Anthony Rhoads Named Lincoln Laureate
Anthony Rhoads ’14, an honors student from Litchfield, Ill., with a 4.0 GPA and a strong commitment
to community service, is McKendree’s 2013 Lincoln Laureate. The Lincoln Academy of
Illinois annually recognizes an outstanding senior from each college and university
for overall excellence in curricular and extracurricular activities.
Anthony has taken numerous advanced courses and aced them all, while working toward
a bachelor’s degree in two majors, mathematics and computational science, and a minor in biology. Two summer research programs have bolstered his studies - a mathematical biology
project involving HIV, at the University of Tennessee; and an internship in biostatistics
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He plans to pursue a graduate degree and a
career in biostatistics, which applies statistical analysis to various topics in biology.
“I am interested in many branches of the field, including research in public health,
the design and analysis of clinical trials in medicine, and statistical genetics,
which can be used to identify genes that can cause predispositions to certain diseases,”
Anthony said.
His accomplishments outside the classroom have been equally impressive. Since 2010
he has volunteered over 250 hours, tutoring children in science and math, visiting
local nursing home residents or organizing service projects for Alpha Phi Omega, the national service fraternity of which he is chapter president.
“My New Student Orientation leader was very passionate about community service, and
it was inspiring to see that there could be so much more to college than just classes
and studying,” Anthony said. “I knew that I wanted to have that same kind of experience,
and student organizations provide a great opportunity for that fulfillment.”
