What he is doing

Beckett will begin training for a career as a physician-researcher in the dual degree MD-PhD program at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "There is a great need in medicine for novel scientific research. I'd like to pursue drug discovery and development for cancer treatment."

"I had a lot of help from the science faculty in finding research opportunities on and off campus that would not have been available to me at a large school."

How a Kenyon education helped

"I had a lot of help from the science faculty in finding research opportunities on and off campus that would not have been available to me at a large school." Key experiences included participation in the National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program that enabled him to spend a summer working on the development of biodegradable plastics at the IBM Almaden Research Center in Silicon Valley, and an American Chemical Society research fellowship that paid for him to attend a conference at the Pfizer Global Research and Development Headquarters in New London, Connecticut. He was a Kenyon Summer Science Scholar in 2007 and 2008, working in the laboratory of his academic advisor John Hofferberth, assistant professor of chemistry.

Kenyon connection

I had important help from Maureen Tobin, Kenyon's medical school advisor, who helped to prep my application specifically for MD-PhD programs. Also, while interviewing I spoke with Kelly Burke '06, who is currently an MD-PhD student at Johns Hopkins and who helped me to make my decision about schools.

Why Kenyon

"I knew I wanted to go to a small school where it was important to have close relationships with professors. Their commitment to mentoring is one of the reasons I came here. Beyond that, Kenyon offers a warm, friendly community that allows students to grow and thrive. I definitely found what I was looking for."