Rebecca Tran of Aurora was awarded the 2012 Outstanding Major in Biology Award during Honors Day May 15 at North Central College.

Tran is a senior majoring in biology with a minor in mathematics. She is the daughter of Louis and Susan Tran and a graduate of Waubonsie Valley High School. After graduating from North Central College in June, she intends to pursue graduate studies in medical school.

At North Central, Tran participated in the College Scholars Honors Program and was a dean’s list scholar. She researched the possible biological and physiological link between asthma and depression. She worked as an assistant in the College’s biology labs, and conducted summer research at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

In 2011, Tran was the first recipient of the College’s Max Lacewell and Brianna Sharp Memorial Scholarship, awarded to a student who is interested in pursuing oncology or cancer research. The scholarship was established by Shane Ellison ’95 and Dr. Lara Masullo ’97 Ellison, family practice physician at Edward Hospital in Naperville. The award honors the memories of two children from Naperville who both died in 2009 from a rare form of brain cancer—diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma—while they were under Ellison’s care.

In 2011, Tran studied abroad at the University of Leicester in England during her junior year. In 2010, she was among students who traveled to Pensacola, Fla., as part of a spring break service trip to work with Habitat for Humanity.

Founded in 1861 and celebrating its Sesquicentennial in 2011-2012, North Central College is an independent, comprehensive college of the liberal arts and sciences that offers more than 55 undergraduate majors and graduate programming in six areas. Located in the Historic District of Naperville, Illinois—rated by Money magazine as among the nation’s “Best Places to Live”—North Central College is just 30 minutes from Chicago’s Loop. With more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students, North Central College is committed to academic excellence, a climate that emphasizes leadership, ethics, values and service, a curriculum that balances job-related knowledge with a liberal arts foundation and a caring environment with small classes. Visit northcentralcollege.edu to learn more.