Wendy Hartsock, winner of an American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education pre-doctoral fellowship, works in her lab on Kansas University’s West Campus. Her current research focuses on creating biological-based therapies for pain relief that don’t have side effects.

Rebellious high school dropouts don’t usually end up winning prestigious national awards, but that’s exactly what Kansas University doctoral student and graduate research assistant Wendy Jeanne Hartsock has done.

Hartsock, 30, has been awarded a pre-doctoral fellowship for her research by the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education.

“It’s still hard to believe,” Hartsock says. “It’s an honor for me to be recognized as a capable scientist by the AFPE. The award will open doors and broaden my opportunities to engage in leading pharmaceutical research.”

It’s a far cry from her Flagstaff, Ariz., school days.

“I hated junior and senior high,” she says. “I rebelled, missed a lot of school, and most of the teachers didn’t know what to do with me.”

“The school district assigned a home-school teacher for my 10th grade, and when the arrangement ended I didn’t return for the 11th grade. I didn’t see the point in staying at school.”

She drifted, wrote poetry and music, and went to Salt Lake City to play in punk rock bands. After two years of rebellion, she decided to return to school and achieve her childhood dream of becoming a veterinarian.

She completed her GED at Coconino Community College in Arizona, graduated from Northern Arizona University with a B.S. in chemistry and zoology in 2001, received an American Institute of Chemistry Award in 2002 and graduated with an M.S. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Arizona in 2005.

“The chemistry award surprised me,” she admits. “I’d failed prep chemistry at community college. I wanted to stay in the biology and zoology fields, but my interest in chemistry was sparked during an organic chemistry course. The deeper I went into chemistry, the more it drove me to find out what was really going on with molecules. I continued studying biology and chemistry together, learned how to integrate them and decided I’d become a biological chemist.”

Her current research at Kansas University focuses on creating biological-based therapies for pain relief that don’t have side effects.

Her prestigious award has enabled her to purchase a new computer capable of handling all the document and presentation files generated by her new research.

Hartsock remains bemused by the development of her academic career.

“I’ve gone from being a high school dropout to being a perpetual, enthusiastic student,” she says.