About

Joshua Cade chose to go to UNCP because he has a lot of family and deep roots in the area. Being accepted into the Honors College also helped him make the decision.  

In May of 2020 Joshua graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology. Joshua has received several scholarships due to his Native American heritage and his academic performance over his four years here. One of his proudest moments is when he received the Porter Math and Environmental Scholarship. Joshua has joined many clubs and organizations such as the Student Honors Council, Lambda Sigma Honors Society, the Health Careers Access Program as a member and then on the council, the RISE fellowship program, the Chancellor’s Ambassadors, and finally the UNCP Chemical Honors Society. 

Joshua had several jobs and internships. He participated in the Healthy Native North Carolinians Internship Program at UNC Chapel Hill, he worked at his local dairy queen off and on while studying at UNCP, he accepted a lab position which he considered very rewarding, he was able to participate in the SPIRE Undergraduate Research Internship, and he also participated in an internship in Bethesda, MD at the NIH Main Campus. 

Joshua said that “The Honors College has been an amazing resource and I have loved every second of it.” His favorite part of the Honors College was the fact that you could take general education classes as more interesting and challenging honors classes. He also likes that the professors that teach those classes also teach the students different skills, for example Josh’s English classes were all service-learning and he felt that he was able to learn from and interact more with the community. 

Joshua’s final thesis project was a culmination of three years of research that was done with Danny Upadhyay and Dr. Leonard Holmes. The thesis was a manuscript of all the research that was done while working with them with the intention of submitting for publication in a scientific journal. Joshua’s research was specifically on “the effects of increasing carbohydrate concentrations on various factors affecting the life cycle of the Photorhabdus luminescens bacterium.” 

After graduation Joshua would like to pursue a post-baccalaureate program before applying to graduate school. He is interested in applying to a dual degree MD/Ph.D. program, as well as graduate programs dealing with translational neuroscience.  

The advice Joshua wants incoming students to know is this: “Enjoy the time you have here because it will definitely be over before you know it. Parties aren’t that fun and studying is so much more exciting so keep your heads in the books--just joking. Have fun and make plenty of friends, but just remember the reasons that you came to college in the first place!" 



Senior Project

"The Effect of Increasing Carbohydrate Concentrations on Expressed Intracellular and Extracellular Proteins by the Photorhabdus Luminescens Bacterium"

Mentor: Devang Upadhyay