Old Dominion student Kristine A. Gonzalez has been named to the third team of USA Today's 1999 All-USA College Academic Team, the first time an Old Dominion student has been so honored.

It is the third prestigious award won by an Old Dominion student in recent years: Samantha Salvia was named the university's first Rhodes scholar in 1996 and Kendra Langlois was chosen as the university's first Truman Scholar in 1998.

Gonzalez, a senior biological sciences major from Suffolk, was one of 80 chosen from among 983 applicants nominated by colleges and universities across the country. Judges - all educators - considered grades, academic honors, leadership roles on and off campus, students' use of their talents beyond the classroom and the ability to express themselves in writing.

With a cumulative grade point average of 3.84, Gonzalez has been on the Dean's Perfect Scholar List two semesters and on the Dean's List six semesters. She is a recipient of the Old Dominion Honors College Undergraduate Research Award and was the Old Dominion representative for the National Conference of Undergraduate Research. In addition, she is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Golden Key National Honor Society and Beta Beta Biological Honor Society.

On campus, Gonzalez has served on the Student Senate, as a residence assistant, as president of the Academic Honors Association and as a leader with Young Life Campus Fellowship. She is a member of the Pre-Health Club.

Her community activities include serving as a volunteer for the Young Life program at Norfolk Academy High School, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and Louise Obici Memorial Hospital and as a Youth Counselor at the Suffolk YMCA.

In her nomination essay, Gonzalez, who hopes to pursue a career as an academic pediatrician in infectious disease, described a research project for which she determined the effectiveness of counseling on new mothers' initiation and duration of breastfeeding, an important strategy for protecting infants against disease.

During the summers of 1997 and 1998, Gonzalez took part in the student program at the Center for Pediatric Research, a division of Eastern Virginia Medical School and Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters, where she was exposed to a variety of pediatric medicine fields.