Kathleen Lugo Charriez is the 2019 Overcoming Challenges Award recipient. Kathleen, originally from Puerto Rico, moved to the continental United States in 2016 due to medical issues. As an exchange student, she attended Florida International University(FIU), commuting five hours a day to attend classes. Later that same year, Kathleen’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer which she still battles today. Although there were many hardships at home, Kathleen continued at FIU, becoming an ACS Scholar and receiving REUs at the University of Minnesota and Georgia Institute of Technology. A May 2019 graduate, Kathleen works as a research assistant and will apply for chemistry graduate school within the next year.
The Overcoming Challenges Award is designed to recognize an individual undergraduate from a two-year or four-year institution for overcoming hardships to achieve success in chemistry. The next deadline for this award is April 1st, 2020.
