Dana Thomas recently concluded her junior season on the volleyball court, but the middle hitter's life at Oberlin goes well beyond her kill and block totals.
Thomas used her 6-foot frame to post a career- and team-best hitting percentage of .281 in 2016. Additionally, she was second on the team in kills this season with 193 and tied for first on the team in blocks with 46. Her versatility as both an offensive and defensive player has solidified her role as one of the most valuable players on Head Coach
Erica Rau's team.
However, for the Cincinnati, Ohio, native her most prized asset isn't her jumping ability or the pace of her swing on a kill – it's her brain. As a neuroscience major, Thomas has long been intrigued with the body's most powerful tool.
Professor of neuroscience, Leslie Kwakye, mentored Thomas throughout her first few years at Oberlin, guiding her on a path to neurobiology while she minors in Hispanic studies.
"I've felt very enriched by my classes at Oberlin," Dana explains. Her attraction to science, paired with Oberlin College research fellowship opportunities, allowed Thomas to stay on campus last summer to conduct research on autism spectrum disorder with Professor Bradley Carter. She was selected after applying for the heavily contested position.
"We were testing environmental compounds to see how they affected neurodevelopment," she said.
Specifically she was testing trichloroethylene, an environmental compound found primarily in dry cleaning agents, on zebrafish embryos to observe effects on neurodevelopment. Long-term goals of the project include finding alterations in developmental pathways and genes in zebrafish and correlating those to pathways found in individuals with autism spectrum disorder.
At the end of October, Thomas presented her findings at Oberlin's Celebration of Undergraduate Research, and in early November she attended the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) in Tampa, Florida. ABRCMS is one of the largest national conferences for minority students pursuing a career path in the STEM fields. The conference is designed to encourage underrepresented minority students to pursue advanced training in STEM and provide faculty mentors and advisors with resources for facilitating students' success.
"It was a great opportunity to present my research poster from the neuroscience work I did this summer. It was also a great networking opportunity and allowed me to connect with many graduate schools and potential mentors moving forward."
Her ambition to pursue the complex field of neuroscience in college is mirrored in her ambition in her volleyball career – a passion that grew over time.
"Volleyball was something I just did for fun with my friends," recalls Thomas about her days playing as a youth.
Things became more serious when she enter entered high school and began playing club volleyball. It was on the club circuit where Dana was noticed by Coach Rau and her recruitment to Oberlin started shortly thereafter.
The Yeowomen have had their fair share of adversity on the court, but Thomas still has high hopes for her senior season next fall.
"We definitely have talent. We have a lot to build on for next year, and I believe we'll be able to fix the aspects we need improvement on."
That talent was on display at the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament last month as Oberlin took a set from top-seeded, and eventual conference champion, Wittenberg University.
Her most memorable on-court experience came in 2015 against archrival Kenyon College, when she and her teammates knocked off the Ladies on the road 3-1 in a highly anticipated match-up.
Thomas plans to attend graduate school to study neuroscience after graduation, but before then, she has a senior season to look forward to.
"I'm excited at the prospect of possibly being a captain, and I really think that we can move up in the conference standings and hopefully end my Oberlin career on a high note."
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