Have you ever presented to a world wide audience? Luci Flanagan has. A graduate of the Saint Joe class of 2023, she earned a momentous achievement last year when she was not only awarded a second place in the State Science Fair, but also went to the International Science and Engineering Fair. This week-long event took place in Dallas, Texas in May of 2023.
Flanagan is the first student in the history of Saint Joseph High School to attend the International Science Fair. In the summer of 2022, she worked at an internship at Notre Dame’s Harper Research Program where she worked in a lab studying cancer cells.
Flanagan studied proteins that “may determine if certain chemotherapies will be able to kill ovarian cancer cells.” This research will help determine if a treatment will help a patient who suffers from ovarian cancer.
Flanagan says “Predicting if a treatment will effectively kill the cancer, rather than administering a chemotherapy that has a lot of side effects and just predicting the results, could help save a lot of women’s lives.” Flanagan conducted this research under the mentorship of Dr. Prosperi at the University of Notre Dame.
Flanagan then decided to enter her groundbreaking work in the local level of the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). However, because Saint Joe does not have a science fair program, she entered this process through the Harper Cancer Research program with the help of Mr. Andrzejewski – Marian’s science teacher. Flanagan quickly propelled through the local and regional levels of ISEF and made it all the way to state level. Here she won second place and earned a spot to compete in the international fair.
It was in this international fair that Luci presented to a world wide audience. This was a momentous achievement for any student to achieve. Hopefully more students will be able to follow in her footsteps and model her path to success.
