Award-winning student-athlete is impactful on and off the court

Simoné Pärn, originally from Estonia, has maintained a 4.0 GPA throughout her academic career. She earned her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences at UDC (‘ 21) and is now in her second year of a master’s degree in cancer biology, prevention and control— a partnership program with Georgetown University Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Pärn began playing tennis at eight and was recently nominated for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Woman of the Year award. She won the Excellence in Community and Character (ECC) award.

Pärn’s mother introduced her to the sport by sending her to a summer tennis camp. She achieved her dream of playing and studying in the U.S. when she earned both presidential and athletic scholarships to UDC and joined the tennis team after transferring from Lewis University in Illinois. Pärn was thrilled to escape the frigid temperatures and come to Washington, DC, which she finds exciting.

Pärn is UDC’s tennis team captain and a UDC student-athlete representative.

“What I love is that we have a very diverse group of women on the team,” Pärn said. “They represent countries worldwide, including Columbia, Belgium, France, Italy and Spain. They bring different personalities and playing styles, but we all work together as a team. I consider them and my coach Dickie Mahaffey my family here. I’ve been at UDC for five years, an important part of my life.”

At 24, she is at the peak of her game, effortlessly balancing two hours of tennis practice six days a week, fitness and pool training, regular traveling to competitions, all while prioritizing academics and volunteer activities.

“Although it hasn’t always been easy to live the life of a student-athlete, tennis has remarkedly shaped my character and personal strengths and brought so much joy into my daily life. I particularly find that tennis has taught me to work hard, to believe in myself, and not to be afraid of failure,” she said.

Pärn led her team to victory as a championship team when they were crowned the East Coast Conference (ECC) Champions in 2021. As an individual tennis player, she has been ranked as high as #2 in the East region and #30 among women players in the country.

She was named the Scholar-Athlete of the Year, which is the most prestigious award given by the ECC. In addition, UDC Athletics awarded her the Reslyn W. Henley Award for Excellence in academics, community service, leadership and athletics achievement. She has been named UDC’s most valuable player twice in her collegiate athletic career.

Tennis isn’t the only thing that Pärn is committed to—she is also a dedicated scholar.

“My passion for science and the well-being of humans are the key elements that drive me in this competitive field,” she said. “I aspire to become a scientist who will empower the lives of countless individuals and families through biological research by discovering novel diagnostic and innovative therapeutic measures for the treatment of various pathogenic diseases, particularly cancer.”

An experienced molecular biology and computational immunology student researcher, Pärn is actively involved in cancer and aging-related research. She works with her supervisor, Dr. Mathilde Knight, associate professor in biology, investigating the molecular aspects of the host/parasitic relationships in the snail and its parasitic trematode, Schistosoma mansoni, the causative agent of the neglected tropical disease schistosomiasis. Notably, she examines several cancer-related transcripts in response to parasite infection in the snail host. Her current master’s thesis is to investigate the modulation of two proteins, tau, and beta-amyloid, implicated in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

In addition to her research at UDC, Pärn is also an intern with Georgetown University Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, working in Dr. Sivanesan Dakshanamurthy’s lab. At Georgetown, she uses computational resources to design peptide-based COVID-19 vaccines. The primary focus of the work is to predict T-cell epitopes from various antigenic regions of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which would elicit a strong immune response in a large human population. The research with the Cancer Center led her to earn first authorship in a recently published scientific journal.

Pärn uses her medical knowledge to assist her team members and the community. She recently participated in a project with her fellow female student-athletes to promote breast and cervical cancer awareness.

“As much as I enjoy doing research, I also love giving back to the community,” she said.

“Currently, I am a graduate teaching assistant at UDC, which allows me to engage with other students and teach them valuable lab skills. “My goal is to help and inspire others as much as possible.”

Pärn, along with other students, recently toured several federal agencies through the Office of University Research to better understand how policy is made, including science policy and the missions of the various federal funding agencies. The sites included the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Transportation and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).