Herricks High School valedictorian Sarah Chapin is eagerly anticipating the next stage of her educational career.
That will begin in late August when she goes to Cambridge, Mass. to start studying biomedical engineering at Harvard University.
“It feels very good. It’s exciting to know that I’m going to start on a new chapter in my life,” Chapin said earlier this week.
After she officially graduates in a ceremony at Herricks High School on Thursday, Chaplin will be going back to Stony Brook University to continue research work that she was engaged in last summer.
The objective of her research was to identify chemical compounds that could inhibits the growth of clostridium botulinum bacteria that causes botulism, a rare illness that is usually carried in improperly canned or preserved food. There are seven different sero types for botulinum – and an antidote has yet to be discovered.
That research led to Chapin receiving a $1,000 award in the Siemens Math, Science and Technology Competition and recognition as an Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist. The months of work she put in on that project in the laboratory and in preparing a 20-page research paper about that research project were a great source of satisfaction to her.
“I’m proud of the work that I did that got me to Intel and Siemens. I really enjoyed doing that,” she said.
Chapin, who studied in the Herricks science research program through all four years of high school, is looking forward to spending more time in the lab at Stony Brook this summer.
“It’s a fun thing because there’ll be kids that I know there,” she said.
Science isn’t her only strong suit. Chapin was also co-editor-in-chief of the high school newspaper and editor-in-chief of the school’s math magazine. She has participated in the Herricks math honors research program and won gold and silver medals at the Long Island Math Fair.
A National Merit finalist, she graduated Herricks with a 4.18 grade point average.
Chapin is also an accomplished musician who plays both viola and violin.
In her free time, she said she likes to hang out with her friends. And she said she’ll find time to take a break and do just that in August, after her lab research work and before Harvard.
