FIU student, philanthropist recognized by National Collegiate Honors Council

FIU student Daniel J. Tapanes was recently honored as the 2011-2012 Student of the Year at the annual National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC) conference in Phoenix, Ariz.

The recognition is the only NCHC award given to students by a student board. It is given to scholars that are highly involved in honors regionally or nationally and demonstrate a passion for education and discovery through academics, research and volunteer projects.

“It’s a huge honor to even be recognized and to receive the award from the NCHC,” Tapanes said, a student in the Honors College and part of the Quantifying Biology in the Classroom (QBIC) Program in the College of Arts & Sciences. “But an award is just an award. It doesn’t validate what I do. I do what I do because I enjoy it, and it makes me happy.”

Tapanes is an active researcher in the lab and in the field. He aspires to be a combined M.D.-Ph.d. specializing in infectious diseases. In July 2011, he went to Peru with the Honors College Study Abroad program to study the transmission of parasites from freshwater fish to humans in the Amazon. He also spent an extra six weeks to raise funds for supplies, staffing and utilities for a rural clinic in the town of Yanashi, in addition to garnering local government cooperation to build a clinic in Comandencia.

“I never really grew up with the idea that other people might not have the things that I do have. That’s why I went to Peru this summer to do research and experience living in a third-world country,” Tapanes said. “My long-term goal is to help those that don’t have access to proper medical care, particularly in rural South America. I also want to teach and if I could make the time to run a lab, I’d be lucky.”

In September, Tapanes was recognized for his service to the city of Sweetwater for donating 800 books and 300 school kits to the Lil’ Abner Foundation Center. He also has coordinated a literacy campaign that has collected and distributed more than 10,000 books to inner city schools throughout Miami-Dade County since 2006.

Tapanes is awaiting the publication of his first manuscript, The Future of Medicine: Ethnicity, Gender and the MCAT, by the FIU Honors College Online Journal. After analyzing published data from the Association of American Medical Colleges, Tapanes found there is a significant difference in the MCAT scores between ethnic groups but not gender groups.

“I’m a multidimensional person, and I do tend to go off on tangents sometimes,” Tapanes said. “I have to be chaotic at all times to be successful. I’m basically that cook that has too many ingredients on his table.”

Tapanes is a junior majoring in biological sciences and minoring in chemistry and humanities.

“Danny is a multifaceted student that takes initiative,”  said Ophelia Weeks, director of QBIC. “When he was working as a student assistant with QBIC his freshman year, he created a survival guide for incoming students that were new to the program. No one asked him to create it, he did it on his own accord. Daniel’s an exceptional person and always offers to help others.”