Noblesville grad Sarah Fortney recognized for cancer research fundraising
By Navar Watson
When 19-year-old Sam Featherstone attended Indiana-University-Purdue-University-Indianapolis freshman year, he had dreams of becoming a pediatric oncologist. Then, the cancer came back.
Featherstone left school to start SamStrong: Search for the Cure, a fundraiser for pediatric brain cancer through St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Meanwhile, IUPUI student and 2011 Noblesville High School alumna, Sarah Fortney, was spearheading the Honors College charity dance and needed an organization to benefit. After getting to know Featherstone, she chose SamStrong.
This dance, along with her various efforts to serve Indianapolis, won Fortney the William M. Plater Civic Engagement Medallion in 2015, which recognizes students based on their achievements and community outreach.
Additionally, IUPUI recognized Fortney in its annual Top 100 Outstanding Students list in both 2014 and 2015. This year, out of 2,500 applicants for the 100 awards, Fortney made the top 10.
“It’s a tribute to her personality,” mother Kate Fortney said. “It’s nice to see her get rewarded for the accomplishments that she’s done.”
Sarah Fortney said she was “completely and totally honored” by the awards, but they weren’t the motivation for her work.
A biochemistry and medical humanities health sciences major, Fortney has a drive to help people, and the SamStrong charity dance helped shape that passion.
“I’m very blessed in everything that I have, and I want to give back to others,” Fortney said. “I feel like that’s one of the best things that you can do.”
This year marked the third year of the SamStrong charity dance and saw the largest turnout with about 250 attendees. In three years, the dance raised more than $10,000 for St. Jude.
Featherstone’s parents attend every dance to talk about pediatric cancer and where the charity money goes.
Featherstone died Jan. 2, 2013, about a month before the first dance.
Though Fortney graduated from IUPUI this spring, the SamStrong charity dance will continue, she said. Before she left, Fortney created a leadership team of returning students to manage the event.
Outside of the charity dance, Fortney also volunteered at Gleaners Food Bank and the Ronald McDonald House.
Along with this, she mentored freshmen through the Honors College mentoring program. She even represented the program at the National Mentoring Institute in Albuquerque, N.M.
Her work in all of these fields led several faculty members to nominate Fortney for the community outreach awards.
“She was in a very rigorous major, but at the same time, she really … valued giving back to the campus and improving the campus,” Laura Masterson, director of student success, said. “She just spent a lot of her time trying to make things better for other people.”
Fortney’s work also attracted the attention of administrators, including Dr. Nasser Paydar, executive vice chancellor.
“We have 30,000 students,” Paydar said. “For me and several administrators to know one … that should tell you something about the quality and the work of the person to stand out this much.”
Even after graduation, he said, Fortney contacted the school and offered suggestions for improving the new student orientation program.
Fortney plans to attend medical school in the fall of 2016. After school, she wants to go into pediatric psychology, where she would work with child cancer patients and help them maintain a positive attitude.
“I think a positive spin can be put on everything,” Fortney said. “I’d like to see more smiling faces of little kids walking through the hospitals.”
For now, Fortney plans to do research with the Indiana University School of Medicine and volunteer with local hospitals and psychiatric wards.
Meet Sarah Fortney
Age: 22
Hometown: Noblesville
Family: Kate Fortney (mother), Tom Fortney (father) and Rachel Fortney (sister)
Education: Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis; Bachelors of Science in Biological Chemistry
Hobbies: Reading, Chemistry and watching the British science-fiction series “Doctor Who”
Dream Job: Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine; Pediatric Psychiatrist
Fun fact: “I’m a huge nerd who likes to quote ‘Doctor Who,’ ‘Sherlock’ and ‘Harry Potter’ in regular conversation.”
