Shuai Xu named to 2008 All-USA College Academic First Team by USA Today

Shuai Xu named to 2008 All-USA College Academic First Team by USA Today

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News Staff

Sid Richardson senior Shuai “Steve” Xu is a busy man. When he was named to USA Today’s 2008 All-USA College Academic First Team this week, he told the newspaper, “I can’t remember the last time I sat down.”

He is one of 20 students selected for the 2008 All-USA College Academic First Team by a panel of judges from among nearly 500 juniors and seniors. Each honoree will receive $2,500. The award honors “academic excellence and community service throughout the country and around the world,” said USA Today editor Ken Paulson.

SHUAI XU

In the lab, Xu has worked with researchers on the bending mechanisms of materials designed for heart valve replacements. “Bioengineering,” he told USA Today, “connects at a very elemental level of just helping people.”

In his free time, Xu has volunteered to work on a robotics program with students at Jane Long Middle School in west Houston. He also was appointed a Finger Fellow at The Methodist Hospital, where he will investigate the cost impact of medical devices on patient populations.

“I do what I do because I feel like I can make a difference,” he told USA Today. “I don’t see it as a job or career. I see it as a cause.”

The honor from USA Today is just one of many academic awards Xu has received while at Rice.

He became a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar last year, one of the most prestigious national scholarships awarded to undergraduates in science and engineering. In 2005, Xu received a Rice University/Baylor College of Medicine scholarship, and he has been accepted at Baylor College of Medicine, where intends to go in the fall of 2009.

A bioengineering major, Xu said he is thankful for being in the Rice/Baylor Medical Program because the program “sort of takes the pressure off while allowing me to do what I really care about.”

Xu also received the Samuel T. Sikes Jr. Engineering Scholarship in 2007 and the Dunlevie Writing Fellowship in Comparative Literature the previous year, for which he wrote a paper on “Politics, the Individual and the Poet in Whitman and Ha Jin.”

Among the Rice faculty Xu said have been especially supportive were Jane Grande-Allen, assistant professor of bioengineering, and Ann Saterbak, lecturer in bioengineering. “I’m really thankful for their guidance and confidence,” he said. “I’ve learned how to be a better engineer, student and citizen through their leadership.” Xu also mentioned Kellie Sims Butler, director of Scholarships and Fellowships, for her role in helping him apply for the All-USA College Academic First Team and Goldwater awards.

Xu said Rice is “unique” because of its ability to offer students “all the resources of a prestigious research institution while maintaining an intimate environment.” He added, “I never felt lost in the crowd and I always believed that what I worked for would be recognized.”

Asked what sort of advice he would give to an incoming freshman, Xu said, “Find something you’re passionate about and learn everything you can to make a difference.”

Xu also urged fellow students to “get out there and find community projects that resonate with what you care about.”