As a diligent Stanford junior majoring in human biology and planning a career as a physician, Hayley Wester spent a lot of time in a campus lab researching cystic fibrosis. But she never had a chance to fill out those med school applications. Wester died of cystic fibrosis last July at age 22.
"She had such a charisma and an energy," says classmate Colt Tipton, '99. "She just drew people to her."
Inspired by that memory, Tipton has established an endowment to provide grants to undergraduates interested in researching cystic fibrosis or other genetic diseases.
Jeffrey Wine, a psychology professor who supervised Wester's research at his cystic fibrosis laboratory, said an undergraduate fund is a fitting memorial for Wester. "Some proportion of these students then go on and become interested in CF research as MDs or PhDs," Wine says. "That's an additional benefit for the field."
When Wester woke up from her last lung transplant, she asked immediately for a pad of paper and a pen. On it she wrote: "I'm alive. I'm alive." Through the research fund, Tipton hopes that spirit will live on.
