Meet Some of the College’s Top Tigers: Congratulations to LSU’s Tiger Twelve Class of 2022
Each spring, LSU recognizes 12 outstanding seniors who contribute positively to the life of the campus, surrounding community, and/or society. These 12 individuals are then recognized as the Tiger Twelve. Three students were selected from the College of Science.
Grayce Mores is a graduating senior in the Department of Biological Sciences. Grayce will graduate with a degree in microbiology with a minor in mass communications.
Emily Otken is a graduating senior in the Department of Biological Sciences, earning a degree in biology with minors in both history and political science.
Blaire Peterson is a graduating senior in the Department of Biological Sciences and will graduate with a degree in biochemistry and a minor in sociology.
All three students are also members of the Ogden Honors College.
Grayce Mores
An undergraduate researcher in LSU Boyd Professor Mark Batzer’s lab, Mores has had the opportunity to excel in the science field early on. Between her coursework and extracurricular activities, Mores fills the remainder of her time building phylogenetic trees—diagrams that represent evolutionary relationships among organism—to better understand how primates are related.
“It’s a really interesting study of primate evolution because it’s kind of similar to human evolution with really rapid speciation and overlapping,” said Mores. “A lot of the methods that we use can be adapted and applied to study human evolution.
“I really like knowing how things work,” she added. “I remember getting books about different organ systems of the body; I even had an anatomy coloring book. I just really liked understanding the intricacies of the body system.”
It was that interest, coupled with a school project highlighting the impacts of yellow fever, that Mores said pushed her into wanting to continue researching diseases and viruses. Upon graduation, Mores will be moving to Chicago to find a new home at Northwestern University. There, she will pursue a doctoral degree in microbiology, researching the impacts and cures for the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, utilizing computational techniques similar to those in Batzer’s lab.
But Mores doesn’t just credit her work in the lab to a successful undergraduate career. One of the most impactful opportunities, she said, was serving as president for LSU Discover’s Research Ambassadors program, where she was able to encourage other students to pursue research opportunities around campus.
“Almost every professor I have met has been super excited and willing to work with freshmen, and that’s my favorite part of the research is that it really kind of sets you way ahead of the curve.”
Mores has also served as an Ogden Honors College advocate, and at graduation, Mores will be earning medals for the LSU Distinguished Communicator program, a program for students who want to refine their communication skills and excel in their chosen professions, and the LSU Undergraduate Researcher Program.
“One of the things they told me when I was touring LSU was, ‘You get to be a big fish in a big pond,’ in that LSU has so many resources and good research opportunities available that a lot of people don’t take advantage of. But if you just go up and ask, most of the time, you get to do some amazing things on campus.”
Emily Otken
Emily Otken said she believes her LSU experience has granted her the tools she needs to make a difference in the healthcare system.
“I often feel that to be a well-rounded science student, (taking humanities courses) has helped balance out and allow you to connect with people,” said Otken. “Besides the more clinical way we see science and treat people, I have also been really interested in the public advocacy side.”
A native of Denham Springs, Otken, like so many others, was deeply affected by major flooding in 2016. Her family was forced to relocate from their water-damaged home, and for almost an entire year, experiences like living in a camper in their front yard and showering in their gutted home by flashlight forced Otken to seek a sense of calm elsewhere. At the suggestion of a neighbor, she began volunteering her time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Oschner Medical Center.
“I started that following summer, and the second I stepped foot in there, I knew it was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life,” she said. “It was just this sense of peace, and I knew that I wanted to go into the healthcare field. I knew I wanted to work with infants or kids, and that's honestly how I started college majoring in biological science with the goal that I wanted to be a doctor.”
From there, Otken joined Alpha Epsilon Delta, LSU’s pre-medical honor society, and has since become president. With 260 members, AED has worked to promote academic achievements but also leadership services to the university and the communities.
“Being president has truly been the highlight of my college career,” she said. “I've just been able to watch these pre-medical students blossom and grow in confidence and become leaders in their own ways.”
Otken also serves as the vice president of LSU’s Student Philanthropy Council and as director of transportation and safety in the university’s Student Government. She is also a member of Alpha Phi and served as the director of community engagement, as well as Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's oldest academic honor society.
Last summer, Otken interned in the U.S. Senate in Washington D.C., working on veterans’ affairs health policies. Learning about issues currently affecting the systems used between the Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs helped Otken realize that patient advocacy would be a major driver in her future in healthcare.
Post-graduation, Otken plans to attend LSU Shreveport Medical School.
“I can truly say that LSU has afforded me with the opportunities to be able to become a leader on campus and has made that space open for all students,” Otken said. “And being able to seek out those opportunities and interact with people from backgrounds that I've never met — international students, students from across the country—and learn about their experiences because I think that that's what makes us more effective communicators and more empathetic individuals.
“And honestly, I can't say enough for my experience at LSU. I have grown so much as a person, and it's being able to be involved with LSU has definitely contributed to my future career and how I'm going to perform as a doctor, for sure.”
Blaire Peterson
Like Otken, Blaire Peterson also plans to attend medical school after graduation, and like her fellow Tiger Twelve, Peterson has had a heavy involvement during her time at LSU.
Since coming to the university in 2018, Peterson has been involved with Professor Grover Waldrop’s lab, studying the medical relevance of enzymes.
“It's been very interesting. Enzymes are finicky, difficult things, but it's definitely taught me resilience,” said Peterson. “They do not want to cooperate, but you have to keep trying different purification methods, trying different experiments and just see which one works best for you and building off that.”
Not very unlike patient care, she admitted. Peterson has also been a part of LSU’s Student Government and Phi Beta Kappa.
“I really love how in college you can be a part of so many different things that have nothing to do with your future. You just do them because they're exciting, and they open your mind to different people, different mindsets. At the end of the day, it’s going to give you an experience that you cannot get at any other time in your life.”
She said one of her biggest contributions as an undergraduate was cofounding the LSU Global Water Brigades, a chapter of an international movement of university students working alongside local communities and technicians to implement clean water systems in the developing world.
The chapter was able to assist in rebuilding a home in Lake Charles post-Hurricane Laura, as well other local outreach initiatives, like Companion Animal Alliance and Habitat for Humanity. Most recently in March, Peterson and the group traveled to Panama community to help and improve the clean water infrastructure.
“(Having access to clean water) is about public health,” she said. “It’s about stopping diseases at its source. If you have dirty water causing this contamination, and you can provide a community with cleaner water, that clears up so much of their problems.”
Despite having gone through the devastating 2016 floods, like Otken, and then a pandemic while volunteering at a hospital, Peterson said she has never felt surer she’s where she needs to be.
“It was a time in my life where I got really upset (volunteering), because to see people's families every day just like sobbing, and all I could do is hand them a box of tissues—I felt genuinely just horrible because I was like, ‘I can't help you.’ And that sucks,” she said.
“But it didn't make me think I don't want to be around this,” she added. “It just made me think I wish I could be in there like one of the doctors actually helping the family member, and it made me I wish I had the power to actually do something. It really made me realize that having a sense of empathy is not a bad thing. It can be a really powerful thing.”
Congratulations to our Tiger Twelve! Check here for a full list of honorees.