Partner helped science student achieve top ranking

When Lincoln Foerster receives a BSc with honours in microbiology at graduation from UVic this month, he will also lay claim to the University of Victoria Jubilee Medal for Science for achieving the highest grade-point average in his class. Foerster has accumulated a perfect 9.0.

The medal represents “a lot of hard work,” Foerster acknowledges. He attributes his success in large part to his study partner and girlfriend Celina Horn, who was in the same program and nearly matched his academic performance.

“Whenever I started to lose motivation and wonder why I was working so hard, she would pick me up,” he says. And he did the same for her; she narrowly missed also getting a perfect 9.0. They have been together all the way through, and both will start medical school at the University of Calgary in September.

In addition to Celina’s support, Foerster says he had support from his parents and “good mentors and good teachers” all along the way.

UVic professor Dr. Martin Boulanger was particularly inspiring, Foerster says. Boulanger is “passionate” about his work and communicated that passion to Foerster when he did an honours project in the professor’s biochemistry lab last year. Foerster worked in the lab 15 hours a week for two semesters studying a parasite and the protein it uses to attach to and invade host cells.

Working in the lab and having one-on-one conversations with Boulanger about developments in the field stands out as one of Foerster’s best experiences at UVic.

Although these conversations instilled a “love for science” in Foerster, in his future career he wants to be able to help people directly. The poverty and health issues he witnessed when he took time away from school for a six-month trip to Central America and a seven-month trip to South America have motivated Foerster to spend time with an organization like Doctors Without Borders once he finishes his medical training.

Foerster has already begun working with people directly, both on and off campus. At UVic, he participated in the World University Service of Canada, a student refugee program that sponsors students from Africa to come to UVic to study. Foerster worked with the students to orient them to Canadian culture and to help them through the course selection and registration process.

“It was a great experience,” he says.

He also volunteered at Aberdeen Hospital in Victoria, an extended health care facility. There he met and socialized with the residents each week, playing cards and talking with them.