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Lee University senior Sarah Bertram recently won third place for her poster presentation at the 133rd annual meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science. Her research, “Type II Diabetes: Knowledge and Risk Assessment for College Students,” was presented in the Health and Medical Sciences section of the meeting, hosted by Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee.  

Bertram’s research looked at the physical and nutritional habits of college students to compare what their practices were to the recommended practices that research proved healthy. She asked students about what they knew of type II diabetes and assessed their physical and nutritional activity both during the summer and while in school. Her results found that most had good physical activity levels, but nutritionally, the results showed varying levels of healthy practice.  

According to Bertram, a symptom of type II diabetes is diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of vision loss, which interested Bertram even more in her research topic.  

“My study on type II diabetes was a passion project to better educate and understand my eventual patients as a future optometrist,” said Bertram. “Through all my studies, I learned that prevention is consistently the best medicine.” 

Through her research process, Bertram also learned more about surveys and how to distribute them on various online platforms and developed a better understanding of dietary habits.  

Bertram, a health science major from Robbins, Tennessee, is a member of Lee’s McNair Scholars Program, which is designed to provide first-generation and underrepresented minority students with academic, financial, cultural, and social support while preparing for graduate school.  

“Sarah has been a joy to work with,” said Dr. Pamela Hobbs, assistant professor of health science at Lee. “As a biology pre-optometry student, she is passionate about diabetes and its effect on eye health which is portrayed in her research and poster presentation. Sarah is a gifted student and shows great promise as a scholar and future professional. She did a superb job presenting her research poster and is very deserving of this award. I am proud of Sarah and her accomplishments.”  

Bertram’s research paper is published in Lee University’s 2023 McNair Academic Journal. For more information about the McNair Scholars Program or to view Bertram’s research paper, visit leeu/mcnair/.  

For more information about the Tennessee Academy of Science, visit tennacadofsci.org/.