Monday, April 1, 2002

Jason Nordhaus (UR PAS class of 2002) Wins a Goldwater Scholarship

Jason Nordhaus, a University of Rochester Junior who is working with Professor Eric Blackman has won a Goldwater Scholarship in 2002. In the previous four years University of Rochester students won several of these prestigious national fellowships (2 Beineckes, 1 Churchill, 7 Fulbrights, 4 Goldwaters, and 1 Truman).

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship (http://www.act.org/goldwater/) is given to outstanding sophomore and junior students preparing for careers in mathematics, natural sciences, or engineering may receive up to $7500/year for the remaining year(s) undergraduate study. The University nominates up to four students on the basis of academic achievement, a personal statement, and an essay discussing a current problem. The campus deadline for the University nominees selection process is in early November. Final revised applications from those selected as University nominees will be due in January. A maximum of 300 scholarships are awarded.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Further information on various types of prestegious fellowships for undergraduates are given in the following WWW page http://www.rochester.edu/College/CCAS/fellowships_1.html and in the request from the College for nominations for these various types of fellowships (attached below)..

College Center for Academic Support

We are writing to ask your help in an effort to enhance the opportunities of our best undergraduate students to win one of these prestigious national fellowships. Your students will be grateful, as will we.

Faculty can help in a variety of ways:

o By encouraging excellent students to apply for appropriate fellowships and scholarships. Faculty members exert a powerful influence in this regard, whether or not the ultimate goal is successful.

o By assisting students in the application process: reading drafts of essays, referring students to other colleagues, and writing thoughtful letters of recommendation.

o By serving on one of the Fellowships Committees. These committees read and provide critical comments on the students' applications, provide overall evaluations of candidacies, and conduct interviews when appropriate.

Enclosed as an e-mail attachment, and also sent with the hard copy of this letter that we are sending to Chairs, is the 2001-02 Fellowships Calendar and a summary of nationally competitive prestigious fellowships coordinated through the College Center for Academic Support. The Fellowships Handbook for students is accessible via the Academic Support home page . We hope you will take a look.

We are proud that students from the University of Rochester have had some success in a few prestigious scholarship competitions in the last four years (2 Beineckes, 1 Churchill, 7 Fulbrights, 4 Goldwaters, and 1 Truman), but given our talent pool, we should have many more students applying for more awards than is currently the case. Faculty have a vital role to play in identifying potential applicants early and encouraging them to consider applying for appropriate scholarships. While we do, of course, want winners from these competitions, the intellectual and personal growth that students gain from the application process is invaluable and entirely in keeping with the traditional mission of a fine liberal education and Rochester's motto of Meliora. With that said, we are confident that you and your colleagues will continue to encourage promising students in your department to pursue nationally competitive prestigious fellowships and scholarships. Over the summer and early fall we as fellowships advisors work closely with students as they prepare their applications. We will send copies of the applications to the faculty committee members for consideration and written comments. Many scholarships limit the number of nominees and/or require institutional endorsement. A faculty member's participation on a fellowships committee may entail individual review of applications and ranking of candidates plus a brief committee meeting to discuss and select the final nominees. In some cases, depending on the award, the process may also require a committee interview with the applicants (no more than 15 minutes per applicant) followed by a discussion of their candidacies. At the committee meeting, members will be given an evaluation sheet on which they will make comments that will form the basis of the institutional endorsement letters that we will write.

Over 120 students attended Fellowships Information Sessions last spring. We are excited about their interest and hope we can count on you to help our students have a banner year in 2001-2002! Please review the information in the attachment summarizing the fellowships, and also consider serving on a committee. We promise to be good stewards of the valuable time you give towards this effort. A response form is attached for those of you who are interested.. We look forward to working with you and with the gifted students in your department who will be applying for these distinguished awards!

Either one of us is happy to respond to inquiries. You may call 5-2354, or respond by e-mail to Sigrid Long (sigl@troi.cc.rochester.edu) or Belinda Redden (redn@troi.cc.rochester.edu).

Article submitted by:
Arie Bodek
4/1/02; 2:51:16 PM

to the News Archive