We Are Knox...

by Stephen Danilovich '14

After graduating from Knox College in 2011, David Kurian is now attending medical school with "a strong desire to learn and a belief that I can make a difference."

Those are values he picked up while at Knox, said Kurian, a biology major from Elburn, Illinois. "Knox gave me a solid foundation to build on."

He plans to use what he learned at Knox to continue on his path of becoming a doctor. He aspires to practice medicine around the world, wherever he may put his skills to good use.

"I'd like to spend most of my time helping those who really need it -- fighting hunger and malnutrition in developing nations," Kurian said about his future plans. "There's a lot of need, and it doesn't take much to make a big difference."

Through the Knox-George Washington University Early Selection Program, Kurian was offered admission to The George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., during his sophomore year.

As an incoming first-year student at Knox, Kurian already intended to major in biology. Still, he said, he never felt "pigeonholed."

"I felt Knox was admitting me as a person, not as a biology student specifically," he explained. "I've been able to do a lot of photography and ceramics and music, while also staying committed to my biology major."

A member of Sigma Chi fraternity, Kurian was able to develop plenty of interests beyond his field of study. One of these was in his physics classes, taught by Associate Professor Mark Shroyer, who introduced him to a branch of science he used to fear.

"I'd never taken physics before and was really intimidated coming into Knox," Kurian said. "(Professor Shroyer) exuded intensity and love for his subject. It, soon enough, had me loving every physics class I had."

As co-captain of the Ultimate Frisbee team at Knox, Kurian was also a committed athlete and team player.

"The game is just a fun game to play," Kurian said about the sport he describes as a mixture of soccer, football, and basketball. "It involves a lot of athleticism. It's also pretty intense because the action never really stops."

Kurian decided to combine his interests in the sciences with his passion for Ultimate Frisbee for his senior research project. He analyzed the technique of disc-throwing, filming people with different levels of experience and paying particular attention to the positions of their wrists, elbows, shoulders, and heads.

"We looked at the backhand throw and what factors go into creating an accurate throw -- why one person is more consistently accurate than another person, and why a new player may be more prone to be inaccurate," said Kurian.

Kurian presented his research, "A Comparative Survey of Backhand Frisbee Throw Mechanics," at the 103rd annual meeting of the Illinois State Academy of Science. It won him first place within the Health Sciences division.

"At Knox, most of the upper-level biology classes really prepared me for that," he said. "We were required to do presentations and speak in front of a class and know our subject material well."

Looking back at his four years at Knox, Kurian remembers with fondness the opportunities he had to pursue a wide range of interests.

"That's one of the main things I appreciate about Knox -- the fact that it gives you the freedom to do so many things at once."