Catching up with Nicole Palmer
One gets the impression when talking to Nicole Palmer and reviewing what she's already achieved in her relatively short life, that the 21 year old can accomplish just about anything. She's that impressive.
A member of Huntington High School's Class of 2008, Ms. Palmer just completed her junior year at the University of Maryland at College Park, where she is majoring in cell biology and genetics.
"As I'm entering my senior year now, I have thought a lot about where I want to go from here," Ms. Palmer said last week. "I plan on going to either medical school or grad school and pursing research. Right now I am mostly leaning towards the field of immunology, but that could always change."
Last fall the Huntington alum completed several classes in her major, including General Chemistry 2, Molecular Genetics and Science Writing. She was also a teaching assistant for Anatomy 1, a class offered to students interested in pursuing nursing or physical therapy.
"I spent my time teaching a weekly three-hour lab session and was responsible for 24 students," Ms. Palmer said. "I really loved being a teaching assistant. It was a great experience and really helped improve my leadership and public speaking skills. I am going to be a teaching assistant again in the fall, for Anatomy 2 this time."
This past spring Ms. Palmer spent a semester studying at Charles University in Prague in the Czech Republic. It's Central Europe's oldest university and the city is crammed with history.
"Being in Prague was probably one of the most amazing times of my life," Ms. Palmer said. "It was a beautiful city and I learned so much about the culture of the Czech Republic. Since they were only so recently rid of communism, it really was like being in another world."
Ms. Palmer "milked" the experience aboard for every last drop she could get out of it. "While studying there I stepped outside of the sciences and took classes related more towards general study, such as Art and Architecture of Central and Eastern Europe, Globalization of Europe, a psychology course, and even Beginner Czech Intensive," she said.
Being in a foreign land, Ms. Palmer often needed to be flexible and to overcome obstacles. "Learning the Czech language was a huge challenge, but definitely was rewarding since very few people there speak English well," she said. "At the end of the semester, I was so glad that I chose to go to Prague over anywhere else. While visiting the rest of Europe was amazing, I always looked forward to being back in Prague."
Over the course of four years at Huntington High School, Ms. Palmer was active in a wide range of activities and earned varsity athletic letters in field hockey, fencing and track. She played with the Blue Devil marching band for three years and with the wind ensemble for four. She was also a four-year member of the student government and a member of the four different honor societies.
This summer is a busy time for Ms. Palmer, who stayed in Maryland to work at Adaptive Methods. "We are working on a biosensor that will be used for the detection of diseases in the future," she said.
Last summer Ms. Palmer spent her time working at an immunology lab at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, the research arm of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. She studied recurrent respiratory papilloma, "which I enjoyed very much," she said. "It really kick-started my interest in the field of immunology."
The Huntington grad earlier completed a stint volunteering at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. There she studied social interactions between Rhesus monkeys in the neuroscience department. Ms. Palmer participated in running prisoner dilemma-like games with the monkeys and noting their interactions with each other.
Ms. Palmer has two sisters currently attending Huntington High School. Samantha will enter her senior year in September and Olivia will be a sophomore.