Saher Khan was honored recently as the College of Veterinary Medicine’s first Presidential Award of Excellence recipient. Nominees are selected by the deans of their respective colleges and demonstrate outstanding academic achievement, strong extracurricular involvement, service to and involvement in their college or school, and exemplify the best of UGA’s undergraduate student body.
“It was a great honor to nominate Saher for the Presidential Award of Excellence,” said Dr. Lisa K. Nolan, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. “Saher is the embodiment of our hopes for an academically motivated and service-minded undergraduate student body. As our first Presidential Award of Excellence winner, Saher has set a high bar for future members of our undergraduate program.”
Dr. Paul Eubig, director of the Biomedical Physiology Undergraduate Program, said Khan embodies the spirit of the award.
“She is engaged academically and in numerous extracurricular activities, in addition to being employed. She is a vocal advocate for our program and its students who has recruited over 20 new students for us, by her count.”
The Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Physiology enables students to further their knowledge and understanding of how living organisms function. This major offers a broad catalog of coursework, allowing students to customize their experience to pursue careers and specific interests in a variety of biomedical science-related fields, including human healthcare, veterinary medicine, and the life-science industries.
Khan hopes to apply to medical school to pursue a future in pediatrics. At the same time, she will be actively working on wildlife conservation through various non-profits, in keeping with a philosophy of service to others that was passed along by faculty of the CVM.
“The professors taught me about how medicine and our well-being are dependent upon various aspects of the world and that it all comes together through collective work and love for humanity,” Khan said.
Khan cycled through three different majors before coming to Biomedical Physiology. “After coming to college and going through so many difficult courses I lost my passion for learning because it seemed like every course was just a series of tests made to trick you into failing. However, as soon as I took my first VPHY course I felt the passion to learn return which made me push myself to my greatest extent.”
She fully embraced her new path, attending new student orientations to discuss her work with incoming freshmen, and attending regular meetings to discuss ways of improving the major. She did these things “out of passion and genuine love for this major,” she said. “I never realized how much my efforts were being noticed because they always seemed small. Being the first Presidential Award of Excellence recipient for the College of Veterinary Medicine has been such an honor.”
