Priyanka Jain Uses Her Johnson & Johnson Scholarship at Notre Dame

BDPA Education and Technology Foundation (BETF) is proud to announce that Johnson & Johnson awarded a $2,500 college scholarship to nine (9) students. One of those students is Priyanka Jain from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who will use the scholarship to support her study of chemical engineering at the University of Notre Dame.

Priyanka Jain

Priyanka’s high school accolades include founding a science bowl club to spread STEM awareness, captaining a Model UN team and several Science Olympiad events, serving as an ambassador to the National Society of High School Scholars, and being a member of several national honor societies. She is a Class of 2020 Hesburgh-Yusko Scholar and a National Merit scholar. She was a finalist for AXA Achievement Scholarships and was the only finalist from the state of New Mexico for the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation. She has a Minor Planet 33580 named after her by LINEAR Program of MIT Lincoln Lab. Priyanka has also been the JV Tennis team co-captain and loves to play piano and violin.

Priyanka has over 5 years of research experience in the field of Biomedical Engineering. She hopes to develop the next generation of cancer treatment and has been honored for her work at several national science fairs. Her recent project, focused on developing a novel cancer treatment, placed second in the Biomedical and Health category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

At Notre Dame, Priyanka is a rising sophomore with a hope to startup a Biotechnology company. She continues to do her research during the school year and volunteering work to make a lasting impact on her community. For summer of 2017, she volunteered for 9 weeks in clinical medicine and public health in remote areas of Peru, at an elevation of 8000 feet and areas impacted by recent massive flooding. She was involved in different surgeries, general patient care and checkups, as well as medical campaigns in remote areas to bring supplies and care to highly impoverished areas.

We asked Priyanka to share her thoughts about BDPA:

"Last year, I participate at BioGENEius competition and was honored by Ms. Seema Kumar, Vice President of Innovation, Global Health and Policy Communication, Johnson & Johnson, when I placed 2nd for my project on Cancer research. She had a quite an influence on me. Winning BDPA scholarship moment was really special when I found out the morning I was supposed to go to deliver medical supplies to a remote area in Peru. Winning BDPA has motivated me to do a summer internship at Johnson & Johnson and to double my research efforts in the field of medicine and community work to make world a better place."

BDPA is blessed to have such a young and talented student as a winner of the Johnson & Johnson Scholarship. We look forward to supporting Priyanka's career as she seeks to start a Biotechnology company!