Southampton Graduate Campus Senior Katrina Pagenkopp to Study With Smithsonian
Brea, Calif. Native Gets Full Scholarship to American University

Southampton, NY — For Katrina Pagenkopp, a senior graduating from Southampton Graduate Campus of Long Island University, being a successful student has always been something natural. Before graduating from Brea Olinda High School in Brea, Calif., Pagenkopp had already selected Southampton as her college destination.

"I wanted to go to a small intimate college where I was more than just a name or a number," said Pagenkopp. "I wanted my professors to know who I was. Southampton Graduate Campus seemed the perfect place to study marine science and had the kind of academic environment that I was looking for."

Not only was she awarded a full scholarship to pursue her Masters in Biology at American University in Washington, D.C., but she will take a position as a teaching assistant with Dr. Robert Fleischer, head of the genetics department at the Smithsonian Institution. Fleischer, who is also an adjunct at American University, will be advising Pagenkopp in her research on the application of genetics to conservation biology.

Pagenkopp counts four cooperative education internships among her experiences at Southampton Graduate Campus, including conducting surveys of endangered gulf sturgeon for the US Geological Survey Gainsville, Fla., working as a coastal steward of the piping plover in Southampton, N.Y., extracting DNA binding proteins at Brookhaven Lab in Upton, N.Y. and rehabilitating indigenous wildlife at the Wildlife Rescue Center in Hampton Bays, N.Y. Because of her persistence in her high school advanced placement classes, Pagenkopp was able to complete her B.S. in Marine Science: Biology in just three years. She has been presented the Southampton Graduate Campus Provost Award, Division Honors, the Cooperative Education Student of the Year Award and has been on the Dean’s List of Academic Honors every semester since her freshman year.