Psychology major Jane Jih received UIC's top undergraduate academic award, the Donald and Leah Riddle Prize, named for former chancellor Donald Riddle and his wife.

Jih was accepted at UIC under the Guaranteed Professional Program Admissions initiative. Students admitted under the GPPA program are guaranteed admission to any of UIC's professional programs as long as they maintain good overall grades. The program attracts hundreds of the most talented students in the state to campus.

Jih maintained a perfect academic record and excelled outside the classroom as well. She worked and trained in research at the UIC Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience and the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. At UIC, she was a research assistant in the laboratory of Michael Ragozzino, assistant professor of psychology, and was a coauthor on a report of their work in a publication on brain research.

A three-year veteran of Alternative Spring Break, the student organization that fulfills service needs across the country, Jih worked on drought-stricken farms in rural North Carolina, led a student team working with developmentally disabled adults on a Navajo Indian reservation, and headed a team that helped sexually abused girls in South Carolina.

"The opportunities I explored confirmed my commitment to public service and deepened my desire to care for patients. I also began to see the power of education, especially public health education, to improve the lives of people, especially people I would never meet," said Jih.

Before entering medical school, Jih is spending a year studying the subgenomic types of the hepatitis B virus in Taiwan, where a large segment of the population has been exposed to the virus. With the help of Richard Barrett, associate professor of sociology, Jih designed her study, which is being funded by her award from the National Security Education Program.

Jih, along with fellow UIC student Himabindu Vidula, also received the J. W. Saxe Memorial Prize for Public Service. The J. W. Saxe Memorial Fund awards prizes annually to undergraduate or graduate students working in public service.