Hanford native Basha Stankovich made her late grandfather's dream come true on May 16. He dreamt that one day there would be a doctor in the family and when the 34-year-old Stankovich graduated with her doctorate in quantitative and systems biology from University of California, Merced she fulfilled that dream -- in the presence of first lady Michelle Obama no less.

Stankovich joined the first class of 13 graduate students in fall 2004, one year before California's youngest public university had even opened its doors to undergraduate students.

"Not many people realize they had grad students before undergrad students were on campus," Stankovich said.

Stankovich was born and raised in Hanford and graduated with honors from Hanford High School in 1993 before obtaining her bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Westmont College in Santa Barbara and her master's degree in biochemistry from California State University, East Bay.

"I've always wanted to pursue my Ph.D., so when I found out UC Merced was opening I wanted to be part of it,"

For the first year she and two other students in the biology program did research at Castle Air Force Base in unincorporated Merced County because the school was still under construction.

When she began taking classes toward her doctorate she was doing biotech research for a pharmaceutical-based company in the Bay Area.

Her father is Kings County Superintendent of Schools John Stankovich, who said he is really proud to see his daughter pursue her goals.

"Since childhood Basha wanted to work on a doctorate and biology and chemistry is really a strength for her," he said.

While she pursued her doctorate, most of Stankovich's research was on embryonic stem cells and she was chosen as one of 12 students to receive research funding from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

"I didn't know a lot about embryonic stem cells, but I knew there was a lot of potential," Stankovich said.

The university's Dean of Natural Sciences Maria Pallavicini said Stankovich made some important discoveries while she researched how stem cells can be manipulated to become hematopoietic cells, which turn into blood marrow.

"She's very motivated and she's played a large role in training undergraduate students and exposing them to research," Pallavicini said.

Stankovich is in the process of submitting her research to be published in a scientific journal, and in April part of it won second place in the university's student research poster competition.

Now she will do a post-doctoral fellowship for two to three years at a lab in the Bay Area to further her research experience.

"It's almost like a residency period," Stankovich said.

She has been married to Greg Cunningham for a year and lives in Modesto with her 8-year-old son, Conner.

"It's certainly been an experience being here and watching the university grow," Stankovich said. "I think being at a small university has definitely been a bonus."

This reporter can be reached at 583-2427.

(May 31, 2009)