K-State Students Named to USA Today Academic Team
Wednesday, February 15th, 2006
MANHATTAN – Karla Kepley, a Kansas State University senior in dietetics and gerontology, Thayer, has been named to USA Today’s 2006 All-USA College Academic Third Team. Matthew Basel, a K-State senior in chemistry, biology and biochemistry, Overland Park, is an honorable mention selection.
This is the 17th annual team program. Each February, USA Today honors 20 undergraduate academic all-stars as its All-USA College Academic Team. Forty runners-up are named to the second and third teams. In addition, 23 students were selected as honorable mentions.
The academic team is for full-time undergraduate students seeking their first baccalaureate degree at a four-year institution. Undergraduates must excel in scholarship and extend their intellectual abilities beyond the classroom to benefit society. Criteria include grade point average, academic rigor, leadership, activities and an essay describing the student’s most outstanding intellectual endeavor done while in college.
Kepley is member of the College of Human Ecology Honors Program, Kappa Omicron Nu and Phi Upsilon Omicron honors societies and was named the College of Human Ecology student of the month for October 2004. She is a College of Human Ecology Dean’s Scholar and a K-State Leadership Scholar.
In summer 2005, she traveled to Botswana for a mentoring experience with a K-State dietetics alumna. There, Kepley developed nutritional baselines and an overview of diseases from a dietitian’s perspective while working primarily at a hospital in Gaborone. Her projects included compiling food composition information for selected items found in area grocery stores.
She has served as president of the K-State Student Dietetic Association, open house chair of the College of Human Ecology Ambassadors, scholarship chair of Alpha of Clovia Inc. and as a member of the College of Human Ecology Council, K-State Community Service Club, Alpha Gamma Epsilon Gerontology Club and Christian Challenge. She also is an affiliate member of the American Dietetic Association and Kansas Dietetic Association and a student member of the Kaw Valley Dietetic Association.
Her community service work has included being a Sunday school teacher at the Faith Evangelical Free Church in Manhattan; foods and nutrition project leader with the Meadowlark and Neosho County 4-H clubs; tutor with K-State’s Community Service Program at Ogden Elementary School; dietary assistant with the Neosho County Regional Medical Center and Missouri Habilitation Center; and site assistant manager for the Southeast Kansas Area Agency on Aging’s Meals on Wheels program.
At K-State’s 10th annual Graduate Student Council Graduate Research Forum in spring 2005, Kepley was named second place undergraduate winner for her research poster, “This is your life: Using food and nutrition histories as a nutrition education method for older adults.”
She is a 2002 graduate of Thayer High School and is the daughter of Jim Kepley, Chanute, and Cindy Stiles, Thayer.
Basel is a K-State honor’s list student and a member of Phi Kappa Phi national honorary. The recipient of a 2005 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, Basel also has received K-State’s Putnam Scholarship and the King Scholarship from the department of chemistry. He is involved in physical and bioorganic chemistry research with Stefan Bossmann, K-State professor of chemistry. Basel is a leader with Awana Boys and Girls Club and the Boy Scouts of America.
His future aspirations include earning his doctorate in cell/molecular biology or biochemistry and conducting research on cancer and cancer therapy at a university or research institute.
Basel is a 2003 graduate of Kansas City Christian School in Prairie Village. He is the son of Christopher Basel and the late Kathy Basel of Overland Park.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 15th, 2006 and is filed under Congratulations.