OLD DOMINION SENIORS NOMINATED FOR USA TODAY'S ALL-USA COLLEGE TEAM
Two prospective physicians are this year's nominees from Old Dominion University for the USA Today All-USA College Academic Team.
Seniors Rosemarie Liu and Christopher Smith were chosen from a group of several Old Dominion students who were nominated for the distinction. Liu and Smith each received a $200 book stipend from the university.
USA Today honors outstanding students annually with its All-USA College Academic Team. The 10 students selected to the All-USA First Team will be featured in the newspaper and receive a $2,500 cash award. Forty runners-up will be named to the Second and Third Teams. They will receive certificates of achievement and have their names announced in the newspaper.
Liu, a biological sciences major from Burke, Va., 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 EVMS.
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.
Smith, a former Navy SEAL from Virginia Beach, also is a biology major and plans to pursue a career as an orthopedic surgeon. He is president of the Old Dominion Pre-Health Club and platoon commander of the Naval ROTC Hampton Roads unit, which is headquartered at the university.
Smith collected pledges for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and ran in the Marine Corps Marathon Oct. 28. His father-in-law, a retired Marine
Corps officer, was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma and received months of radiation treatments. He is now in remission.
The All-USA College Academic Team competition is open to full-time undergraduates at four-year institutions in the United States and its territories. Winners will be announced in February.
Kristine Gonzalez, a 1999 Old Dominion graduate from Suffolk, was named to USA Today's Third Team in 1999.