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April 13, 2007 > News > Students awarded prestigious scholarships and travel grants

Students awarded prestigious scholarships and travel grants

Rice boasts Fulbright, Rhodes, Marshall scholars, chooses 17 Wagoner Scholars

By Diana Lee | Thresher staff

It’s that time of year again: Commencement is nearing, pollen fills the air and hordes of Rice students are winning scholarships to travel the globe. This year, more Rice students applied for national and international scholarships than ever before, particularly for the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and the Morris K. Udall Scholarship.

This year’s scholarship class also marks the first Henry Luce Scholars at Rice in five years and the first time since 1998 that Rice has had two Udall Scholarship winners.

Wagoner Scholars

The Wagoner Foreign Study Scholarship is a Rice-specific award open to undergraduates with at least junior standing, graduate students and alumni. The intention of the scholarship is to provide students with the opportunity to travel and conduct research abroad. Applicants are expected to present projects and, usually, enroll in a foreign university.

The award grants each student a maximum of $15,000 for a summer, a semester or a year of studying abroad. This year, about $180,000 was awarded.

Seventeen Wagoner Scholars were chosen. Thirteen are undergraduates, two are graduate students and two are alumni. Their chosen countries range from Egypt to New Zealand, and Asia and Europe are the two most popular continents for travel.

Wiess College senior Douglas Mata, a biochemistry and cell biology major, won the Wagoner Scholarship for graduate study in the United Kingdom. His senior thesis is on RNA viruses and their structures and replication. He is also performing research specifically on influenza type A.

History graduate student David Getman will also travel to the UK. He has been examining the Annual Reports of the British Labour Party and the Official Journals of the League of Nations for his preliminary research.

Brown College senior Anne Kemper, an art history major, will study architecture in Paris. She works on the College Student Collaborative at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and is writing a senior thesis on the relationship between Surrealism and non-Western art.

Sid Richardson College senior Natalie Kone, an English and French studies major, will travel to Senegal and France this fall to study varying topics such as the migrant literature of women in Paris and west Africa. She will also focus on Senegalese culture, including its depiction of gender roles in literature and its language, Wolof.

Wiess senior Emily Dahl, a violin performance major, was granted the Wagoner Scholarship to study Baroque violin in Europe. She has played in several concerts inside and outside of school, including Bach’s B Minor Mass and Christmas Oratorio. She has also performed Handel’s Flavio.

Sid junior Andy Miller, a bioengineering major, will study in Barcelona, Spain. His project involves industrial design, particularly the construction and improvement of medical devices. He will work with the usability of products, including their social acceptability and marketability. Previously, he spent a year researching orthopedics.

Sid senior Julie Liao, a biochemistry and Asian studies major, will study in China for one year, focusing on rural education and methods to help underprivileged children and teachers. Liao entered Rice as a Century Scholar and has conducted research since her freshman year. She has been the second author of two research papers.

Sid senior Aaron Reese, a political science major, will study Arabic at the American University in Cairo, Egypt for a year. He plans to later pursue a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern studies. Currently, he is conducting research on radical Islam and radical sheikhs, including Nasser al-Fahd and Salman al-Awdah.

Brown College senior Ulyana Horodyskyj, an earth science and geochemistry major, is currently on a research vessel in Antarctica. She was the first author of an article that appeared in the Summer 2006 edition of Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Her research deals with geochemistry and petrology, focusing on how the continents were formed.

The remaining Wagoner recipients were unavailable for comment. They include Wiess senior Kristin Bresnahan, graduate student Smita Das, Will Rice College senior Jimmy Jessup, Wiess senior Maureen Johnson, alumnus Jo Kent (Baker ‘06), alumnus Jason Lee (Wiess ‘06), Martel College senior Deepa Panchang and English graduate student Amelia Scholtz.

The Wagoner Scholarship was made possible through the donation of the late James T. Wagoner in honor of his parents and his wife.

National Awards

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program aids college sophomore and junior students in their pursuit of careers in the natural sciences, mathematics or engineering fields. The program was created in 1986 in honor of Barry M. Goldwater, who served in the U.S. Senate for 30 years. Rice selects from nominations four top candidates, which it in turn nominates for the award. Up to 250 people are awarded nationally, with awards going up to $7,500 annually for 1-2 years.

This year, there are two Goldwater winners at Rice: Hanszen College sophomore Emily Fortuna, a computer science major, and Sid sophomore Steve Xu, a bioengineering major. Martel junior Scott McIsaac, a physics and astronomy major, received an Honorable Mention.

Xu is a 2009 Rice-Baylor Scholar who performed research on miniaturizing collagen static tension tissue molds last fall. He will conduct research on reproducing traumatic brain injury on various nerve cell types this summer.

McIsaac was a part of the Killian research group that dealt with the Fabry-Perot interferometer. He also helped research the reaction-diffusion model on a lattice at Bucknell University. His work was presented at the March meeting of the American Physical Society.

The Harry Truman Scholarship is for college juniors who plan to attend either a graduate or a professional school in order to enter a career in the public sector. The scholarship, valued at $30,000, essentially covers three years, including one year of undergraduate experience and two or more years in graduate school. Rice can nominate four students for this scholarship. There are no restrictions in area of study, although applicants are expected to enter public service. One scholarship per state is given out for a total of 50 awards.

All four of the people nominated for the Truman Scholarship became finalists and received interviews. They were Sid junior Apoorva Shah, Sid junior Kirti Datla, Wiess junior Christina Lagos and Wiess junior Tito Escobar.

The Morris K. Udall Scholarship is open to college juniors and seniors interested in studying the environment, as well as Native Americans and Alaskan Natives interested in Native health care or tribal policies. Eighty awards of up to $5,000 each are granted each year to undergraduates. The scholarship is for one year of study. Rice can nominate up to six individuals each year with no restriction in field of study as long as the coursework is related in some way to ethics, the environment and public policy.

Rice has two Udall Scholars this year. They are Wiess sophomore Jeremy Caves, an Earth Science major, and Lovett College junior Niki VonHedemann, an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major.

Caves also recently received the Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Hollings Scholarship increases training and research in oceanic and atmospheric sciences while preparing undergraduates to enter careers in public service with the NOAA or to become educators in these fields. Caves is involved in the Environmental Club and helped organize its annual conference in March. His research has included studying the environmental influences of the species distribution at Hermann Park.

Jones College junior Hrishikesh Hari, a political science major, was accepted as a fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency. The organization examines governmental institutions, particularly that of the presidency. His duties as a fellow include writing a paper about the impact of the president signing statements on the doctrine of the separation of powers. Hari is also a member of the debate team.

International Awards

The Marshall Scholarship, a post-graduate award, enables individuals under 26 to study for 2-3 years at any British university, including Oxford or Cambridge. It covers tuition and fees at the foreign university and allows for a living stipend. Forty to 45 scholarships are awarded per year nationally.

The Rhodes Scholarship is another award extending over 2-3 years. It is different from the Marshall Scholarship in that applicants may only study at the University of Oxford if selected.

The scholarship pays for the tuition and most other fees incurred at Oxford. The funds can also be used for travel to and from Oxford and certain research purposes. Thirty-two are awarded nationally.

Lovett senior Brandi Braud, a Rice-Baylor Scholar and English major, is a finalist for both the Marshall and Rhodes Scholarship. She intended to study the cultural implications of the treatment of hypoplastic left heart syndrome at Oxford University, tying in with her research at Texas Children’s. She has co-authored five papers.

The Fulbright Program aims to increase global communication and strengthen ties between the United States and other countries. Graduate students and graduating seniors are able to apply. The scholarship covers one year of studying or researching in a foreign country. The award can either be a ‘full grant’ by which tuition, books, transportation, etc. are covered, or it can be a ‘fixed sum grant’ by which individuals are paid a fixed fee in U.S. dollars. The type of award depends on whether there is a Fulbright Foundation in that particular country. About 630 awards are given out nationally each year.

Two Rice Fulbright Scholars have been announced, but it is possible that more will be announced in June. Sid senior Brian Mathes, a political science and Asian studies major, will study in China. Hispanic studies graduate student Andrea Holman declined the grant but was offered a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Uruguay.

The Ambassadorial Scholarship is the Rotary Club’s oldest program and is awarded to hundreds of students per year. The goal of the scholarship is to educate Americans about other countries and vice versa.

Lagos, an International Health Science Policy major, was named as both a Truman finalist and a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. She will study in Argentina next year. Her extracurricular activities have included doing research through the Baker Institute Leadership Center and being a Global Fund projects research intern.

The Luce Scholars Program is awarded to 18 individuals under the age of 30 nationally every year. The recipients will study, live, and work in east or southeast Asia for a year; it is not necessary for them to have prior experience with Asia as the program also includes intensive language study. The goal of the program is to bring an understanding of Asian culture and lifestyle to the attention of a wide population.

The two Luce Scholars at Rice University are Wiess senior James Rapore, a political science and managerial studies major, and earth science graduate student Mark Little.

Rapore is currently working on creating a solar light company that will distribute its technology to developing nations. He also served as the president of Ideas to Action, a Rice club involved in entrepreneur organization.

The Watson Scholarship, unlike most other scholarships, has no set academic requirement and grades are the primary tool for selection. Students do not necessarily have to study at a foreign university, but are encouraged to do their own independent investigations into whatever subject matter interests them. The award is valued at $25,000 and extends for one year. There are 50 awards given out nationally.

Bresnahan is the winner of the Watson Scholarship. She is majoring in political science. Her project examines how legal systems are shaped by cultural perceptions of justice in various countries such as Peru, Australia, and Singapore. She has worked before in a criminal defense law firm.

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