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Arnold School undergrads are finalists for
Outstanding Woman of the Year
March 27, 2014
Arnold School undergraduate Emily Learner was named USC'S 2014 Outstanding Woman of the Year. Her friend Leila Heidari, who is studying in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, was a finalist in the awards program.
A "learner" is someone who acquires new knowledge and skills.
In her four years at Carolina, Emily Learner delved into the collegiate experience with wide eyes and a caring heart. Her service and academic achievement were recognized Wednesday (March 26) when she was named the 2014 USC Outstanding Woman of the Year.
An Arnold School of Public Health undergraduate, Learner is a senior majoring in exercise science. Her friend Leila Heidari, a senior pursuing the Baccalaureus Artium et Scientiae degree in Environmental Health at the Arnold School, nominated Learner for the award. Heidari was among the five other finalists recognized at the awards program. Both are students in the South Carolina Honors College and hail from Columbia.
In recent years, Arnold School students have excelled in the prestigious Outstanding Woman of the Year awards program. Hayley Elia of Columbia, an Arnold School senior with a commitment to humanitarian efforts, was the USC 2013 Outstanding Woman of the Year. Elia was a public health major and a South Carolina Honors College student. Jessica Steele, a Carolina scholar from Hilton Head Island, was named USC's Outstanding Woman of the Year for 2010. Steele majored in English, health and international studies.
In receiving the award, Learner said being a woman at USC has shaped her perspective on the importance of being an active leader on campus.
"I realize how much there is a need to have women who are proud of who they are and what they have accomplished to be role models for other women and girls," she said.
The impressive resumés of Learner and Heidari underscore the depth of character of the Arnold School students, their commitment to the community around them and stellar academic achievement.
Learner, a Palmetto Fellow and President's List academic honoree, was a volunteer in the Waverly Tutoring Program, in which she tutored inner-city elementary and middle school students; provided learning enrichment activities and implemented a reading program. She also has been a volunteer with Cocky’s Reading Express since August 2010, a program in which she reads to elementary school children and encourages daily reading habits, worked to implement a nutrition literacy program and gathered information on children's reading behavior.
As a Magellan Scholar at USC, Learner was awarded a grant to implement her own research project, titled "Does resveratrol work through the nfk-B pathway in order to reduce inflammation in the mdx mice model of Duchene muscular dystrophy?"
She is an intern with Lexington Medical-Irmo Center Outpatient Physical and Occupational Therapy where she aids a physical therapist in the rehabilitation of patients. She served a previous internship with Drayer Physical Therapy.
Among her many awards and honors, Learner is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a grant awardee of SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship), a recipient of the President's Volunteer Service Award, silver level in 2012 and gold level in 2010. A youth group leader with St. John Neumann Catholic Church since 2012, Learner has been a youth group assistant at St. Peter's Catholic Church and a Sunday School teacher for first- and second-grade students at St. Thomas More Catholic Church.
While participating in numerous activities on campus and in the community, Learner has been a volunteer with the Arnold School's Goodbodies Program, Perceptual Motor Development Lab and Physical Therapy Program’s Rehabilitation Lab.
In all that she has done, Learner has maintained a 4.0 GPA.
Heidari is a Carolina Scholar, the University's most prestigious scholarship for instate students. She received the 2013 Outstanding Student Volunteer of the Year Award, was awarded a Magellan Scholar research grant, was the USC campus nominee for a Truman Scholarship and has been on the President's Honor List from 2010 – 2013. Heidari, who has a 3.98 GPA, is the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement and Student Triumph (TOAST) Award and a Science Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
Her extensive credentials include the presidency of the Honors Council since 2012, a summer internship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and a summer fellowship with the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health.
Her honors thesis, titled "Developing a sustainable after-school gardening program that emphasizes nutrition and environmental education," has involved her working with school gardens to analyze changes in nutrition and environmental knowledge and evaluating the concentrations of heavy metals.
USC's Outstanding Woman of the Year program is sponsored by the Department of Student Life within the Division of Student Affairs and Academic Support. For 2014, 95 women were nominated by USC faculty and staff.
