June 26, 2007

Students Xousaen Helu and Lina Gerigus are La Sierra University's 2007 President's Award winners.  Lawrence T. Geraty, in his final commencement weekend after 14 years as La Sierra University president, presented the winners their awards during the 2007 Conferring of Degrees ceremony on June 17. Criteria for students’ selection include accomplishment in scholarship and community service, as well as exemplary citizenship. Because these students are selected from among candidates for the Dean's Award, letters of nomination and recommendation by deans, faculty members, and other interested persons played pivotal parts in the decision-making process.

Xousaen Helu, biochemistry major from Calexico, California, is the undergraduate award winner. His student career exemplifies the best La Sierra University has to offer: excellent academics and a focus on original research; cultural diversity and a global worldview; and commitment to service to God and to the community.

While still an academy student at Calexico Mission School, Helu spend the summer between his junior and senior years doing research in a biomedical laboratory at Loma Linda University. He has continued to do original research at Loma Linda even while he attended La Sierra University, through the Undergraduate Training Program at the Center for Health Disparities.

A participant in the University Honors Program, Helu’s numerous awards include: the Wanda Price Memorial Scholarship in both 2005 and 2006; the National Deans List, and Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities. In October 2006, Helu was chosen as a National Institute of Health Undergraduate Scholarship Recipient, a prestigious, competitive scholarship that required extensive applications and interviews at NIH headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland. This summer Helu will do research at NIH before starting an MD-PhD program at Loma Linda University. When he concludes his Loma Linda program, Helu will return to NIH to complete a Post-Doctoral Fellowship.

Helu also expresses his Seventh-day Adventist faith through his commitment to service. He serves as a translator for Spanish speakers at a medical clinic in Riverside, a crucially needed service. His University Honors project was providing translation services for a Riverside non-profit organization called Project BLISS. And while he finds his research intellectually challenging, Helu’s primary motivation to pursue a career in medical research is because of his hope that his work will ultimately be useful in treating the suffering of others.

Lina Geriguis is the graduate student award winner. According to the English department faculty, she exhibits a depth of scholarship, love of literature, and quality of intellect unmatched in their collective memories.

Geriguis enrolled at La Sierra University as an undergraduate from Lithuania. She came to the United States to study because she felt the academic opportunities here would allow her to grow intellectually and challenge her. Her grasp of complex literary material and seriousness as an undergraduate student resulted in her earning many academic awards, including the Barber Marcus Scholarship three times, and the Lewis Scholarship twice. She’s also listed in Who is Who Among American Students.

As a graduate student, she continued to distinguish herself. Lina completed a wide range of original literary, intercultural and interdisciplinary research. Her publications (in 1999 and 2000) and several literary conference presentations in Lithuania feature papers on Lithuanian Romanticism and Realism. She has also delivered conference papers in the United States, presenting her work on 18th and 19th century British and American literature. Currently, she is preparing articles for publication and is scheduled to present her interdisciplinary paper at the 14th Berkshire Conference on the History of Women.

This year, Geriguis assisted in preparing materials to orient new College
Writing instructors. She continues to be a thoughtful, dedicated teacher in her classes and an outstanding academic model for her students.
Lina Geriguis already stands for the kind of excellence La Sierra University seeks to inspire in its students. As she pursues her doctoral studies and moves into an academic career, Geriguis will serve as a glowing ambassador for La Sierra University.

PR Contact: Larry Becker
Executive Director of University Relations
La Sierra University
Riverside, California
951.785.2460 (voice)