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Crystan LaTorah Dowds

Biography

Crystan Dowds used to despise science projects. But work in courses such as AP biology has changed her mind. Now, she says, she has begun to see the “exciting magnificence and medical applicability” of science.

The next step wasn’t all that easy, however. She tried for a coveted science fellowship but fell short. She wasn’t used to rebuffs. She retreated only temporarily, then regrouped and began to “concentrate my embryonic research efforts on some serious, involved background work,” to lay a foundation for the future. Since then, she has trained to be a pharmacy technician.

Meanwhile, Crystan has also honed her leadership skills, as state vice president of the Georgia Health Occupations Students of America and as her county’s representative on a student council advising the Georgia school superintendent. Reporting back to her local school chiefs, she got “a standing ovation for her passionate defense of vocational education as being more than just a ‘dumping ground’ for weak students.”

Crystan ends her years as a Young Scholar, she says, sure of her potential and vowing not to let anything get in the way of “performing better than my supposed best.”

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