14
community
february16
2017
Where Are They Now?
in fl ood recovery mode, being bussed
to school in Scappoose immediately
following the fl ood and then attending
classes in modular class rooms for her
fi nal three years. Kristina was active
in school, participating in cheerleading,
cross country, basketball, and track, as
well as leadership class, but says the
fl ood did impact her education at VHS.
“I didn’t have the opportunity
to take AP courses because the school
didn’t have the resources to provide
those following the fl ood,” says Halv-
erson about her Vernonia school experi-
ence. “When I got to college, everyone
in my classes would say, ‘Oh, I learned
that in my AP Biology class in high
school,’ or stuff like that. I didn’t get the
chance to take those college level classes
in high school. At fi rst I felt like maybe I
didn’t belong and I really struggled with
that.”
Halverson says she feels like she
got a good education at VHS and that the
instructors did the best they could given
the circumstances and with the resources
they had, it just wasn’t as much as she
would have liked. “We lost so much
school time our freshman year and I felt
like we were always trying to catch up.
We were all so far behind and I felt like
that continued into the following years.”
Despite those obstacles Halv-
erson did fi nd ways to succeed at OSU.
“I did have a lot of people who helped
me in college and I had a slogan I used
that I learned from a TED talk, ‘Fake it
till you make it,’ and that helped me get
through,” says Halverson with a laugh.
continued from front page
Halverson started out majoring
in Civil Engineering, but on the fi rst day
of classes, she says she learned that it
wasn’t going to be for her. She changed
her major to Chemical Engineering, and
then changed again in her third year to
Chemistry. “Chemical Engineering was
really interesting to me, but it wasn’t
something I could see myself doing for
the rest of my life and didn’t fi t where
I wanted to end up. I found I wanted to
do something more biology related and
had the idea of working with cancer, so I
changed my major to Chemistry.”
At OSU Halverson started work-
ing doing outreach to middle school
students, especially students in rural
schools, encouraging them to go into
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineer-
ing, and Math) educational studies.
After that she took a job in a tox-
icology lab, where her project involved
analysis of data collected ten years ago
that looked at the impact of smoking and
obesity on the micro RNA of the lungs in
mice. “It was not directly related to can-
cer but some of the other research that
was going on in the lab at the time had
to do with cancer,” explains Halverson.
“I’m hopefully going to have that work
published sometime soon.”
Halverson graduated from OSU
this past June and was excited to fi nd
out she had received a job offer from
OHSU at the Knight Cancer Institute,
where she offi cially starts on February
21. At OHSU she’ll be working on Leu-
kemia research and looking at gene mu-
tations in cancer and how that impacts
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treatments. “I have not been placed on
a project yet, so I don’t know what I’ll
be doing exactly,” says Halverson. “I’m
still not sure which kind of cancer I want
to study, but different cancers are similar
in certain ways, and different in others,
but a lot of it can still be applied.”
Halverson says her goal is to use
the research and the experience she gains
working in the lab to go to grad school
at OHSU and get her PHD so she can
eventually work in pharmaceuticals and
study drugs that are being considered for
treating cancer. “I felt like I needed a
little more experience, especially since
my previous project wasn’t directly cor-
related to cancer.”
When she’s not studying or
working in the lab, Halverson and her
boyfriend enjoy hiking. She has a cat
and also enjoys working with her hands;
she likes to sew and do crafts. She says
she would like to take a shop class be-
cause she missed out on that in high
school.
As an accomplished scholar,
Halverson offered some useful advice
to current high school students: learn
good study habits while in high school
and before heading on to college; learn
good time management skills because
those are also important at college; when
in college, don’t be afraid to develop a
personal relationship with your profes-
sors and get to know them and don’t be
afraid to ask them for help – they will
be more likely to offer assistance or ex-
tensions on assignments and work with
you if they know who you are. She
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also understands that a four year degree
or university education isn’t for every-
one. “Community colleges are great and
way cheaper,” says Halverson. “Trade
schools are also really awesome and bet-
ter for some people than a four year de-
gree program. Not everyone can sit in
a classroom all day long and learn. Not
everyone is the same.”
Kristina Halverson was awarded
the Senior Cup at her VHS
graduation in 2011.
For Halverson, that last item
was particularly relevant. She learned in
college that she is much more of a hands-
on learner and really got engaged in
her education when she started work-
ing in labs. “In high school I thought
I really like learning in school,” says
Halverson. “In college I realized that
I didn’t just learn from reading a book,
I learned more from hands-on things I
was doing at work and in my labs for
school classes.”
Halverson looks back on her
time in Vernonia fondly and as a real
stepping stone that has helped lead her
to the success she has had in college
and in her just-beginning research ca-
reer.
“A lot of the teachers in Verno-
nia were really helpful and very sup-
portive all through high school and
helped me stay on track and get me
where I am today,” says Halverson. “I
owe them a lot of credit.”
Shop Hours: Mon - Fri 9:00 - 6:00
Church Directory
Assembly of God
Sunday School: 9:45 am
Morning Worship: 11:00 am
Sunday Evening Prayer: 6:00 pm
Wayne Marr, Pastor
662 Jefferson Avenue
503-429-0373
Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter Day Saints
Sunday Schedule:
Sacrament Meeting: 10:00 am
Sunday School & Primary: 11:20 am
Relief Society, Priesthood and
Young Women: 12:10 pm
Roger Cook, Branch President
1350 E. Knott Street
503-429-7151
Grace Family Fellowship
Sunday School: 9:00 am
Worship Service: 10:30 am
Thursday Prayer: 6:00 pm
Greg “Mac” McCallum, Pastor
957 State Avenue
503-429-6790
Nehalem Valley Bible Church
Sunday School: 9:45 am
Worship Service: 10:45 am
Tues. Ladies Bible Study: 9:30 am
Wednesday Service: 7:00 pm
Sat. Men’s Prayer Meeting: 6:30 am
Gary Taylor, Pastor
Grant & North Streets
503-429-5378
Open Door Gathering Place
Service: Sunday 6:00 pm
Grant Williams, Pastor
375 North Street
503-702-3553
St. Mary’s Catholic Church
Wednesday Religious Education:
3:15-4:30 pm
Sunday Mass: 12:00 pm
Rev. Luan Tran, Administrator
960 Missouri Avenue
503-429-8841
Vernonia Christian Church
Sunday School: 9:45 am
Worship Service in Youth &
Family Center: 11:00 AM
www.VernoniaChristianChurch.org
Sam Hough, Pastor
410 North Street
503-429-6522
Vernonia Foursquare Church
Sunday Worship Service: 10:30 am
Children’s Sunday School
Carl Pense, Pastor
850 Madison Avenue
503-429-1103
Vernonia Seventh-day Adventist Church
Sabbath (Saturday) Services
Sabbath School: 9:30 am
Worship Service: 11:00 am
www.VernoniaSDAC.org
Larry Gibson, Pastor
2nd Ave. and Nehalem St.
503-429-8301