Hometown:

Danville, IN

Biography

An AP Scholar with Distinction, Athena graduated from The Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities in Muncie, Indiana. Fully engaged with science and the arts throughout high school, she plans to major at IU in biology with a focus on cell biology and molecular genetics or the biology of disease and to minor in piano performance. Her many science awards include placing fourth in Medical Innovations at the 2015 HOSA Future Health Professionals national conference and placing second in Community Emergency Response Team skills and third in Nutrition at the 2016 HOSA state conference. She won awards in Science Olympiad, qualifying for state competition, and received the 2016 Indiana Council of Teachers of Mathematics Achievement Award. She worked as an apprentice in Eli Lilly’s medicinal chemistry lab, was president of the school’s Disease Detectives Club, and volunteered at a local hospital. While volunteering at a nursing home through a program called Music and Memory, she saw how music stimulated memory in residents with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, which made her eager to learn more about the impact of music on the brain as well as to continue her piano studies.

She has adopted as her mantra, “Never stop learning, because life never stops teaching."

She will hold the G.A. Ball and the Larry Paul Kays scholarships in the Wells Scholars Program.