De Pere’s Angela Smet is UW-Green Bay’s ‘Most Outstanding’
Angela Smet will soon start a new journey on a new campus, having gained acceptance into the Medical College of Wisconsin. But first, she accepted the highest award presented by the Alumni Association to graduating seniors — the Outstanding Student Award.
The De Pere, Wis. native accepted the award at a May 12 award ceremony on campus. Smet received her bachelor of science degree in Human Biology, Saturday, May 13, 2017, graduating with a near perfect grade grade point average and summa cum laude (highest) distinction.
The Alumni Association, which has been designating a single Outstanding Student Award recipient for each graduating class since 1976, recognized Smet for her undergraduate success as a student, researcher and volunteer in service to others. She was nominated and selected from among approximately 920 graduating seniors eligible to receive diplomas at May commencement.
Smet enjoyed careers as a Hyperbaric Safety Director and a Clinical Wound Care Coordinator before enrolling full-time at UW-Green Bay in 2014. To say she has made the most of her time as an adult student is an understatement: Smet received high or highest honors for five consecutive semesters — every semester she was a full-time student. She was named to the Alpha Sigma Lamda National Honor Society in Fall 2015, an organization recognizing scholarship and leadership among adult students, and was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi that same year in recognition of her academic excellence.
In Spring 2016, Smet received a UW-Green Bay Leadership Award for demonstrating active and meaningful campus and/or community involvement while maintaining evidence of academic quality, demonstrated leadership ability, providing service to UW-Green Bay and/or the community and showing potential for further achievement and commitment to personal growth.
She has created a lasting impact on her field of study, human biology, through her work as an intern for the College of Science and Technology, conducting outreach to high schools in Northeast Wisconsin to increase awareness about the science programs available at UW-Green Bay and the career opportunities that await the students of tomorrow. In addition, Smet worked to create a series of anatomy and physiology dissection videos, designed as an online resource to assist students conducting lab work 24/7, including during non-traditional lab hours due to juggling numerous school and coursework responsibilities, employment and family circumstances — a world with which she is familiar as an adult student.
While on campus. Smet was an active leader, serving as student vice president for Phi Kappa Phi and assisting with on-campus community service projects including an elementary school book drive, Ghana science book drive, Honors Week, and an elementary school supply drive. She was also a member of the Sustainable, Local & Organic Garden Club, assisting with weekly watering, planting, planning, and outreach efforts.
Her academic and pre-professional experience includes, but is not limited to, cadaver dissection, research in green exercise, and serving as a “Life’s a Lab” Science Camp Teaching Assistant. She was one of only two students to volunteer for the first UW-Green Bay crainiotomy and brain dissection.
Smet’s passion to educate, teach and heal make her future plans no surprise. Following graduation, she will attend the Medical College of Wisconsin Green Bay as a first-year medical student. She is the first college graduate in her family.
Smet has this to say about her UW-Green Bay experience: “I love UW-Green Bay as my home and my family. Today, I am a confident, well-educated young woman raising a future college graduate. Each day, I wake up so incredibly thankful and proud of my education.”
