Kiwi Tops American University

Kiwi Tops American University: Takes Double Honours

Former University of Otago graduate, Kate Reaney, will graduate top of George Washington University’s Master of Health Science Degree ahead of America’s most elite academic students on Saturday August 18, 2001.

Making history as the first foreign student to graduate from the restricted entry course, Reaney will accept a further honour on Saturday.

Twenty-nine year-old Reaney will be the first New Zealander inducted into the American Alpha Eta Honors Society - an elite organisation recognising outstanding academic achievement among American students.

Former George Washington University’s Professor of Medicine, William Marquardt, says only four students from the university are accepted into the Society each year.

“This is an outstanding achievement for an international student who is foreign to the United States education system to take such a place in an American Society,” Professor Marquardt says.

“Kate is the type of student America does not want to lose.”

The Honors Society is hailed as America’s most highly regarded intellectual capital and is available to professional firms, industrial organisations and Government to use as a think tank to problem solve and tackle advanced projects or ideas.

Originally from Hawke’s Bay, Reaney’s exceptional academic performance at Woodford House, Wakatipu High School in Queenstown and the University of Otago saw her the first foreigner student to be accepted in George Washington University Health Science programme in 1999.

Competing in the international arena is second nature for Reaney, a former member of the New Zealand Ski Team, who represented the country at the World Alpine Ski Racing Championships in Saalbach, Austria in 1991.

Reaney says she is pleased with her latest achievement and looks forward to celebrating graduation with her parents and younger sister on Saturday.

Ends

© Scoop Media