Mrs. Nath Recognized for the Flinn Foundation Award

The Flinn Foundation in Arizona is a privately endowed charitable organization that awards grants to students, teachers, and other organizations. Founded in 1965 by cardiologist Dr. Robert Flinn and his wife, the Foundation’s mission is to “improve the quality of life in Arizona to benefit future generations”. To achieve this goal, the Foundation plans to advance the state’s bioscience division, provide considerable education to high achieving students in public Arizona universities, increase the potential of art and cultural organizations, and most importantly, raise and prepare future leaders.

To create greater interest in different subjects, the foundation makes grants towards biosciences, Flinn Scholars, and art and culture. The Flinn Foundation also happens to have impacted the lives of one of our very own: Mrs. Rachna Nath.

Known around campus as an animal lover, Mrs. Nath is the Honors Biology and Human Biology teacher at Erie and has been teaching at Erie for two years now. Raised in India, Mrs. Nath earned a MS in Zoology with Distinction and only recently received her second MS degree from ASU, due to her part in the honey bee labs.

Not only is she famous for having a classroom chock-full of animals that range from cockroaches to snakes to guinea pigs, but her cheerful disposition and spirited character have been known to warm the hearts of many here on campus. Here’s what she had to say about her recognition:

Q: What is the Flinn Foundation award?

A: The Flinn Foundation offered a $5000 grant to ACP Erie and ASU’s joint collaboration for creating a Biophysics chapter at ACP-Erie. This joint collaboration has enabled ACP Erie Biophysics students to connect to ASU supercomputers using VMD software and assist the graduate students to create Biophysics chapters for High school curriculum.

Q: What did you receive the award for?

A: The award was for collaboration with ASU to create a biophysics chapter at ACP-Erie and to create Biophysics imaging and programs at ACP -Erie while accessing mega computers from ASU, through a platform sustainable by our district computers.

Q: How did you feel when you first found out you were being recognized?

A: I was happy for the students in my club because they will be the first group of high school students who will be able to work with ASU grad students in Biophysics concepts and get internships at ASU thorugh their experience.

Q: What does it mean to have the Flinn Foundation award?

A: The Flinn Foundation is a very prestigious organization, and to get an award from them means a lot to me and to my students. This was also the first grant I got, and it will always be a special one for me.

A huge thanks to Mrs. Nath for taking the time to give us more insight on her great accomplishment, and of course, an even bigger congratulations!

Sources used: https://flinn.org