Noteworthy: A winner of the Wimmer Scholarship Competition that covered her undergraduate years at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, where she was named an Emerging Research Scholar, Nakles recently was accepted into the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine for her graduate studies. Nakles, who said Pitt was her top pick for graduate schools, is leaning toward a career in anesthesiology or neurology.

Age: 21

Residence: Unity

Family:Parents Jo Ellen Harr of Unity and Chris Nakles of Latrobe

Education: Greater Latrobe High School graduate in 2012; St. Vincent College graduate on May 7 with a degree in bioinformatics

Collegiate accomplishments: Nakles picked St. Vincent College not only because she was awarded a full scholarship, but because the small campus allowed her to have more individual attention from professors. She completed more than 100 research hours with a college associate professor in 2013. Nakles presented the results of her senior research project on anesthesiology last month during an academic conference. The research consisted of examining cancer and brain cells in rats. She shadowed an internist for 180 hours in 2014 and previously spent more than 200 hours volunteering at Excela Health Latrobe Hospital as an operating room assistant. Nakles was named to the Dean's List every semester at St. Vincent, where she tutored students in physiology and biochemistry. She was notified of her acceptance to Pitt by email on March 21.

Quote: “I was happy. I called all my relatives. I ran down to the science building to tell all my professors,” she said. “I'm just fascinated with pharmacology and how drugs exert their effects on people. It's a huge interest of mine.”

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