After growing up in Fairbanks, Alaska, Ella Bailey answered a calling that made others smile: training to be a dentist. Thanks to the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) scholarship, she developed a sweet tooth for Oregon State University.

With intensive training, job shadow opportunities and lifelong connections, her dreams were becoming a reality. But after her mother received a breast cancer diagnosis, Bailey wanted to drop out.

“Seeing your mom sick is really hard. I was supposed to come back to Oregon for training and work, but I didn’t end up coming. I was going to drop out and take time off, but my mom said I can’t, I have to go to school,” she said.

With her mother’s encouragement, she didn’t let anything stop her from learning how to be a dentist. She kept going. She built a support network and gained volunteer field experience during her time at Oregon State. And it was worth it.

Bailey is ready to graduate this spring with a bachelor’s degree in biohealth sciences. Over the next 10 years, she plans to complete dental school, own her own dental office and set up free volunteer dental clinics in Alaska.

“Crazy things happen to you in life and you just have to push through because you have no control over it. But after all of that, my mom is okay,” she said. “Now, my mom advocates for women’s health and goes to a conference in Washington D.C every year.”

The College of Science gathered on Feb. 26 to recognize and celebrate our high achieving faculty and staff at the 2025 Combined Awards Ceremony. The evening celebrated the very best in the College, from teaching, advising and research to inclusive excellence, administration and service.

The following faculty and staff received awards in Inclusive Excellence, Administration, Service and Performance.

Congratulations to all the awardees!

When an autistic high-school student meets an autistic science mentor, a whole new world of possibilities opens. When a shy high-school student is encouraged to embrace curiosity and ask questions, their path to college gets easier to navigate. And when an underrepresented high-school student is given a scholarship to attend a microbiology STEM camp, it can change their world.

The Leidholdt Microbiology Summer Camp (previously the Pernot Camp), held by the Department of Microbiology on the OSU Corvallis campus, is a transformative, once-in-a-lifetime summer experience for historically underrepresented or underserved high school students aspiring toward STEM careers.

Growing up as a low-income Hispanic person in rural Montana, camp creator and past director Savanah Leidholt (‘22-23) witnessed the lack of STEM opportunities for youth in these demographics and decided to take action after becoming a graduate student at Oregon State. She created a week-long immersive science camp, where a younger version of herself would have thrived.

LGBTQ+, women, BIPOC, low-income and other students from diverse backgrounds are welcomed into a safe space to explore microbiology. Students learn about three subfields of the discipline, including Food System Science, Human Health and Disease, and Aquatic Microbiology. Participants conduct microbiology-focused lab experiments, go on field trips and hear from diverse speakers about career avenues and opportunities in STEM.

“Even their ability to ask questions grows. I know it's difficult to ask questions but by the end of the camp, these students are conversing with us and just ready to ask questions and learn."

In the first year of the camp, held in 2022, students learned how to use pipettes, the small glass or plastic tubes used in labs. They also collected cheek cell swabs, extracted DNA from potato salad, toured Corvallis’ wastewater facility and applied microbiology to arts and crafts.

“This camp gives students a safe space to be curious, grow their confidence, work with their peers and find out what they like and don’t like,” said microbiology graduate student Sunni Patton, the camp director in 2024. “It provides experiential learning opportunities for students who would otherwise not be able to participate.”

Most students don’t experience a microbiology lab until college. The Pernot camp allows them to see more career avenues. “It’s a way to open new interests and hobbies. A way to expand, open doors and make friends,” wrote one student who said they would recommend the camp to their friends.

"I liked that one of the mentors is autistic; it makes me feel welcomed as someone with autism,” wrote another student.

Microbiology graduate student Savanah Leidholt understands the importance of diversity.

As an undergraduate at Montana State University-Bozeman, Leidholt was a McNair Scholar, a program funded through the U.S. Department of Education to increase graduate degree awards for students from first- generation or underrepresented segments of society.

You could say the program had an impact: Leidholt joined Rebecca Vega Thurber’s lab as an incoming Ph.D. student in 2019.

Now, she is helping to create similar opportunities for other young people. Just as microbial diversity is fundamental to the maintenance and conservation of global genetic resources, academic diversity is equally important, Leidholt said.

“As a Hispanic woman who grew up in rural Montana, I can attest firsthand to the lack of STEM opportunities available for these demographics,” she said.

This past summer, Leidholt set out to create a summer “bootcamp” for area high school students to draw more students from BIPOC, LGBTQ+, low-income and other diverse backgrounds to the study of microbiology.

Saki Nakai is not your average pre-med student. The graduating senior double majored in mathematics and psychology at OSU and has spent the last two terms studying abroad in France to complete a French minor. She is also one of two College of Science students and alumni to receive the 2022 Fulbright Student Award. This award will support Nakai for one year of independent study in cultural psychology at the University of Luxembourg.

Nakai was drawn to OSU for its Honors College and the opportunity to weave her diverse research interests into a thesis project. She started as a psychology major, but she became really interested in how math could be used to answer questions relevant to medicine and psychology.

Using math to support mental health

Completing the math major on top of her pre-med courses was a challenge, but Nakai is glad she did. “Sticking with the math major gave me a more enriching college experience,” she said. “The nature of the subject requires you to take time to do the homework, so people just naturally come together and collaborate in the Math and Statistics Learning Center (MSLC).”

Embracing teamwork and collaboration paid off for Nakai during the pandemic, when she took one of her hardest courses, MTH 343 Introduction to Modern Algebra, over Zoom.

“The entire class time is spent doing math problems, and the instructor Filix Maisch would hop around between Zoom rooms to help us,” she said. “I did struggle with it a lot, but the challenge really brings students together. I made some of my best math friends in that class.”

“Sticking with the math major gave me a more enriching college experience.”

Growing in confidence as a mathematician, Nakai took on research that combined her two majors, math and psychology, through the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Science program. Exclusive to the College of Science, SURE Science allows students of any year to get paid to do 11 weeks of full-time research over the summer with faculty from any college. Nakai completed a project using ordinary differential equations and dynamical systems theory to model bipolar disorder, under the mentorship of Vrushali Bokil, professor of mathematics and College of Science associate dean of graduate studies and research.

“SURE was a completely new perspective on medicine,” said Nakai. “The project was important to me because it was the first time I saw how I can use mathematics to actually answer questions in psychology and medicine, and that’s my ultimate career goal.”

Nakai also used applied math in her research project for the NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, a fully funded research experience which she completed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln summer of 2019. Nakai’s project investigated reciprocal and non-reciprocal support in an Inuit community in Labrador, Canada using social network analysis. “My poster won first place in sociology at the REU program, and I got to go to the Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM in Washington, D.C. to present it,” she said.

Cultural identities at home and abroad

Both of these projects were meaningful to Nakai because her motivation for pursing medicine is to help vulnerable populations and expand acceptance of diversity. Nakai was born in the U.S. to Japanese parents, so cross-cultural competence deeply informs her perspective. “That aspect of my personal experience has been a big part of the research I’ve done,” she said.

After high school, Nakai took a gap year to work in an international primary care clinic in Japan. “Since it was an international clinic, we had both Japanese- and English-speaking patients. The doctor spoke English, but some of the nurses didn’t,” she said. Nakai worked as both receptionist and translator wherever she was needed in the clinic.

Being immersed in both Japanese and U.S. cultures, Nakai researched some of their differences in her psychology coursework. She did a statistical analysis comparing the manifestation of shyness in Japan and the U.S. “Rates of shyness are higher in Japan, but a lot of it comes from cultural differences,” she said. Japanese culture is more collectivist, while the U.S. is more individualistic. How self-expressive or reserved people are is influenced by these cultural mindsets. Thus, we cannot apply the same scale to measure shyness in Japan that we would in the U.S.

“Doing that kind of research is empowering because it gives a voice to people who might not otherwise be heard,” Nakai said.

An internationally-informed physician

For the last six months, Nakai has been studying abroad at the University of Poitiers in west-central France. Living with a host family and studying exclusively French for six months has brought a new dimension to Nakai’s multicultural awareness.

Inspired by the experience, she will use her Fulbright award to complete a research project on cross-cultural psychology in Luxembourg, a small country that borders France, Germany, and Belgium. The project will explore identity construal and acculturation in American and Japanese expatriates living in Luxembourg’s unique multicultural and multilingual setting.

Nakai will use hybrid images and visual primes to analyze how people respond to cultural mixing. “I might show American participants a picture of a hamburger, a picture of a typical Luxembourgish lunch, and also a hybrid image, for example, a lunchbox with both. I can then ask them what they feel about these images, and with the hybrid image, do they think it’s the best of both worlds, or do they react to it with disgust?”

“Doing that kind of research is empowering because it gives a voice to people who might not otherwise be heard.”

Nakai has embraced living in the best of both worlds during her time in France. She and her host family have traded off cooking Japanese and French foods for each other. “I made sushi for them, and they were pretty fascinated by the whole process,” Nakai said. In return, they introduced her to delicious raclette and boeuf bourguignon.

Ultimately, Nakai wants to be a physician, and she anticipates that all of her multicultural experiences will enable her to be a dynamic, effective communicator with many different types of patients. She sees herself eventually serving Japanese-American communities in the U.S. “Multicultural Luxembourg will serve as a blueprint for the multicultural U.S. I want to make a society that would really value diversity,” she said.

Bruno Salas Garcia almost didn’t come to Oregon State. “I finished my application probably a week before moving into the dorm,” the Microbiology graduate said.

Salas was all set to go to the Oregon Institute of Technology dental hygiene program in Klamath Falls, Oregon, but as the school year approached, “I had a nagging feeling that something wasn’t right,” he said. His supportive and understanding parents encouraged him to trust his own judgment.

Aware that a four-year university would give him more career flexibility, Salas decided to make the switch. “I’m glad I took that leap of faith to come to OSU, even though it was late in the application cycle,” he said. “I still feel that it was the right decision.”

Getting involved makes all the difference

Once at Oregon State, Salas looked for a major that would prepare him for dental school but could also apply to other healthcare careers if his goals changed. He chose microbiology, because viruses, bacteria and other microbes sounded interesting, and he knew that many of the prerequisite courses for dental school were built into the major.

Salas had always done well in science classes and took coursework at community college in during high school. However, intro science coursework at OSU initially caught him off guard.

“Day one, the professor was like, ‘Oh you probably all already learned this, I’ll just go through it quickly.’ I was like, ‘no, I haven’t!’” Salas said. Not used to having to ask for extra help, he quickly became overwhelmed by his coursework.

“In high school, even though my teachers were great, I didn’t have a lot of direction,” he said. “I didn’t know how to ask for help. I always just did well, and they told me, ‘you’re doing great, just keep it up!’”

Salas’ first term at OSU was a challenge. Sacrificing sleep to catch up on all the new material, he entered survival mode. Although he had a few friends to rely on, overall he felt disconnected from the OSU community. “I was a little isolated. I was kind of just doing what I had to, to survive, in this mindset of, ‘I have to do everything myself.’”

A feeling of isolation was exacerbated by the fact that Salas was far from home and in a town many times larger than where he grew up. In Irrigon, a small town of 2,000 people that is four hours from Corvallis, Garcia’s graduating high school class had 40 people. Introductory science courses at OSU may have as many 500 students. Although many resources and programs exist to give students individualized attention, like the Learning Assistant program, it can be difficult to ask for help if you’re already feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

By a stroke of luck, someone from Salas’ high school happened to be living on the same floor his first year. This friend was part of the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP).

OSU’s federally funded program that supports students from migrant and seasonal farm worker backgrounds during their first year in college. CAMP provides advising, mentoring, health services, financial assistance, social activities and more.

Salas' friend recommended he join CAMP, too. “I thought ‘Yeah ok, I’m not going to do this. I’ll just go and humor them,’” Salas said. “Besides, classes would start in a few days. It's not like I’ll get in,” he thought. He was skeptical that university programs could add value to his busy life. Extracurricular activities seemed like meaningless requirements, and he didn’t want to contribute to anything he didn’t believe in.

Once at CAMP, Salas’ view began to change, particularly through the influence of CAMP Academic Counselor Alexsandra Cortés, who made a strong case for the importance of mentorship and community.

Through CAMP, Salas was assigned a peer mentor who understood his cultural context, his experience as a first-generation college student and the difficulties of transitioning from a rural, small town to a large public university. Getting involved with CAMP increased Salas’ sense of ownership of his college experience. “CAMP helped me feel more at home at Oregon State, and from there, it gave me the confidence to go and try all these other things,” he said.

“I get to help, in the same way I was helped so many years ago. I’m glad to be able to give back to the program that gave me so much early on.”

In the years to come, Salas got connected to the resources he needed for success. He started asking his teacher's assistants, learning assistants and professors for help early and often. Today, Garcia invests in his college community as a mentor for CAMP and a peer advisor at the College’s Science Success Center (SSC).

“I get to help, in the same way I was helped so many years ago,” he said of working with CAMP. “I’m glad to be able to give back to the program that gave me so much early on.”

In the College's Science Success Center, he led tours of campus for prospective students and their families. “I imagined myself being in the crowd,” he said, “If I were visiting, what I would want to hear? I try to get them to see aspects of a university that they want to go to in Oregon State.”

Salas is also the undergraduate representative for the College of Science Equity, Access and Inclusion (EAI) Leadership Council, the team that implements the College’s Diversity Action Plan. Garcia said Goal 3 of the plan is especially meaningful to him: “to create a welcoming college climate to support a sense of belonging and equitable learning and training experiences.” As someone who experienced firsthand the struggle of being disconnected and how it makes asking for help even harder, “I could use my own experiences to help realize that goal, especially with having a sense of belonging and community.”

Human dimensions of science

Mentoring his peers has challenged Salas to get more out of his coursework. Going to office hours paid off in one of his favorite classes, Virology with Hannah Rowe, assistant professor of microbiology.

“I loved the material and the class structure,” he said. “I went to office hours a lot. If I was completely lost on a topic, she wouldn’t just give me the lecture again but would help me conceptualize it better by using my own understanding and working from there.”

Salas has also been a teacher's assistant in the same microbiology classes that he used to struggle with. “I got to see students progress from ‘I don’t know how to use a microscope at all’ to being able to pick out what we’re trying to find on the slide by the end of the term and also troubleshoot their own problems they had with the microscope or material,” he said.

Helping people understand science and helping people through science have always been important for Salas. In high school, he chose this career path because of its ability to make a difference in people’s lives. “Around that time, a lot of my friends had braces,” he said. “I could tell they were a lot more confident when they got them off. People’s teeth have an impact on how you feel about how you look. I thought, as a dentist, I can help people be confident about themselves and be happy with who they are.”

The importance of dentistry was also highlighted by growing up in a small town, where the nearest dentist office was a 45-minute drive away. “I knew I wanted to do something local,” he said. “For me growing up, I thought that was normal. I thought everyone had to drive to get good healthcare.”

Salas’ interest in how healthcare disparities affect rural communities led him to complete a public health minor while at OSU. “I felt that it was important for me to understand what the healthcare system here in the U.S. entails,” he said. “Part of that is better understanding the determinants of health, especially the social, environmental, etc., aspects that have a big influence on one's health as well the structural and socioeconomic barriers to healthcare.”

Eventually, Salas may return to northeastern Oregon to bring accessible dental care to rural towns like Irrigon. For now, he’s headed to a summer research internship at the OHSU School of Dentistry. He plans to apply to dental school next fall and work as a dentist with a local practice.

Gabriela Cortes Cortes is proud not to have let any obstacle, including a pandemic or the challenges of a first-generation student, hold her back from earning a four-year degree in the College of Science.

She remembers feeling shy and lonely when she first arrived in Oregon from Mexico in seventh grade, knowing very little English and feeling lost in the classroom. A bilingual teacher came alongside her, helping her feel more welcome and connecting her with resources.

“By the end of the year, I was able to comprehend almost everything that was said by the teachers, and I knew what to expect from my classes and what to do – even though I still wasn’t confident enough to speak in English,” she said. “In my freshman year of high school, students were given Chromebook laptops, which enabled me to use Google Translate to help learn English.”

This spring, Cortes graduates from OSU with a major in BioHealth Sciences, a minor in chemistry and an option in pre-dentistry. Along the way, she’s placed on the OSU honor roll three times and was awarded two grants and three scholarships for her two years at OSU and her previous two years at Chemeketa Community College.

“My parents are always reminding me that I am capable of achieving my goals – even though sometimes subjects are really hard since English is my second language.”

Cortes is especially grateful to her Oregon State advisors and her Ford Family peer mentor for their encouragement and support. Reed Davis, an academic counselor for first-generation TRIO program students, referred her to many helpful resources on campus such as academic counseling, tutoring and mentoring programs, assistance with financial aid and scholarship application, and student success workshops.

Tiffany Bolman, her BioHealth Science advisor, coached her about the process of applying to dental school, offering to be an ongoing resource after graduation. And she encouraged Cortes to focus on her strengths and accomplishments, rather than on her disappointment at not moving forward faster.

“Tiffany really supported me, saying, ‘You came this far, and you should be proud of yourself.’ She told me that she also was a first-generation student and said, ‘I understand you, and know it's hard. I was myself in the same position.’ She identified with me, and I identify with her because she knows all the obstacles I've been through, like needing to learn English and being a first-generation student from a low-income family,” Cortes said.

Because of Covid, Cortes spent only two terms on campus in Corvallis before returning home to live with her family in Mount Angel. While she is sad that her on-campus experience was short-lived, she relished the time she lived with other students in university housing. “I am so glad I had that experience. I will never forget that,” she said.

After graduation, Cortes plans to take two gap years during which time she plans to enroll in a dental assisting program and apply to dental schools, including Oregon Health Sciences University.

Congratulations to the Oregon State College of Science Class of 2021! This class faced enormous challenges due to the pandemic. On the spur of the moment, the class of 2021 transitioned to remote learning, virtual interaction with professors, mentors, peers, friends and experiential learning in online formats. They have also faced increased financial burdens and other stressors. Our students have persevered, showing admirable determination, resilience and fortitude that will serve them well in their lives and careers.

Succeeding against odds while making history, College of Science graduates have found ways during this pandemic to participate and make an impact on state-wide public health endeavors through the TRACE-CVOID-19 project. They have gained enduring skills and done outstanding work in adapted science labs and with science communication in the virtual domain. Our seniors have been instrumental in helping Oregon State succeed at remote teaching in their roles as peer learning assistants and tutors.

Science graduates have led the way by dint of their academic achievements, selfless service and committed leadership. Supported by awards, scholarships and dedicated advisors, our seniors have collaborated with faculty mentors to create new knowledge and achieve major scientific breakthroughs.

Check out our Commencement page to celebrate our graduates. Read their compelling stories below containing reflections on undergraduate experiences at Oregon State and their dreams for the future.

This year’s graduates include Fulbright and Ford Foundation Fellows, Gilman International Scholars, NOAA Scholars, published scientific authors, future doctors, scientists, entrepreneurs, community leaders, teachers and informed, engaged world citizens. We are exceptionally proud of our students and all they have achieved during their career as undergraduates in the College of Science at Oregon State.

By the numbers

The College graduated 670 undergraduate students with baccalaureate degrees in 2020-21, including 68 Honors graduates. More than 80% (538) of our graduates were in the life sciences, with Biology having the most graduates at 199. BioHealth Sciences came in second with 152 graduates; biochemistry and molecular biology had 71 graduates; Zoology 63; Mathematics 56; Microbiology 43; Chemistry 42; Physics 34, and; Biochemistry and Biophysics graduated 10 students.

Of the total baccalaureate graduates, 11% are underrepresented minorities and 26% are first-generation students. In addition, 10 of the 2021 baccalaureate graduates are military veterans.

The College will also award 52 doctoral degrees, 66 master’s degrees and seven certificates in online Data Analytics.

Of the 52 doctoral degrees, Chemistry had 16 Ph.D. students, followed by Integrative Biology at 11; Mathematics 9; Physics 6; Microbiology 5; Statistics 4, and; Biochemistry and Biophysics graduated one doctoral student.

The Department of Statistics awarded 15 master's degrees in statistics and 19 M.S. degrees in data analytics. Chemistry and Mathematics awarded 10 master's degrees each. Physics had 6 master's degree recipients; Microbiology three; Biochemistry and Biophysics two, and; Integrative Biology awarded one master's degree this year.

Celebrating the Class of 2021

We invite you to read the profiles of our seniors. These outstanding graduates represent an inclusive and diverse learning community in the College of Science. Here they share their inspiring and unique journeys as science majors.

• Simone Burton, Integrative Biology
• Devonte Casey, Zoology
• Gabriela Cortes Cortes, BioHealth Sciences
• Ilana Gottfield-Lee, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Rohal Kakepoto, Physics
• Kendra Krebs, Microbiology
• Seth Pinckney, Biochemistry and Biophysics
• Jennifer Smucker, Mathematics
• Linus Unitan, Chemistry

Microbiology Ph.D. student Corbin Schuster’s interest in biomedical research – particularly the study of microorganisms and infectious diseases – kindled during his 10-week internship at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases in Bethesda while he was still an undergraduate at Heritage University in Washington state.

Today Schuster works with Professor of Microbiology Michael Kent in the Kent Lab to uncover the effects of the three most common infections in zebrafish and develop methods to prevent or control those diseases. He is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research Infrastructure Programs through the program Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research connected with Kent’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant, “Control and Impacts of Diseases in Zebrafish Research Facilities.” The highly productive Kent Lab is focused on two major research areas that shed light on chronic infectious diseases: diseases of zebrafish in research facilities and the impacts of pathogens on wild salmonid fishes.

"Dr. Kent keeps me motivated and gets me out of my comfort zone, whether it’s taking on leadership roles, talking about my project and results – even when they’re not what I expected, or influencing me to get involved in diversity activities on campus ..."

As a member of the Yakama Nation, Schuster is interested in the study of human diseases that have a higher incidence among Native peoples, such as toxoplasmosis (a parasitic infection), as well as diseases of salmon, which are central to the food, culture and religion of the Yakama people.

“[The grant provided] a unique experience in that I don’t feel that I have to separate my culture from my career. I’m really interested in working with the tribal community, and the program and the NIH both support that aspect of my research desires,” said Schuster, who is in the third year of his Ph.D. program.

His interest in the zebrafish model was sparked when he learned about the aquatic model’s use in studies of spinal cord regeneration. “I really saw the discoveries that we could possibly have with zebrafish. When I started looking at the genetics [of the model], it was even more mind-blowing,” he explained.

Schuster currently is developing a sensitive and specific nonlethal water test to detect a common parasite in zebrafish, Pseudoloma neurophilia. He also is using histology and molecular biology methods (polymerase chain reaction) to characterize disease transmission dynamics in fish. His research is important to the rigor and reproducibility of studies using zebrafish models because P. neurophilia occurs in about 50 percent of zebrafish research laboratories. Kent’s laboratory previously showed that subclinical infections of P. neurophilia in laboratory zebrafish may have implications for research outcomes as a confounding factor, especially in neurobehavioral research.

He also has the opportunity to work with the Oregon Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (OVDL) at OSU, which collaborates with Zebrafish International Resource Center where Kent is a co-investigator, to provide diagnostic services to the zebrafish research community. Dr. Justin Sanders, head of molecular diagnostics at OVDL, leads molecular diagnostics and also mentors Schuster, providing guidance regarding molecular aspects of Schuster’s research.

Schuster’s grant allows him to mentor undergraduate students in the laboratory, a role that Kent encourages. He also is involved in outreach to students in his hometown area, including those in tribal communities, to encourage their involvement in science careers.

“Dr. Kent keeps me motivated and gets me out of my comfort zone, whether it’s taking on leadership roles, talking about my project and results – even when they’re not what I expected, or influencing me to get involved in diversity activities on campus, including sharing concerns about decision-making as they relate to diversity,” Schuster said.

Schuster is preparing to submit his first peer-reviewed manuscript on his research with his mentors this year.