Melanie Spero, Biotechnology Major and George H. Cook Scholar, is Rutgers’ Undergraduate Commencement Speaker

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – For Melanie Spero, Rutgers’ commencement ceremony will be a very different experience than her graduation from tiny East Granby High School, the smallest public secondary school in Connecticut, where she walked with only 52 classmates four years ago. Not only will Spero be among 7,200 undergraduates (and about 3,600 graduate students) receiving degrees on May 21, but she also will be the 2008 undergraduate commencement speaker, an honor bestowed by faculty and staff based on the recommendations of the university’s college deans.

Spero becomes only the fourth undergraduate to speak at the university commencement as part of a new tradition established by Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick in 2004. The president confers degrees on representatives from all 27 degree-granting schools and colleges, but only doctoral students and master’s recipients from select units cross the platform during commencement. Undergraduates receive their diplomas at collegiate convocations.

A biotechnology major with a minor in biochemistry, Spero will graduate from Rutgers’ School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. She is a George H. Cook Scholar in the honors program. After graduation, she will pursue a doctorate in microbiology at the University of Wisconsin, where she was awarded a biotechnology training grant from the National Institutes of Health. Spero hopes to become a leading researcher and professor of microbiology at a large research institution.

Spero’s interest in biotechnology began on a high school trip, when she saw how a plant was rendered resistant to a pathogen through a cloned gene. “From that experience, I looked for colleges and universities with established biotechnology programs,” she said.

The search led to Rutgers, where she was accepted into her school’s honors program. That placement enabled Spero to conduct research in just her sophomore year at the Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment.

“I was interested in becoming involved with research since high school,” Spero said. “Rutgers has a really well-developed biotechnology program. It’s a large research institution so I knew there would be plenty of research opportunities here.”

The university’s size was daunting – about 50,000 students are enrolled on campuses in Camden, Newark and New Brunswick – but Spero embraced the challenge. “Coming to Rutgers was definitely an adjustment because I was used to knowing everything and everyone in my surroundings. But I found that it was exciting trying to get comfortable in a new place,” she said.

Spero received an Aresty Undergraduate Research Grant and tackled a senior thesis project with plant science Professor Eric Lam, developing a novel system to study the redox state in plants.

In addition to her demanding academic schedule, Spero became a member of the crew team as a first-year student and was a key contributor. As a junior, she was inducted into the National College Athlete Honor Society, Chi Alpha Sigma, in recognition of her outstanding scholarship and athletic accomplishments. The discipline she developed through sports and school has motivated her, she said. “In rowing, you can reach a point where you think about quitting or taking the easy way out, but you push yourself through the tough times because the feelings of accomplishment are worth the struggle,” she said.

Spero said her times at Rutgers have been “amazing” and she is surprised and thrilled to be chosen to speak at commencement. She plans to talk about her overall experience, including rowing and her research project.

Though Melanie is leaving, Rutgers won’t be saying good-bye to the Spero family. This fall, her older sister, Jill, will enter the doctoral program in school psychology at Rutgers.