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Kristi Coleman is a graduating senior at New Mexico
Tech who is finishing up her bachelor’s degree in biology at the
university and is going on to an even greater challenge: medical school.
Kristi, a native of Alamogordo, plans on attending
the University of Cincinnati Medical School this coming fall semester,
but says she “ . . . will definitely be coming back to practice
in New Mexico.”
For a few tense weeks this past fall semester at Tech,
however, her dream of becoming a doctor was put in limbo, or so it seemed.
Kristi had been anxiously trying to figure out how she
was going to pay for the application fees for medical school—totaling
well over $2,000—and how she was going to pay for her plane tickets
to and from Cincinnati for the required interview.
She had been attending New Mexico Tech on a Silver Scholarship,
which had covered most of her tuition and fees over the years, but she
wasn’t sure how she would be able to handle this new looming bill
standing between her and medical school.
“But then a past New Mexico Tech physics student
who I knew told me about the President’s Tuition Assistance Fund,”
Kristi says, “so I thought I might also be eligible considering
my situation, and decided to apply for it.”
After reviewing the particulars of the submitted application,
New Mexico Tech President Daniel H. López deemed that Kristi’s
special situation required immediate financial assistance and cleared
the way for her to receive help.
“There have been a lot of hard times financially
over the past four years,” Kristi relates, “but that particular
point in my life was definitely the hardest.”
With the financial aid provided through the President’s
Office, Kristi was able to apply to medical school, travel to her application
interview, and begin realizing her dream of becoming a doctor.
While at New Mexico Tech, Kristi has worked the past
three years in the university’s microbiology laboratory, assisting
Tech biology professor Tom Kieft with his ongoing work on microorganisms
that live in extreme environments.
“Because of my involvement with this research,
I’ve had the opportunity to attend an international workshop in
South Africa, where I retrieved samples of microorganisms from the bottom
of a three-kilometer-deep gold mine,” Kristi says. “I’ve
also presented an abstract and poster on that particular aspect of our
research at a recent American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.”
Kristi serves as the president of the local chapter
of Tri Beta, the national honor society for biology students.
In addition, she works weekends at the Socorro General
Hospital and weeknights at “Curves,” a local gymnasium and
spa for women.
“I chose to come to New Mexico Tech while I was
still at Alamogordo High School,” Kristi recounts, “not only
because it was the least expensive school in the state, but because it
was the best school in New Mexico.” |
