Aug. 13, 2010
Van Ausdall's Research Photo Gallery
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. --- Over the course of the summer, Samford distance runner Jessica Van Ausdall traded in her running shoes for waders and spent time collecting specimens in Shades Creek across from the Samford University campus. It is part of an eight-week genetics research project, funded by the Samford Undergraduate Research Program, to investigate the mechanism of killer paramecium.
The Samford Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) is a six-year old program and is currently a priority educational opportunity for students in the Howard College of Arts and Sciences. SURP is a one-on-one guided research experience where a student invests a summer working with a Samford professor on a mutually agreed upon research topic.
From her first course in Genetics to a later course, Experimental Genetics, Van Ausdall's passion and interest in the field grew exponentially. Last semester, she worked closely with Samford biology professor Dr. Dave Johnson on a similar project. She expressed interest in doing more research and he suggested that she apply for the research grant program. Now, Van Ausdall is the program's biggest advocate.
"It's probably the best program that Samford could offer," Van Ausdall said, "and it's just newly developing. I'm so glad that I did it."
Van Ausdall has been given complete creative freedom in how she goes about her research. Johnson supervises as she makes up the plans for what the next step in her process will be. She seeks advice from Johnson when she needs it, but she has been given free rein on any kind of innovation. Also through this program, Van Ausdall has had the opportunity to expand her knowledge in the field of genetics as well as her passion for life and learning.
"I've learned so much," Van Ausdall said. "Basically, you get so used to sitting in college and taking these courses, and memorizing stuff. In this program, you start thinking as you're going to need to be thinking in your job. You get real world experience, you make connections with people. It's basically been this huge branching out opportunity for me."
Before coming to Samford, the native of Laselva Beach, Calif., had her mind set on majoring in architecture, but Samford does not offer an architecture program. She still stayed on course toward Samford, though, because she wanted to run cross country and track. She loved the campus, the people and the coaching style. So she settled on Samford's biology major instead.
She graduated in May with her undergraduate degree in biology and is on track to start the Environmental Management master's degree program. Van Ausdall said she eventually wants to get her doctorate in genetics and become a professor at a small college like Samford. She appreciates the one-on-one attention from professors that institutions like Samford has afforded her and longs to be on the other end of that equation some day.
"Ever since I took a trip to Peru with some of the professors here, I've wanted to be able to do that," Van Ausdall said. "To take students to different places and show them all sorts of cool things about the environment. I think that would be great! I like to see people learning and progressing."
Van Ausdall's summer at the creek has not been absent of interesting stories outside of the genetics field. From running from snakes to constantly answering questions from trail runners, she has an arsenal of stories to tell.
"The first time I walked down to the creek I kept hearing someone trying to talk to me, and I looked up and there were two guys sitting under the bridge," Van Ausdall said. "They asked if I was trying to catch crawfish and I told them no and that I was collecting specimen for research. Now they sit and talk to me about my research when I go down to collect."
Van Ausdall's academic passion has also caught the attention of Samford President Andrew Westmoreland. He featured the distance runner in a late-July issue of his weekly Monday Mission email.
In the feature, Van Ausdall's mentor, Johnson, is quoted, saying:
"Nothing gives me greater joy than to watch a student become passionately committed to a field of study...Through her independent research project, she has made the critical move from learning about science to thinking like a scientist...She has definitely found her calling."
In her career at Samford, Van Ausdall has been a consistent contributor to the success of the Samford cross country and track and field programs. Although she battled injury for the first two years of her cross country career here, she had two successful seasons in the last two years and has run in every conference championship since she arrived in 2006.
She finished in the top 25 in both the 2006 OVC Championship and the 2008 SoCon Championship before helping her team to its first-ever SoCon Cross Country Championship title in 2009. She placed 19th in that meet, fourth-best on the team.
In track and field, she set the school record for the indoor 1000 meters (3:00.76) this year and shares the school record with three other Bulldogs for the indoor distance medley relay (11:52.69), set last season. She has earned All-SoCon honors in the last two SoCon Indoor Championships, in the DMR in 2009 and in the mile in 2010. She has also been a consistent top runner in the 800 meters and the 1500 meters in both indoor and outdoor track.
Van Ausdall has exhausted her cross country eligibility but still has one more year left in outdoor track. She will compete with the Bulldog women in the spring and hopes to excel in that field as she has done in the classroom.
