Amy Phoenix McClain, a senior from Blue Valley High School, is the winner of the Lenora N. McGregor Endowed Scholarship at Wichita State University.

The Lenora N. McGregor Endowed Scholarship was established in 1963 to support an incoming first-year student who has demonstrated academic excellence in the past, has an academic vision for the future, and who expresses an interest in advancing knowledge through individual learning. The scholarship awards $26,000 over four years.

The winner of the McGregor Scholarship participates in Honors at WSU. One of the earliest Honors programs in the country was founded at WSU in 1957 to offer highly motivated and academically talented undergraduates a strong student network, challenging courses and faculty mentorship.

The tradition of Honors at WSU will be carried into the new Honors College and Honors Living Learning Community located in the residence hall opening at the heart of campus in fall 2014. To be admitted to Honors, a student must have a minimum 3.7 high school GPA or 27 ACT score or a 3.5 college GPA.

Amy McClain, the daughter of Gary and Diana McClain, has excelled as a scholar and an athlete at Blue Valley. She serves as the vice president of the BioClub, is an active member in the National Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta Math Honor Society and is currently working on a project to present at the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition this summer. Amy is also a member of the Blue Valley dance and color guard team as well as the track and field team for pole vaulting.

As a child, McClain was fascinated by nature and technology. While at Wichita State, McClain plans to extend this fascination into a major in Bioengineering. A rapidly growing undergraduate engineering program at WSU, Bioengineering integrates coursework from the sciences and engineering to address clinical needs and advance human health.

Bioengineering students engage in research, interact with health care providers, and design devices and concepts to address unmet clinical and health needs. The Bioengineering curriculum prepares students for graduate school, application for medical schools, and careers in the biomedical industry.

McClain says that she wants to study science and engineering so that she can help others. During high school, she completed more than 400 hours of community service, including volunteering for a local hospital, art work for an adult severely handicapped day care center, and serving as a team captain for Relay for Life.

She is looking forward to continuing her community involvement, to undergraduate research and to studying abroad while a student at Wichita State.