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HONOLULU—June 1, 2007--Chaminade University undergraduate student Charissa Kahue was recently honored by the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) along with nearly 80 other undergraduate students from across the nation for their undergraduate research. Kahue was the only one from Hawaii invited recently to present her independent research to members of Congress, federal agency funding officers and special guests at CUR’s Posters-On-the Hill event in Washington, D.C.
The Chaminade senior was honored for her biomedical research with the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital department of biochemistry in Memphis, TN. During summer of 2006, she collaborated with a postdoctoral fellow on a research project involving novel drug therapy for imatinib-resistant chronic myelogenous leukemia at St. Jude. She also collaboratively published with fellow researchers in the Journal of the American Society of Hematology this year on the results from their recent hematological anti-cancer research.
Student presenters were competitively chosen from 400 applicants who submitted their research results in science, mathematics and humanities. Research had been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NASA and many other federal, state and private agencies. “The actual Posters on the Hill event was significant because it showcased undergraduate research from all over the country,” said Kahue’s Chaminade advisor Professor Patricia Lee-Robinson. “Students shared the importance of funding undergraduate research with congressional leaders and networked with high-ranking members of national agencies and major research corporations.”
Kahue met with Hawaii’s congressional members and their staffs. “I was impressed how they all took time out of their heavy schedules to meet with me,” Kahue said.
Kahue spent nearly a hundred hours preparing for her presentation, excluding the actual time it took for travel, presentation and follow up correspondence and thank you packets. “The application process, submitting an abstract, preparing a poster presentation, scheduling appointments with members of congress meant lots of work but was well worth it,” said Kahue. “It was good for me and good for Chaminade because it was an opportunity to forge a bridge for future undergraduate students and research,” she said.
Kahue will do research at Yale University School of Medicine this summer and return to Chaminade in fall. She will graduate from Chaminade in December 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in science, majoring in biology and hopes to do post baccalaureate research with the National Institutes of Health and attend medical school.
Sen. Daniel Akaka met with Charissa Kahue twice. “He shared stories with me of his grandson who worked at the National Institutes of Health and became a doctor,” she said.
