Justin Neisler is awarded his fourth AAC Scholarship
AU junior Justin Neisler could give the Energizer Bunny a run for his money.
Despite participating in an extra-curricular calendar that would blow a capacitor, he has maintained a 4.0 GPA. After breezing through all of his major’s core classes and basic AU classes, he is moving onto advanced, senior-level classes this fall, a year ahead of schedule. He reports that Auburn has renamed its pre-med major and made changes to the curriculum, so his old/new major is Microbial, Cellular, and Molecular Biology.
“I have grown more confident in my plans to go to medical school, and took my first MCAT practice this year,” he says. He did well on the practice, so he will take the “real” MCAT in January. “I am also starting to build my list of possible medical schools and plan to shoot for some of the best in the country.”
Justin’s academic success was richly rewarded. He was selected to join Cardinal Key, the campus-wide junior class honorary, and Omicron Delta Kappa, a prestigious campus-wide honor society that recognizes a student’s academic success and emergence as a leader on Auburn's campus. He also made the Dean's List in the spring.
Justin says his extracurricular activities also expanded significantly. He continued his involvement with the Tau Kappa Epsilon social fraternity, serving as Rush Chairman last year, and was appointed to the Public Relations and Recruitment Committee of the Inter-Fraternity Council Cabinet in January. He was also selected to be a Camp War Eagle Counselor for Auburn's national award-winning freshmen orientation program. It is one of the most competitive jobs to get at Auburn, he says.
Justin has decided not to be an Auburn cheerleader again next year. “While this past year was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I would love to do again, I need the time that I had to committed to cheerleading for important endeavors this upcoming year,” he says. He will join Medical D to gain valuable experience volunteering and shadowing at local medical establishments and hopes to join a lab and conduct some Undergraduate Research, eventually publishing a master's degree-style thesis through the University's Honors College.
“I also plan to run for an officer's position in my fraternity in the fall and for the Inter-Fraternity Council Vice-President in the spring. All while continuing to maintain my 4.0 GPA with my advanced course load,” he promises.
Justin is very grateful for his third-year scholarship from the Atlanta Auburn Club. “None of my accomplishments, involvement or future plans would be possible without the support of this scholarship. I cannot truly put into words what the scholarship has meant to me and my family. Ya'll have allowed me to pursue my dream of an unbelievable academic and extracurricular experience at Auburn, free from financial worry,” he says.
On March 25, 2009, Justin sent the AAC this message, which again, made us so proud of him, we just had to share: I am taking an Anatomy course at John's Hopkins University School of Medicine during the month of June. I'm taking the class to both impress the admissions people at Hopkins and allow me to experience living in Baltimore for a month since Hopkins is my #1 choice for medical school so far. To continue updating y'all in that matter...I got my MCAT (the med school admission's test) scores back a few weeks ago and made a 40.. Which is AMAZING. For those unfamiliar with the system, a 28-30 is generally competitive, a 32 is good at UAB, a 34 is good at Emory, and a 36 is good at Hopkins...so my 40 puts me in a position to almost handpick my medical school. And, the Atlanta Club definitely helped with that score...because if you ask anybody I know, I almost locked myself in my room for several weeks leading up to that test in order to study, so if I had to work to pay for school on top of that, my scores would have surely suffered.
War Eagle, Justin! You make us proud!