Xavier High graduate hopes to make a difference in medicine

CEDAR RAPIDS — Emme Quinn has learned a lot from her mother, an engineer who raised her while dealing for years with a chronic illness.

“She’s always an inspiration, that you can do everything right and sometimes things don’t turn out the way you want. But she starts every day positive, and she always has a smile on her face,” Quinn said of her mother.

Quinn, 18, is one of 162 students who graduated May 19 from Xavier High School in Cedar Rapids. She was named the top academic achiever for the class of 2024.

After graduating, Quinn plans to attend the University of California-Santa Barbara and major in chemical engineering. Eventually, she wants to get an advanced degree in genetics so she can study, and hopefully cure, diseases like myalgic encephalomyelitis — also known as chronic fatigue syndrome, the genetic disease her mom was diagnosed with almost 20 years ago.

“I’ve always had a love for math and science. Both my parents are engineers. My grandfather is an engineer. My cousin is an engineer. It runs in the family, but no one’s a chemical engineer, so I’m really going off the beaten path with that one,” Quinn said.

Quinn has had a busy high school career, between extracurriculars like dance, tennis and Kairos, a faith-led retreat offered at Xavior. She also has managed to excel in her school work and start pursuing additional education. She’s been in accelerated math and science classes since middle school, and during her senior year she took multiple college math and science classes at Coe College and Kirkwood Community College.

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“She really embodies a rare blend of academic excellence and insatiable curiosity. Emme’s not the kind of person who is just satisfied with meeting the basic requirements of her classes. … She consistently seeks to deepen her understanding by asking thought-provoking questions,” said Rachael Carolan, one of Quinn’s previous English teachers.

Stacy Mickelson, a math teacher who worked with Quinn in her accelerated programs, agreed, adding Quinn has a maturity level Mickelson doesn’t always see in high schoolers.

“I’ve seen her work through all kinds of things. She’s fun. She asks a lot of deep questions, and she’s got an interesting focus where she wants to go solve some real-world problems when she gets her degree,” Mickelson said.

And she’s already working on it. Last summer, Quinn shadowed Dr. Alain Moreau, a research professor at the University of Montreal who has been examining potential connections between DNA structures and diseases like chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID, which is exactly the kind of research Quinn wants to do one day.

“I think it’s been really great to see at home how much hope that gives my mom,” Quinn said.

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