People should expect big things from Seth Washispack, a sophomore at the U of A. The 20-year-old Biomedical Engineering major is going above and beyond what is typically expected from a college student.
Apart from co-founding the Freshman Engineering Leadership Team his freshman year, this Arkansas native is involved in Campus Crusades for Christ, Arkansas Engineers Abroad and spends his free time with two research projects on-campus.
“I work with a professor to try and make a liquid turn into a gel at body temperature in order to deliver drugs directly to one place without them going to other places in the body,” Washispack said.
Washispack’s first project is in biomedical engineering with Dr. David Zaharoff and he said he hopes to publish as many papers as possible throughout his time at the university.
“If you just had breast cancer taken out, you could inject it and make sure it kills the rest of the cells around that area,” Washispack said. “But it’s not going through your blood stream, so it’s not killing all these other cells that aren’t necessary.”
His second project is working with Dr. Patricia Herzog to see if they can quantify social disorganization. Washispack said he hopes to publish a paper by the end of the semester with his professor.
Washispack attends New Heights church and will spend six weeks of his summer doing mission work in Albania. The group will perform different missions each week that range from visiting orphanages to spending time with Roma Gypsies.
He said a book, “Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary” by J.D. Greear, has had the biggest impact on his life while he has been at school.
“The book just talked about how much God loves us and it’s more amazing than we could ever dream or imagine,” Washispack said.
Washispack said before graduation he hopes to meet at least one-fourth of the sophomore class, compete in elite gymnastics, and start an after-school program related to his sociology research project.
After graduation, he also plans to attend medical school and get his M.D., Ph.D., or go through an accelerated program to graduate with both.
“I’m not busy, no, not at all,” Washispack said.