Recent Graduate Profile
With graduation a few days away, Heidi Schwanz is just the slightest bit preoccupied.
Not about her remaining exams, mind you—she’s well prepared for those. Or about life after Luther—she’s obviously excited about starting graduate school a few months hence.
Nope, an active member of Luther’s rugby club, she’s concerned about filling her mom in on her most recent game.
“I broke my nose,” she explains, “and I haven’t told her yet.”
A broken nose wasn’t the only injury she sustained on the rugby pitch—bruises were commonplace for Schwanz, who gave it her all in the name of friendly competition. “My nickname was ‘bruiser,’” she says. “I always ended up at the bottom of the pile and got the best bruises.”
Schwanz displayed that same tenacity in her studies, graduating magna cum laude with a double-major in biology and chemistry. “I knew I wanted to stay in the Midwest, and it came down to Luther and Wartburg,” says the Inver Grove Heights, Minn., native of her decision to enroll at Luther. “I compared their science programs, and, unlike Luther, Wartburg didn’t offer a human dissection and anatomy course, which I really wanted to take.”
That course turned out to be just one of many endeavors Schwanz undertook in Valders Hall of Science. In addition to fulfilling the requirements for her rigorous double-major, she also logged numerous hours in the lab of Brad Chamberlain, assistant professor of chemistry and her mentor. Invited by Chamberlain to join his research team her first year on campus, Schwanz spent the next three academic years investigating how, in layman’s terms, to make plastic from corn.
Finding research to be a good fit—and interested in learning more about the medical field—Schwanz e-mailed Dawn Milliner, a physician at the Mayo Clinic Hyperoxaluria Center, during her sophomore year to inquire if the center might have any research work that summer.
It wasn’t a random inquiry.
Primary hyperoxaluria—a condition in which excess oxalate in the urine causes kidney and liver damage—had affected her late father, Mark, who underwent a kidney-liver transplant in 1987 due to complications from the disease.
“Dr. Milliner was my father’s physician at the time of his death,” says Schwanz. “She told me at that time that I should contact her if I became interested in a career in medicine when I got older.”
Schwanz went on to spend the next three summers at the center, accompanying physicians on rounds in the morning and conducting research in the afternoons. That research focused on two less invasive alternatives to liver biopsies (the standard way of diagnosing the disease)—one a simple clinical test and the other the molecular screening of genes. “Primary hyperoxaluria mainly affects children,” says Schwanz of the importance of that work, “and liver biopsies are really tough on kids.”
In addition to contributing to a paper published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology—“it’s pretty exciting to be published as an undergraduate,” she says—Schwanz also presented the results of her work at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in California in April and (with her colleagues) at the Eighth International Primary Hyperoxaluria Workshop in London in June.
The trip to Europe—on which she was accompanied by her mother Roxie—marked her third time abroad. As a sophomore at Luther, Schwanz explored Germany and France with the “Sacred Spaces of Western Europe” J-term class, and, a year later, traveled to Ghana with the “Slavery, Christianity, and Their Representation in African Literature” class.
Calling the latter trip “eye-opening,” she recalls one experience in particular—while visiting a school in Ghana’s Ashanti region, she and her classmates were struck by the fact that it had no computers. Then and there, they pledged to do something about the situation upon their return to Decorah.
Working with Luther’s Library and Information Services department, the class secured five used college computers to send back to the school and set about raising funds to build facilities in which to house them. Then president of the Alpha Beta Psi sorority, Schwanz spearheaded a fundraising initiative among the college’s Greek organizations to augment funds raised through benefit concerts held at Marty’s CyberCafé on campus and T-Bock’s Sports Bar and Grill (where she also worked) off it.
“We wanted to give something back that would help with educating the kids,” explains Schwanz, who also gave back closer to home by volunteering with Brain Busters, an after-school program in Decorah, and at the Winneshiek Medical Center.
As for what lies ahead—a five-year doctoral program in the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy—Schwanz, who is focusing her studies in the Division of Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry, knows she’s chosen the right path.
“I ultimately decided that the solid research experience I gained at Luther and Mayo was more valuable for me to build on,” she says of switching from applying to medical schools to doctoral programs midway through her senior year. “When I’m done, I can work in drug development for a pharmaceutical company, teach at a university, or do postdoctoral work—it’s very open-ended.”
And while clearly happy to be a Hawkeye, Schwanz maintains her allegiances lie elsewhere—at least when it comes to rugby.
“I have loyalty to my girls,” she says, “and I will try to play with the Luther team when they compete against Iowa.”
Even if that means sporting a few more bruises.
Written by Sara Friedl-Putnam, photo by Kyrl Henderson ’71; originally published in the Fall 2007 issue of the Luther Alumni Magazine.