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Awards to Outstanding ScholarsThe Selection Committee for Outstanding Scholars considers grade point average, curriculum, academic awards, research projects or honors thesis.Four-year scholars must have started as freshmen at UF and have no more than minimal work at other institutions.Yasmin IslamFour-Year ScholarWhen it came time forYasmin Islam to enroll at theUniversity of Florida, herfather told her, “Remember,you’re going to college tolearn.” She took her father’sadvice to heart.Ms. Islam excelled inher studies — majoring ininterdisciplinary biological and medical sciences witha minor in business administration. She learned tobalance schoolwork, a social life and sleep, and alongthe way maintained a 4.0 GPA. Ms. Islam delighted inUF’s wealth of academic opportunities. Despite heralready rigorous coursework, she enrolled in otherclasses to stimulate her critical thinking: advertising,literature and others. Those diverse classes allowedher to explore new intellectual avenues.field. Ms. Islam is continuing her academic endeavorsat UF’s College of Medicine and hopes to earn hermedical degree in 2017. She is looking forward to afuture in medicine.“A true scholar,” she wrote, “fills her own brain withknowledge, seeks to contribute in her own small wayto the knowledge base, and also helps others achieveacademic success. My experience at UF has been aculmination of trying to fulfill those three scholarlyroles.”After her freshman year, Ms. Islam began researchingspinal cord injuries. That research became the basisof her thesis. Ms. Islam continued conductingresearch, by investigating cardiac development in thehope that a future researcher will use the informationshe has uncovered to make even more gains in the2014 SPRINGCommencement22