Des Moines Register
04-22-06
Whew! Big paper lands Ames teen in contest
MARY CHALLENDER
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Maria Fabiosa is a strong believer in motivation.
The Ames High School basketball and soccer player has been known to carry a
can of soup in her gym bag to remind herself that success is built on "cans," not
cannots.
Before big games, the 18-year-old senior writes Bible quotes and spiritual
sayings on her tennis shoes to remind herself to stay grounded.
She's not quite sure how to pump herself up for the challenge she has coming up
this weekend, though.
Fabiosa has been named one of 60 regional finalists in the annual Young
Epidemiology Scholars (YES) competition, out of some 700 entries.
Today, she's in Washington, D.C., competing for up to $50,000 in scholarship
money against some of the top high school science students in the country.
Last year, Ankeny student Allison Roggenburg finished in the top 12 and won a
$15,000 scholarship.
Fabiosa earned her spot by writing a 30-page research paper titled — you might
want to take a deep breath here — "The Study of Education as a Tool for VectorBorne Disease Prevention Amongst Seventh Grade Students: The Effectiveness
of Varying Instructional Methodology for Lyme Disease Awareness."
Only a handful of people have actually read the paper, a fact that doesn't bother
Fabiosa. She understands the title alone wears most non-scientific types out.
"I had some friends flip through just to make sure there were really words on
every page," she said with a laugh.
When she started her paper, Fabiosa said she knew nothing about Lyme
disease. She spent months learning about it, then developed a multifaceted
public health campaign that she tested on seventh-graders in Ames.
The verdict: The campaign was well-received, especially the puppet rap video.
Fabiosa isn't a newcomer to scientific research. Last year, she did a study on the
"Relationship Between Acetyl-transferase and Acetyl-COA in Arabidopsis
Thalian" as part of a biology internship at Iowa State University.
So exactly what is "Arabidopsis thalian?"
It's a plant, Fabiosa answers quickly, then yells up the stairs, "Mom, what's the
common name for Arabidopsis thalian again?"
Wall cress, responds her mom, Flor, a microbiologist at the Iowa State
veterinary medical school.
Dressed in jeans ripped out at the knees and a hooded white sweater with a gray
T-shirt underneath, bare feet showing off violet-painted toenails, Fabiosa jokes
that she's a cool nerd.
Or should that be a smart jock, she wonders.
Her e-mail handle is MmmFABULOUS and she admits the biggest
disappointment of her high school career is that advanced placement physics
and advanced placement calculus knocked her out of contention for a 4.0 grade
point.
The B's she got in both classes still sting.
"Oh my goodness, you do not know," she said. "They say you won't remember
the C or B you have in high school. I beg to differ."
At the same time, Fabiosa says if she had high school to do over, she'd worry
less about excelling and more about making friends and meeting people.
She said she's taking this spring off from soccer to concentrate on relationships.
"I've been so focused on grades and where I'm going to college, sometimes I
forget to be social," she said.
Although Fabiosa doesn't plan to make eradicating Lyme disease her life's work,
she does hope to take her interest in epidemiology further. Not in the lab, though.
She wants to do fieldwork.
Fabiosa said in college, she would like to study biochemistry or pre-med with the
goal of being a medical missionary.
She's leaning toward Wheaton College, a private Christian school in Illinois, for
that reason, although she said there's still a chance she could end up at Iowa
State.
"Did you see 'The End of the Spear?' " she asked. "Those missionaries were
from Wheaton. And Billy Graham graduated from there."
Fabiosa said she likes the idea of using her talents to do something better for the
world. Both her parents — her dad, Jacinto, is an economist at Iowa State — are
from the Philippines.
The family goes back almost every other year, and Fabiosa is keenly aware that
if she'd grown up there, her life might have been much different.
"I'm the person I am today because of the opportunity I was given," she said. "I
want to make as much of a difference in other people's lives as people have
done in mine."
Fabiosa paused for a second. "And climb Mount Rainier," she added.