Two University students earned spots on USA Today’s All-USA College Academic Team, a group of undergraduates honored every February for academic achievements. Nancy Clark, Honors College Dean, nominated Cynthia “C.C.” DuBois, political science and agricultural business senior, for the competition. Martha Cedotal, College of Basic Sciences Assistant Dean, nominated Jackie Zimmerman, biological sciences senior. USA Today receives about 600 nominations from universities across the nation every year. The publication announced the team winners Feb. 15. DuBois, who has a 3.945 GPA, placed on the first team with 19 other students from schools including Brown University, Harvard College and Princeton University. She won a trophy and $2,500 cash award. “I was incredibly honored to be one of LSU’s nominees for this award,” Dubois said. “It is always a privilege to be able to represent my University on the national level.” Zimmerman, who has a 4.0 GPA, landed a spot on the third team. “I think that this award speaks highly of the caliber of students that LSU attracts,” she said. USA Today’s 11 judges chose its winners based on GPA, leadership, extracurricular activities and a personal statement about the nominees’ most rewarding intellectual endeavor. DuBois, who has received several scholarships and awards, is a Student Government senator and a research assistant in the political science department. Her resumé for the competition also included her extensive experience in public service. Zimmerman volunteers at Woman’s Hospital on Airline Highway, tutors preschool students at University Terrace and assists Mark Batzer, biological sciences alumni professor, with research on primate genomes. The two Honors students have known each other for three years. “She is an amazing scholar and an excellent individual,” DuBois said. “Jackie and I have competed for the LSU outstanding student for three years in a row. She won it our freshman year, and I won our sophomore and junior years. Coming from different disciplines, we seldom get the chance to collaborate on scholarly work, but I believe her resumé speaks for itself.” DuBois said she plans to graduate in May and attend Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Stanford Law School. She said she wants to pursue a joint J.D./M.P.A. degree. Zimmerman said she is in the process of narrowing down prospective schools where she wants to join a medical scientist training program after her graduation in May.
—–Contact Angelle Barbazon [email protected]