Senior Adina Dobre has been honored as a winner of an annual essay contest, held by the
Michigan Society for Medical Research (MISMR). Dobre won five hundred dollars and a plaque
for her efforts, as well as one hundred dollars for her teacher, Dr. Mary Kay Marks.

“I’m planning on going to med school, and you need to practice on a lot of animals, or
sometimes even human bodies,” explained Dobre. “It’s of great concern how those bodies are
treated. The prompt appealed to me, and I thought I could answer it thoroughly, so I wrote the
essay. I didn’t really expect to win; it’s nice to get the confirmation that I understand the issue.”

The contest required a response to a prompt: Why are animals important in biomedical research?
The final deadline was December 21, 2012, and the results were released earlier this month.

The contest was open to all high school students, regardless of age or grade. Every student who
entered received a certificate of participation, while honorable mentions received $50 and a
certificate of merit.

She was not the only one to enter, either. Dr. Marks had offered the opportunity to several
students, although winning is rare and finding a student that can do it is more difficult than it
might seem. “Adina is very hardworking and dedicated, so I’m very proud of her. It’s nice to see
that she’s trying, because she’s going into the medical field and now she’ll get the chance to rub
elbows with some of the people already there.”

Dobre plans to attend the University of Michigan next fall to continue on in studying science and
medicine. She is hoping to have a career in that area.