The Mississippi State University professors of microbiology selected Hallie Renschler as the 2001-2002 recipient of the Horace H. Harned Sr. Memorial Scholarship earlier this month. Harned’s children established the scholarship in 1989 to honor Harned, who served from 1913 to 1958 as the head of the department of bacteriology, which later became the department of microbiology. Harned is also the namesake of the Harned biology building.
The $500 scholarship is given to the most outstanding junior or senior majoring in microbiology and is agreed upon by the microbiology professors.
The award is traditionally given to seniors.
Renschler said she is both honored and surprised to have received the scholarship, especially when she considers the competition.
“There are many people who are very smart and dedicated students in the microbiology major that I feel deserve the award,” she said. “I am so honored to get this award for that very reason.”
She credits much of her success as a student to her professors.
“The professors in the microbiology department have done an outstanding job in encouraging me to challenge myself with the material they are presenting and helping me to understand it in a way that I can retain it and take it with me when I graduate and move on,” Renschler said.
Dr. Frank Champlin, who coordinates the scholarship, is one of those professors. He said he admires the fact that she has known for years exactly what she wants to do.
Renschler, who is from Stuttgart, Ark., said she is interested in going to the University of Arkansas Medical School in Little Rock, about 60 miles away from home, after graduation.
After medical school, Renschler hopes to become an orthopedic surgeon. She said she was inspired to go into the field after working three summers with Dr. Herbert Hahn, of Ortho, Ark. in Little Rock, Ark.
“He was an inspiration to me in a sense of the medical profession in general; treated his patients with the most gentle and caring nature and it made me realize that my dream of helping people could be fulfilled best through orthopedics,” she said.
“I believe that my study habits and the discipline of going to class every day were advantageous to me,” she said. “I will always be a firm believer that going to class is the best thing a student can do for themselves in making the grade they want and learning what they have come here to learn.