Destrehan High School salutatorian Olivia Russell has a diverse set of interests — and she’s pretty darned good at all of them.
Russell plans to move on from her graduation at Destrehan High School this month to LSU, where she will pursue a career in the medical field as an epidemiologist. She also earned All-State and All-District honors for her voice in the honor choir and she received DHS’ Talented Art IV award. She also found time to put together a video for her senior project that detailed the recent outbreak of an infectious disease in South Korea.
How does she shift gears between subjects and skillsets?
“I really don’t,” she said with a smile. “I’m always doodling, singing songs in my head, thinking about (medical interests) … it’s all happening at once, really.”
She devoted her senior project to researching the impact of globalization on the field of infectious diseases. She noted the disease that spread in South Korea, a respiratory illness that Russell described as similar in ways to SARS, but more deadly, began with a single traveler who had flown there from the Middle East.
“The South Korea spread was the largest outbreak (of the disease) outside of the Middle East,” Russell said. “So, I wanted to show that and the growing importance of epidemiologists in the world, considering how interconnected we all are today and how easily disease can be spread across the world, in this case with just one plane ticket.”
She said she has always been interested in the medical field, but her focus on it intensified after she spent time in a summer program at Georgia Tech, a National Student Leadership Conference based on medicine and health.
Russell added the specific field of epidemiology, which is the branch of medicine that deals with the incidence, distribution, and possible control of diseases and other factors relating to health, appeals to her.
“I realized I would be better off treating entire populations instead of individual patients because I would probably get attached,” she said.
Russell hopes to double major in microbiology and international studies, focusing on East Asia.
“It’s a third of the world,” she said, adding she plans to minor in Korean and take some classes in Mandarin to allow her to communicate effectively. “(Korea) is a small country, but I love the culture, language, music, everything about it.”
Her favorite after-school activity is choir and Russell is very proud of the All-State recognition she received for her soprano voice, admitting it wasn’t entirely expected. She plans to sing with the LSU choir and is excited about that prospect.
“I don’t want to say the cliché, ‘I never thought I’d get it,’ but my throat (the day of her All-State audition) was very sore,” she said. “I’ve always loved to sing. My whole family would sing to me and we’d sing together.”
She exercises her artistic talent plenty as well, noting her favorite things to illustrate include human portraits, particularly of the face.
“Eyes are my favorite,” she said. “For example, doing the thing that no matter where you are they’re looking at you. Sometimes I’ve actually been able to achieve that.”
She credits her well-rounded skill set to the family she comes from.
“My grandfather does the Way of the Cross illustrations at St. Charles Borromeo, and I’m actually starting to take some of the stations,” she said. “My mom’s side of the family is really artistic, while my dad’s side is all about math and science. I double-dipped.”
Be the first to comment