Tai Prauner’s week swings between mobile ideas and neighborhood occasions — immersed in epigenetics analysis in the future, and main bilingual outreach the following.
For some, shifting between such totally different experiences would possibly really feel like main whiplash. However for Prauner, it’s good.
As an honors scholar getting double levels in molecular and biomedical biology and Spanish for well being sciences, Prauner has crafted an undergraduate expertise that speaks to her distinctive passions and pursuits. From working in a analysis lab to connecting with classmates in language golf equipment, her College of Nebraska at Omaha expertise has been filled with wealthy alternatives to discover and have interaction in her pursuits.
Her molecular and biomedical biology main allowed her love of science to flourish, inspiring plans to pursue a grasp’s diploma in most cancers analysis, adopted by medical college. And her different main, Spanish for well being sciences, aligns along with her aspirations for offering medical care to all communities.
After initially solely finding out Spanish as a minor, Prauner was ecstatic to be taught concerning the new Spanish for well being sciences main pathway. The main’s tailor-made course catalog of specialised Spanish programs protecting the healthcare matters instantly caught her consideration, and she or he rapidly declared her double main within the topic.
“I like having the ability to be taught Spanish as a result of it is a good ability,” Prauner mentioned. “However what I am tremendous obsessed with is bringing that into healthcare, particularly in rural areas and right here in Omaha.”
Along with her pursuits in medication, Prauner additionally has a ardour for analysis. As a scholar employee in Prof. Ryan Wong’s Behavior, Neuroscience, and Genomics Lab, she was the primary within the lab to conduct epigenetic analysis.
Prauner has made an influence in her time at UNO — and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. In 2024, she was one among 428 undergraduate college students chosen from throughout the nation for the celebrated Goldwater Scholarship, one of many prime awards within the nation for STEM college students.
After 4 busy years stuffed with lessons, extracurricular golf equipment, analysis, and rewarding experiences, Prauner can look again on her time as a Maverick with a way of accomplishment and admiration — accomplishment for her educational achievements, and admiration for all of the members of the UNO neighborhood that helped her attain them. From college mentors like Prof. Wong who inspired her love of analysis within the lab, to instructors that impressed her within the classroom, to programs and golf equipment that helped her domesticate connections in the neighborhood, Prauner is approaching commencement with a deep sense of gratitude.
As she displays on her path at UNO and appears in the direction of her future, she will’t assist however mirror on who she was when she first began school. Fascinated about her fellow college students, she encourages different present and future Mavericks to remain curious and compassionate as they chase their collegiate goals — she did, and it made all of the distinction.
“I did not know in any respect what I used to be doing once I got here in right here, apart from I knew I wished to be taught, and I knew I wished to assist folks. And I wished to develop and be one of the best individual I may very well be and be taught as a lot as I may to assist different folks,” Prauner mentioned. “And that is what I did.”
