recognition was a part of the criteria for the USA Today award.
"You have to take those first steps," Niska said.
Janet Burke, director of the Office of National Scholarship Advising, nominated the students for the award. Both students have worked with Burke throughout their academic careers.
MacIntyre and Niska were notified that they had won the award about a week prior to the Feb. 17 article in the newspaper.
Both students were featured on ASU's Web site with large photographs and a story.
"Whenever your face is placed on the home page of the ASU Web site, it is very probably inevitable that people will make some mention of it," Niska said.
Reach the reporter at katherine.ruark@asu.edu.
