Photo by Chuck Thomas

Rosemarie Liu, a biological sciences major, was named recently to the Third Team of the USA Today All-USA College Academic Team.

She and three other Old Dominion students who were nominated for the distinction received a $200 book stipend from the university. All are students in the university's Honors College.

A senior from Burke, Va., Liu is enrolled in the joint Old Dominion University/Eastern Virginia Medical School program in medicine. The B.S. to M.D. program offers qualified students admission to the university and, upon graduation, guaranteed admission to the Norfolk medical school.

Liu's goal is to become a family physician and a concert violinist. She has studied violin at the Universitat Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, one of the most prestigious music conservatories in the world. She also was named concertmistress of the Salzburg University Orchestra last year.

She was the first student in Old Dominion history to make it as a national finalist in this year's British Marshall Scholarship competition, and this spring she was entered in a national competition for a Phi Kappa Phi Fellowship.

Liu is the second Old Dominion student in the exclusive program's 13-year history to be named to the USA Today teams. Kristine Gonzalez, a 1999 graduate from Suffolk, was named to the Third Team three years ago.

USA Today honors outstanding students annually with its All-USA College Academic Team. The 10 students selected to the All-USA First Team are featured in the newspaper and receive a $2,500 cash award. Forty runners-up are named to the Second and Third Teams. They receive certificates of achievement and have their names announced in the newspaper.

The All-USA College Academic Team competition is open to full-time undergraduates at four-year institutions in the United States and its territories.