John Neiswinger

While many Geneva graduates go immediately into the workforce, some opt for additional years of classes, assignments and research known as graduate school. One of these brave souls is Johnathan Neiswinger.

After graduating with a degree in chemistry last spring and marrying Lauren McBurney ′07 in July, John moved to Baltimore, Md., where he is enrolled in the pharmacology and molecular sciences PhD program at John Hopkins University. In addition to classes, first-year students in the program perform lab rotations with faculty whose areas of research they find most interesting.

“In my first lab rotation I am studying the possible enzymes that repair a specific type of DNA mutation caused by y-radiation,” John says. “If an enzyme can be found for this type of mutation, it could be a possible therapeutic for some types of skin cancer.”

After receiving his doctorate from Hopkins, John hopes to pursue a fellowship at a major university to gain teaching experience. He plans to work in a laboratory and eventually teach at the college level, and his Geneva education has prepared him well for this track—both academically and spiritually. Neiswinger not only feels “very prepared for the classes I'm in now” but also prepared to be “an ambassador for Christ in a seemingly ‘godless′ community.”

“While most of the faculty and students see the complexity of proteins and cellular function as a feat of evolution, I daily am increasingly amazed at the incredible, intelligently designed creation that our bodies are,” he says. “As a future pharmacologist, I am excited to be able to potentially find new treatments for the many diseases that plague this fallen world.”

- by Brooke Prokopchak ('08)

 

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