UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences students Paige Alexander and Ingrid Lara Bordin Fernandes are two of 36 Penn State graduate students recognized in a new round of scholarships from the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School at Penn State.
The Fox Endowment scholarships were created to help students strive for excellence in their research and other academic pursuits, and students were nominated for the scholarships by the academic colleges and campuses in which their program is housed. The students were selected from more than 200 graduate fields of study across all Penn State campuses.
Alexander, a doctoral student pursuing a dual-title degree in entomology and international agriculture and development, studies tick-borne diseases and strategies for reducing their impact by better understanding how wildlife hosts naturally resist tick infestations.
Her research looks at how white-tailed deer develop and use natural resistance to repeated tick infestations and how those defenses affect tick feeding success. Along with her work in Pennsylvania, Alexander conducts research in Belize to understand tick-borne disease risks in cacao agroforestry systems.
She explained that while many tick-borne diseases have been documented in neighboring countries, relatively little is known about the pathogens circulating in Belize, making the work important for protecting both human and animal health. Some of these diseases can have mortality rates ranging from 20% to 50%.
Growing up exploring the forests and streams of central Pennsylvania, Alexander said one thing that always accompanied those adventures, aside from the good memories, was ticks.
“Like many people in Pennsylvania, I worried about tick bites and the pathogens they can transmit that cause diseases,” she said. “As a child, I decided that if I was going to spend my life outdoors, I wanted to understand these creatures and find ways to reduce the risks of vector-borne diseases that they pose.”
Alexander said she plans to use the endowment — up to $10,000 — to acquire cameras, storage systems and infrastructure to collect and analyze data on white-tailed deer behavior. Her long-term goal is to become a research scientist dedicated to developing sustainable strategies to reduce vector-borne diseases and improve animal and public health.
Fernandes, a second-year doctoral student in animal science, is originally from Brazil, where she completed her undergraduate degree in animal science at the Federal University of Uberlândia. Her research focuses on bovine respiratory disease and their effects on the growth performance, carcass characteristics and health status of cattle. Before entering her doctoral program, she was active in the beef industry.
She plans on using the endowment to attend national and international conferences, she said, which will further develop her professional network and help her focus on producing high-quality research to share with both the academic community and livestock industry.
Fernandes said that as an international student, pursuing a doctorate far from her family has come with many challenges and sacrifices, and that being recognized with the scholarship makes her feel that all her hard work and dedication have been worthwhile.
“My graduate education at Penn State has given me opportunities to grow not only as a researcher but also as a communicator, team worker and problem solver,” she said. “These experiences are helping me build the skills I will need to lead research projects, collaborate with others, and translate scientific findings into practical recommendations for the livestock industry.”