Catching up with Nicole Palmer
Nicole Palmer is back in the classroom on the University of Maryland at College Park campus after a three-week music tour through Austria and Germany. The 2008 Huntington High School graduate is a sophomore majoring in biology. She recently began volunteering at the National Institute of Health in Bethseda.
Ms. Palmer’s trip to Europe was organized by America Music Abroad, a group specializing in such tours for high school and college students. “I was first chair flute/piccolo and we went all over both countries, including Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Dinklesbuhl, Westendorf and Salzburg, as well as many other places,” she said.
The journey was a very enjoyable experience for the Huntington alum. “We got to take a gondola up to the Swiss Alps and performed concerts in various cities around Europe,” Ms. Palmer said. “In one concert we played in front of the church that Bach was buried in and over 2,000 people showed up, a new record for the American Music Abroad tour.”
Over the course of four years at Huntington High School, Ms. Palmer was active in a wide range of activities and earned varsity athletic letters in field hockey, fencing and track. She played with the Blue Devil marching band for three years and with the wind ensemble for four. She was also a four-year member of the student government and a member of the four different honor societies.
Ms. Palmer’s trip to Germany included many historical stops. “When we were in Berlin we had the opportunity of visiting Checkpoint Charlie and got to see where the Berlin Wall once stood,” she said. “In Vienna we visited their famous opera house as well as the Schonbrunn palace, the former summer home of the Habsburg's. It was truly an unforgettable experience.”
At the world-renowned NIH, Ms. Palmer is studying social interactions between Rhesus monkeys in the neuroscience department. “I will be taking part in running prisoner dilemma like games with the monkeys and taking note on their interactions with each other,” she said.
Concerning a future career, Ms. Palmer said that “as of right now, I'm leaning towards research, possibly in the field of neuroscience or genetics.”
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