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Teen's lab trials snag a scholarship

The Springstead High senior's success in research has helped her earn a full ride to Harvard.

By VALERIE TAYLOR
Published May 25, 2005

SPRING HILL - One of Hernando County's brightest scholars is ending her high school career with an impressive list of accolades.

First, Springstead High graduating senior Megan Bartlett took one of the fourth-place finishes in the botany category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair earlier this month. Her research project investigated the effects of different growing conditions on the firmness, diameter, sugar content and pH of ripening grapes.

Held in Arizona, the fair attracted about 1,400 young scientists from more than 40 countries.

"I was amazed (at the honor). To place in a group like that is just really stunning," Megan said."There were incredible projects there. About a tenth of them are patenting their projects, and a lot of them are continuing on their research in college."

Megan, 17, will continue as a research scientist in botany, although she will no longer be working in the area of grapes. She's headed for Harvard University, where she was granted a full scholarship - four years, all expenses paid. She will study biology.

Megan says she is amazed at the good fortune of being selected to her No. 1 choice.

"They only took 9 percent of the people who applied," she said. "It's very hard to get in to."

Craig Gates, Megan's science teacher, isn't surprised by the accomplishments of his star student. Gates has known Megan since he invited her to participate in the state science fair after he saw the eighth-grader's project in the regional competition.

Megan had been homeschooled, and because he saw the beginnings of a budding scientist, Gates invited her to join Springstead High and his research class, the only one in Hernando County.

As he does with all his research class students, he paired Megan with someone in the community who had expertise in the area of her interest. For Megan, that was a mentor at the Hernando County Extension Service.

"She quickly outgrew us," Gates said.

He has seen the little "Smurf," as he called her, blossom into, not only a scientist, but "academically, probably the best student I've ever had," he said. "She's just as good in literature as she is in science. And that's unique."

Carrying a weighted GPA of 4.641, the Springstead valedictorian's resume lists honors and awards that range from science to leadership. She was named Hernando County's Sunshine State Scholar earlier this year for being tops in math and science, and received the Springstead High Principal's Leadership Award.

Somewhere between studying and science fairs, Megan found time to be involved in her community. She volunteers for activities such as the Bakas Center Horses for the Handicapped, Special Olympics Bowling, American Cancer Society's Relay for Life Walk-a-Thon, the school newspaper and other community activities as a member of the Beta Club.

She is also a fiddler in the Perfectly At Home Band, which performs old-time and Irish music in concerts and competes around the state. And, yes, her fiddle will accompany her to Harvard.

If all that sounds like a lot of hard work, Megan has a simple answer.

"I love what I'm doing. I love the field of biology, so that isn't really work for me. And all the activities I'm involved in are things I like to do," she said. "It doesn't seem like a chore. It's just something I'm glad I had the opportunity to do."

Megan has been invited to participate in several science summer programs, including the Summer Science and Engineering Program at Clemson University, S.C., and the Young Scholar's Program at the University of California, Davis, where she contributed to their science lab's project in grape development.

She used what she learned in an earlier science project, "The effects of iron deficiency and excess on zinc uptake and translocation in water hyacinth," to refine the grape experiment and produce the current project that investigates grapes' maturity under various growing conditions.

"It was the hyacinth project that caught the eye of the University of California, and the grapes project that got her the Harvard scholarship," Gates said.

The hyacinth project also impressed a group of scientists half a globe away. That led to an invitation to conduct research this summer alongside some of the world's brightest scientists at the prestigious Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

Megan is one of only four students in the world chosen for this particular summer program, which is a collaborative effort between the Weizmann Institute and Intel.

"(The Weizmann Institute) is the top research institute in the world," said a delighted Gates. "Almost everybody who goes there, as Megan is doing, has won a Nobel Prize sometime in their lifetime," he said. "I think we're just beginning to hear about her."

[Last modified May 25, 2005, 19:49:18]