Every year, Nebraska Cures recognizes college students in the INBRE program with Holland Future Scientist Awards. Ten students receive a total of $5000 in awards. Meet three of our honorees.

University of Nebraska Lincoln junior Brigid Toomey received one of the first place Holland Future Scientist Awards. Toomey grew up with a relative who was diagnosed with leukemia. This made her interested in medical terms and treatments. Now, she is majoring in Biological Sciences with minors in Bio-Chemistry and French.

“Her story inspired me to do what I do. She is still with us, but she’s at a point where her medical treatment is getting to be more difficult because they’re running out of medication for her. That’s why I started getting into research in medicine and biology to further advance the biology field, especially for her,” said Toomey.

Winning the Holland Award means a lot to Toomey, because she spent so much time working with others to prepare and present her research. “Winning the award built so much confidence in me and my scientific practices and skills. It also gave me so much confidence in public speaking and myself in general,” said Toomey.

University of Nebraska Omaha senior Abigail Swoboda was one of the winners of the Holland Future Scientist Award. Swoboda is pursuing a Molecular and Biomedical Biology major, as well as an English major. Swoboda loved presenting her project as much as creating it.

“Getting the Holland Award just put the cherry on top because it was a total surprise and it validated my excitement for my research. I had a lot of fun just standing at my poster and seeing everyone so interested in my project and being able to answer their questions. After the presentation, I got to go back to my mentor and discuss the questions I was asked to enhance my project further and do research on the questions I got,” said Swoboda.

Swoboda’s advice for anyone working to achieve this award is to “keep trying new things. Keep opening up your mind to new experiences. It can be hard to try new things, but you never know until you try. There’s so many lessons to learn from this, so continue to reach beyond the stars.”

University of Kearney student Noah Shackelford is pursuing a degree in Molecular Biology and is on the pre-medicine track. Growing up, Shackelford was always into science, and he wanted to execute his life-long passion in his presentation.

“Winning the Holland Award meant so much to me. I wasn’t sure if I’d win because my project was chemistry-based, and I wasn’t sure if non-chemists would like it as much. I’m very glad they did, as I spent a lot of time over the summer working to get to where I am now,” said Shackelford.

Shackelford wants to encourage anyone working for this award by telling them to “not focus too hard on trying to earn the award, but to focus more on making a great presentation people will enjoy. The award will come to you.”