Category Archives: Honors News

Honors updates!

UC Davis to Combine Davis Honors Challenge and ISHP Honors Program

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Editor’s note: The following post, written by Melissa Dittrich, appeared in The California Aggie on March 6, 2014.

The two bodies of the UC Davis University Honors Program (UHP) on campus have developed a plan to become one program in Fall Quarter 2014. The Davis Honors Challenge (DHC) and the Integrated Studies Honors Program (ISHP) will combine into one singular UHP.

Current students enrolled in UHP will have the option to remain in their respective program, but students admitted this fall will be accepted into the new UHP.

Ari Kelman, the University Honors Program Director, said that after becoming the director, he checked in with students and faculty of both DHC and ISHP to evaluate the status of the programs. Although both were running fairly effectively, Kelman said that those involved with the programs were concerned about the UHP being divided.

“Having two distinct honors programs includes a lot of inter-program rivalry,” Kelman said. “DHC students thought students in ISHP are getting more opportunities, and students in ISHP thought the DHC students had more flexibility.”

According to Kelman, students who were recruited into one honors program would question why they were not in the other, and he said the combination of the two programs will reduce confusion and create more interaction between all UHP students.

Janet Sandoval-Reynoso, a first year international relations and linguistics double major and DHC student, said students in their respective programs feel somewhat isolated from others in the program.

“We haven’t really had contact with the other students,” Sandoval-Reynoso said. “Anything that keeps students connected is a good idea.”

According to Gideon Cohn-Postar, a DHC Research Analyst and previous DHC student, students in each program had different access to academic opportunities. He said this issue was due to honors students from different programs not being able to take the same seminars.

“Great students aren’t interacting with each other,” Cohn-Postar said. “We want to make sure students have access to all faculty members.”

Another difference between the two programs is the admittance procedures. Students can join ISHP solely by invitation, while any freshman, second-year or transfer student who earns and maintains a 3.25 GPA can apply to DHC. With the new UHP, any first-year, second-year or transfer student can apply, and the same amount of incoming students will be admitted to the program as were let into both programs previously.

The curriculum for the honors program will also be changed. Kelman said that many students struggle with taking honors seminars because these classes do not count for general education (GE) credits and can be used to fulfill requirements for students’ majors.

“It was really challenging for students to be told that time they could normally be using for required classes had to be used for Honors requirements,” Kelman said. “Students would suggest to faculty members that the classes shouldn’t be as challenging for this reason.”

The new plan involves classes that will count towards honors students’ GE or major requirements, which will allow the classes to be challenging and also contribute to UHP students’ degrees. By the end of their second year, students are expected to complete a total of 26 units in required honors courses. By the end of their third year, students will complete a community service project that can include helping out a cause they believe in or become a peer advisor or tutor. By the end of their fourth year, students will have completed a Capstone project that can be lab research, an honors thesis or a community service project.

Kalvin Zee, a second-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major and DHC student, said that the change in courses is a good idea.

“Right now, the classes are skewed towards hard sciences, which makes it difficult for students who want to take classes in the softer sciences,” Zee said.

The plan still needs approval from the academic senate, which is currently reviewing it. If approved, the plan will go into effect this fall, and incoming freshman will be accepted into the University Honors Program, rather than the DHC or ISHP specifically.

Former Missouri Honors Researcher Wins Gates Cambridge Scholarship

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Editor’s Note: The story below is from the University of Missouri news service.
Shakked Halperin

At the age of 18, Shakked Halperin spent a year volunteering with Ethiopian children teaching high school math, English, percussion and art. Through that experience he developed a focus on improving the lives of others. Next fall, he will take that focus to the University of Cambridge after being named a recipient of the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship.


Halperin, who graduated from the University of Missouri in December with a degree in biological engineering, is one of 40 recipients of the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. He will pursue a Masters of Philosophy in Biological Sciences.It was during his time volunteering with the Ethiopian children that Halperin realized he wanted to make a difference. He began a pursuit for safe global water supplies while working on the reconstruction of a failing wastewater treatment system in Honduras. There, he led a group of engineering students through the assessment, design and implementation of the reconstruction of the failed treatment plant.

He has already planned a project with a professor in Cambridge’s department of pathology that will expose him to all aspects of developing an application of synthetic biology, including theoretical idea conception, wet lab work, field testing, regulatory compliance and implementation.

“The project is in perfect alignment with my pursuit to secure global water supplies,” Halperin says. “I hope to create a sensor using synthetic biology that can mitigate arsenic poisoning by identifying safe drinking water supplies in developing countries.”

His undergraduate research work at MU included a supervised independent study program and participating in the Honors Undergraduate Research Program.

“Researching biological engineering as an undergraduate gave me an appreciation for the mechanisms that sustained living systems for billions of years at a level of complexity unparalleled by human innovation,” Halperin says.

He spent the summer of 2012 at the University of California-Berkeley where he conducted research through a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and last summer he participated in a research project through an REU at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

“Every so often, we are fortunate to meet exceptional students who perform beyond our expectations and Shakked is one such student,” says Shelia Grant, a professor of biological engineering who was Halperin’s faculty mentor at MU. “As an undergraduate student, Shakked independently performed graduate-level research. He was not hesitant about trying new experiments or learning new techniques.”

Halperin applied for the Gates Cambridge Scholarship because of its unique focus on building a community of future leaders committed to improving lives of others.

“The opportunity of this scholarship lies in the gathering of so many other passionate young leaders and so the responsibility that it brings is to use that opportunity to its full potential – that means forming bonds, discussions and collaborations with others in the community,” he says.

The Gates Cambridge Scholarship is one of the world’s most celebrated honors for post-baccalaureate study. The highly-competitive scholarships are full-cost awards given to applicants outside the United Kingdom to pursue a full-time postgraduate degree in any subject available at the University of Cambridge.

This marks the second-consecutive year that a Mizzou alumnus has been awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Lindsey Murray, BS’ 03, began her studies at Cambridge in the fall after earning the scholarship last year.

 

Public Universities Have 27 New Members in the National Academy of Engineering

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The National Academy of Engineering has announced the election of 67 new members, and public university engineering professors and researchers account for 27 of the new members; another 28 come from private industry, one from the U.S. Air Force, and 11 from private universities.

Michigan, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UT Austin, and UW Madison all had multiple inductees.

In addition, there are 11 associate members from foreign universities and private industry.

“Election to membership is one of the highest professional honors accorded an engineer,” according to the NAE.  “Members have distinguished themselves in business and academic management, in technical positions, as university faculty, and as leaders in government and private engineering organizations. ”

The NAE operates under the same congressional act of incorporation that established the National Academy of Sciences, signed in 1863 by President Lincoln.

Below are the new members, with those from public universities in bold:

Abbott, Nicholas University of Wisconsin-Madison

Allcock, R. Harry Pennsylvania State University

Allebach, P. Jan Purdue University

Arvizu, E. Daniel National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Atkins, E. Daniel University of Michigan

Baker, Karl James Carnegie Mellon University

Balser, Martin Northrop Grumman Information Systems

Banks, Katherine Margaret Texas A&M University-College Station

Barrett, H. Harrison University of Arizona

Bernstein, Howard Seventh Sense Biosystems, Inc.

Bethell, J. Peter Arch Coal, Inc.

Bimberg, Dieter Technical University of Berlin

Board, P. Mark Hecla Mining Company

Boroyevich, Dushan VA Polytechnic Institute and State University

Boston, Terry PJM Interconnection, LLC

Boulos, F. Paul Innovyze

Boyd, P. Stephen Stanford University

Braun, D. Robert Georgia Institute of Technology

Briskman, D. Robert Sirius XM Radio

Carbonell, G. Ruben North Carolina State University

Chan, F. Tony The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Ciminelli, Sampaio Teixeira Virginia Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Cramb, William Alan Illinois Institute of Technology

Daganzo, F. Carlos University of California, Berkeley

Davari, Bijan IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center

Dietrich, L. Brenda IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center

Eden, Gary James University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Edgar, Flynn Thomas The University of Texas

Elghobashi, E. Said University of California, Irvine

Ershaghi, Iraj University of Southern California

Fagin, Ronald IBM Almaden Research Center

Fenves, Gregory The University of Texas

Ferrara, Whittaker Katherine University of California, Davis

Fleck, Andrew Norman University of Cambridge

Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, Maria Tufts University

Gany, Alon Technion-Israel Institute of Technology

Halas, J. Naomi Rice University

Harel, David Weizmann Institute of Science

Hedrick, Lupton James IBM Almaden Research Center

Hedrick, Karl J. University of California, Berkeley

Hopp, J. Wallace University of Michigan

Joshi, Janardan Chanrashekhar University of California, Los Angeles

Jouppi, P. Norman Google, Inc.

Joyce, L. David General Electric Aviation

Kish, A. Frederick Infinera Corportation

Knatz, Geraldine Port of Los Angeles, California

Krieger, B. Roger General Motors Research and Development Center

Luby, George Michael Qualcomm Incorporated

Mehlhorn, Kurt Max Planck Institute for Informatics

Michel, Keith R. Webb Institute of Naval Architecture

Mistretta, A. Charles University of Wisconsin-Madison

Moehle, P. Jack University of California, Berkeley

Mohan, Ned University of Minnesota

Mullen, G. Michael MGM Consulting

Novosel, Damir Quanta Technology, LLC

Patt, N. Yale The University of Texas

Pawlikowski, Marie Ellen U.S. Air Force

Pentland, Alex Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Pharr, M. George The University of Tennessee

Philip, E. Craig Ingram Barge Company

Poulos, George Harry Coffey Geotechnics Pty Ltd

Ramsey, Michael John University of North Carolina

Rexford, Jennifer Princeton University

Riley, J. James University of Washington

Romankiw, T. Lubomyr IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center

Samarasekera, Vasanti Indira University of Alberta

Schapire, Elias Robert Princeton University

Schutz, E. Bob The University of Texas

Shoham, Moshe Technion-Israel Institute of Technology

Soled, L. Stuart ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company

Spencer, Bruce David wTe Corporation

Stafford, Patten Thomas Stafford, Burke, and Hecker

Stedinger, Russell Jery Cornell University

Tzeghai, E. Ghebre Procter and Gamble Company

Waitz, A. Ian Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Willson, N. Alan University of California, Los Angeles

Zhang, Xingdong Sichuan University

Zones, I. Stacey Chevron Energy Technology Company

UT Austin Plan II Honors Senior Wins Outstanding Student Award

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Editor’s note: The following article about Alex Arambula, a senior in UT Austin’s Plan II Honors Program, is by Joshua Cook, division of student affairs, UT Austin.   Arambula was named one of two outstanding students at the university by the UT parents’ association.

Alex Arambula is completing her final year in biomedical engineering and Plan II with a pre-med concentration. Always interested in a medical profession, she became intrigued by research after attending a high school engineering summer camp at UT Austin.

“When I graduated high school, my classmates basically said I should go out and cure cancer,” she said in a video shown at the awards ceremony. “Coming into UT I was really excited about that.” She joined Professor George Georgiou’s lab at UT Austin and has worked with a therapeutic enzyme that can treat some forms of methionine-dependent cancers.

Another of her passions is guiding others. “I was a FIG mentor for three years and I have been a senior preceptor for the PLUS (Peer-Led Undergraduate Studying) Program,” she added. “Mentors have been a really important part of my life, so any way that I can give back to others that way is something that I love to do.”

Arambula, who maintains a 4.0 grade point average, also worked with a local hospice and Camp Kesem, a camp for children whose parents are affected by cancer. She says those experiences have been pivotal in her life and she ultimately hopes to integrate technical and humanistic medicine in the field of clinical research. “I think combining my passion for research with my passion for relationships as a physician is somewhere that I would like to see myself,” she said.

Arambula’s also a Normandy Scholar and involved in the Plan II Pre-Medical Society, LeaderShape-Texas, Tau Beta Pi and the Engineering Chamber Orchestra where she plays piano.

Arambula_Paine

Alexandra Arambula and Vice President of Student Affairs, Gage Paine at the awards dinner.

Marshall Scholars 2014: Public University Honors Students Win 8 Awards

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Eleven of the 34 Marshall Scholars for 2014 are from public universities.  The Marshall Scholarship is one of the most prestigious in the world, providing full funding for two years of study at major universities in the United Kingdom.  At least eight of the 11 winners from state universities are enrolled in honors colleges or programs.  The most recent list is below:

Shama Ams – Saint John’s University
School of Oriental and African Studies

John ‘Russell’ Beaumont – University of Texas Austin, Plan II Honors/Architecture
University of Manchester

Alyssa Bilinski – Yale University
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Alexander Brammer – United States Military Academy
University of Oxford

Andrew Bulovsky – University of Wisconsin –Madison
London School of Economics and Political Science

Rhaina Cohen – Northwestern University
University of Oxford

Tantum Collins -Yale University
University of Oxford

Patrick Donnan – Auburn University, Honors College, Physics/Music
University of Oxford

Natalia Emanuel – Yale University
University of Oxford

Mailyn Fidler – Stanford University
University of Oxford

Chelsea Glenn – Northwestern University
University of Oxford

Bradford Hackert – United States Air Force Academy
King’s College London

Erin Hylton – University of Maryland – College Park Honors College (also winner of Udall and Boren awards)
Imperial College London

Wei Jia – Stanford University
University of Oxford

Catherine Koch – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Oxford

Dixon Li – Princeton University
Queen Mary, University of London

Brandon Liu – Harvard University
School of Oriental and African Studies

Colleen Loynachan – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Imperial College London

Matthew McMillan – Wheaton College
University of Cambridge

Ahmad Nasir – United States Military Academy
University of Oxford

Mike Norton – University of Arkansas – Fayetteville, Honors College
University of Oxford

Samantha Olyha – Cornell University
University of Oxford

Derek Park – Yale University
University of Oxford

Craig Pearson – Michigan State University, Honors College, also interviewed for a Rhodes Scholarship
University of Cambridge

Rebecca Peters – University of California – Berkeley (also a Truman Scholar in 2013)
University of Manchester

Joana Petrescu – Villanova University
University of Cambridge

Nicholas Picon – Georgia Institute of Technology, Aerospace Engineering
Cranfield University

Madeline Sands – Arizona State University, Barrett Honors College, Anthropology
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Emily Shearer – Cornell University
University of Cambridge

Kirin Sinha – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Cambridge

Phillip Tucciarone – State University of New York – Buffalo, Honors College Chemical and Biological Engineering
University of Oxford

Jacob Wellman – University of New Mexico, Regents Scholar University Honors Program, Economics/Political Science
London School of Economics and Political Science

Anna Wherry – Johns Hopkins University
University of Oxford

Grace Young – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Oxford

U at Buffalo Student Adds a Marshall Scholarship to His Goldwater Award

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Editor’s Note: The following post is by Marcene Robinson of the University at Buffalo.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Phillip Tucciarone, a University at Buffalo chemical and biological engineering student, has won a Marshall Scholarship, one of the most prestigious scholarships awarded annually to U.S. college students. 

Tucciarone is the first UB student to win a Marshall Scholarship since 1988 and is also a 2013 recipient of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.

Up to 40 American students are awarded a Marshall Scholarship each year. 

The Marshall Scholarship will finance Tucciarone’s graduate study at a university in the United Kingdom, where he plans to study materials science.   Marshall Scholars now can be found among CEOs, Supreme Court justices, members of the U.S. Congress, Pulitzer Prize-winning authors and members of the U.S. Presidential Cabinet.

“This feels incredible and is a wonderful surprise, to be honest,” said Tucciarone, who will leave for London in September. “The award secures an exciting academic future for me over the next four years and makes a statement about the value of public higher education.”

A senior, Tucciarone is from Washingtonville in Orange County, N.Y., and is a graduate of Washingtonville High School.

The Marshall Scholarship is widely considered one of the most prestigious scholarships in the world, and works to strengthen the relationship between British and American citizens, and their governments and institutions. 

“The Marshall Scholarship is a mark of great distinction — these are not just some of the nation’s best and brightest young scholars, they are intellectually passionate, globally minded students dedicated to enriching the world around them,” said UB President Satish K. Tripathi. “This is exactly the kind of student that UB excels in educating.

Inspired by a desire to become a professor of materials science, Tucciarone will use the Marshall Scholarship to pursue a doctorate degree in materials science at either the University of Oxford or the Imperial College of London. He plans to join the groundbreaking research currently underway on graphene, one of the crystalline forms of carbon.

Graphene is considered the material of the future, Tucciarone said.  It has the potential to make electronics much faster, for example, and its most immediate use can be found in transistors, radio frequency devices and computer chips.

“If copper is your grandma’s Buick, then graphene is the new Ferrari,” he said.

Tucciarone has devoted much of his undergraduate research to nanomaterials and the development of methods of non-toxic bio-imaging, which play a role in cancer treatment. He has also co-authored and published two academic papers on his research in ACS Nano and Nano Letters, both monthly, peer-reviewed, scientific journals published by the American Chemical Society.

“In my 20-plus years teaching at UB, I’ve never seen such a display of leadership in one of my students,” says David Kofke, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering. “It is heartening to see this in an engineering student, where the workload promotes immersion in coursework without allowing time to take in the larger picture in life, let alone participate in it.”

A UB Honors College scholar, Tucciarone is president of the Honors Student Council, and works with inner city public schools through UB’s Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership, funded by the National Science Foundation, which seeks to improve science education in Buffalo Public Schools.

As a junior, he founded an annual volunteer service trip to the Dominican Republic through the Honors Student Council, where he and other UB students helped teach English to children.

Tucciarone said he was inspired to pursue a career in higher education by his experiences at UB, combined with his volunteer work in Buffalo Public Schools and the Dominican Republic.

“The faculty at UB is incredible,” said Tucciarone. “I never felt disconnected from them and they engaged me from day one in the classroom and as personal mentors.

“Education is the strongest mechanism for change in the world,” he added.  “I want to bridge the gap between the United States and U.K. as a diplomat, gain experience, and work as a bridge for bilateral research and higher education.”

Education and science are just a few of Tucciarone’s many passions. He is starting winger for UB’s rugby team, and hopes to play for the Oxford Blues, the University of Oxford’s rugby team, when he moves to England next fall.  A jazz enthusiast, Tucciarone played trombone and bass in a swing band, and bass in a blues/rock band, Blank Check, in Washingtonville.

The highly competitive Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was founded in 1986 with the goal of alleviating the critical shortage of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians and engineers.

Clemson Calhoun Honors Student Combines Engineering with Global Studies

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Editor’s note: This post originally appeared on the Clemson website.

Civil engineering student Kate Gasparro has backpacked through Europe, studied abroad in Strasbourg, France, and helped build a schoolhouse in Nicaragua. Attending Clemson is the biggest part of what’s made those distant travels and many of the experiences that came before, during and after them possible

When Gasparro first began looking at colleges, she knew she wanted to pursue a degree that let her think big. As the daughter of two civil engineers, she also knew that a civil engineering program would help her do that: “Civil engineers are the ones who build the big things that we use everyday, and we make a difference,” she explains.

She visited 25 colleges before she landed at Clemson her senior year of high school. By the time she left Clemson’s campus, she knew she’d found her college home. Today, the Huntington Beach, California, native is only a semester away from graduating with a Clemson degree in civil engineering and a minor in international relations.

And just as she’d hoped, she’ll be leaving this place with a lot more than just a diploma in her hand. She’s moving forward with a portfolio of experience she can’t imagine having received anywhere else.

“It’s not about the name on the diploma. It’s about the experience you have there,” Gasparro offers. “Clemson helped me shape my future and where I want to go and who I want to be.”

The Calhoun Honors College has been an important part of that experience, with its small class sizes that allow personal, passionate and intellectual relationships with the University’s best and brightest, she says. For Gasparro, that meant spending her freshman year taking general engineering courses alongside honors classes, including a medieval history class with one of Clemson’s Harvard-educated professors. There, she and seven other students engaged in discussions about how war influences culture.

That same year, she and fewer than 10 other students studied Russian literature and philosophy as a part of the Dixon Fellow program, which “allows students to learn for the sake of learning,” Gasparro explains. “It expanded my own worldview and sparked my love of philosophy.”

Her Clemson experience has also meant getting involved in everything she wanted to be involved with. On the academic front, she is one of 12 Dixon Global Policy Scholars, a Coca-Cola Scholar and a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa leadership fraternity. She’s served as treasurer and Latin American project leader for Engineers Without Borders, as well as vice president of the Alpha Lambda Delta honor society. And she stays involved with a variety of student groups including the Clemson University Student Alumni Council, not to mention University tour guides, Tiger Band, symphonic band, orchestra and the Hillel Jewish Organization.

“Getting involved is a great way to meet these people and realize your own potential,” she says. “You feel such a greater tie to the University when you are involved, and it makes you be a better student because you can see the impact you make. You can tie your extracurricular experiences into your academic curriculum, making theory into practice and deepening your broader understanding.”

Even with all the accolades and experiences, Gasparro’s favorite thing about Clemson isn’t just one thing: it’s the people. Sure, the University’s president knows her by name, but so do countless other students, staff and faculty who share her appreciation for community, not to mention her love of Clemson.

“Clemson invests in people. You’re never just a number,” she explains. “They make that personal connection, and it’s all about that Clemson Family.”

Gasparro’s travels abroad have provided some of her most significant academic opportunities. As a Dixon Global Policy Scholar, she was able to complete a short-term study abroad in Strasbourg, where she met with officials from the European Union, Parliament and NATO to learn how international policy is made. After interacting with French and German students, she and some of her classmates backpacked throughout Europe, and during those travels she also completed course work in enlightenment philosophy and public policy.

Gasparro also joined Engineers Without Borders and started the student organization’s first Latin American project. Leading a group of six other students, she located a nonprofit already doing work in Nicaragua. They partnered with them in early September 2011, and a few months later, Clemson’s first Engineers Without Borders team traveled to the Central American country to lay the foundation for a schoolhouse there. She returned to the country again the summer before her senior year.

“I’ve learned what it means to partner with people who have a different culture and history, and work with them to construct something sustainable,” Gasparro says.

These days, she prides herself on being smiling, enthusiastic proof that a challenging degree doesn’t have to take away from the “college experience.”

“College is what you make of it,” Gasparro offers. “Being involved and in a challenging degree is all about time management and understanding your own abilities. Being able to relate your extracurricular experience to your classes and understanding the value in having both is key to making the most of your time.

“College is what you make of it. Why not make the most of those four years of your life?”

Determined to think big. Head on.

Auburn Honors College Student Wins Marshall Scholarship

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Editor’s Note: The following post is from the OANews…

Auburn University senior Patrick Donnan has been named a recipient of the prestigious Marshall Scholarship, becoming one of only 40 U.S. students selected to attend their choice of university in the United Kingdom.

“We are very proud of Patrick, both for his accomplishments at Auburn and for his being named a Marshall Scholar,” said Melissa Baumann, Auburn University assistant provost and director of the Honors College. “He has displayed great leadership in the classroom and the laboratory and in advancing science in the community.”

Auburn native Donnan, who has a 3.98 grade-point average, is a student in the Honors College double-majoring in physics and music, concentrating on the bassoon, and minoring in mathematics. He is also a 2013 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar and is a Rhodes Scholar finalist this year.

“I am truly humbled,” Donnan said. “Receiving the Marshall Scholarship is the culmination of all the work that my professors and Honors College staff have invested in me these past three years at Auburn. Even if I did not receive the award, going through the application process was beneficial in itself as it helped me grow as a person.

“I am looking forward to continuing my research in theoretical physics at Oxford and becoming a good ambassador for the United States and Auburn while abroad.”

Donnan conducts research in Auburn’s College of Sciences and Mathematics as a member of the theoretical and computational atomic physics group. He is an editor of the Auburn University Journal of Undergraduate Studies and has co-authored four peer-reviewed publications, one of which was published in Nature: The International Weekly Journal of Science.

“Patrick embodies a near ideal example of balance. He is an accomplished musician and an accomplished young scientist,” said Professor Ed Thomas, the Lawrence C. Wit Professor in the College of Sciences and Mathematics and one of Donnan’s research professors. “He has found a way to blend both of his passions into a seamless whole. Patrick not only has talent, but he has the dedication and self-awareness to put forth the effort and hard work to allow those talents to mature.”

Paul Harris, associate director for national prestigious scholarships in the Honors College, said, “I thoroughly enjoyed working with Patrick throughout the application process. He represents the very best of Auburn University and his generation. As a double major in physics and music, he is not only bright and intellectually engaging, but he also gives generously of his time and talents whether promoting research among his fellow physics majors or sharing his love for music as a member of the Auburn symphonic band.

The Marshall Scholarship program was established in 1953 by an act of British Parliament in honor of U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall as an expression of Britain’s gratitude for economic assistance received through the Marshall Plan after World War II. The program is overseen by the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission. Approximately 900 students are endorsed annually for the scholarship by their respective universities, for which 40 scholarships are awarded nationwide.

Schreyer Honors College: A Parent’s Perspective

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Tracy Riegel is the parent of two Penn State students and a contributor to the We Admit blog, from which the following post is taken. Tracy and her husband, Rick, are both Penn State alumni and members of the the Penn State Parents Program. As Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College releases its decisions today, Tracy shares her thoughts on the program:

I remember this time last year when my daughter Meghan was eagerly waiting for decisions from several private schools — one Ivy League school, one out-of-state school, and Schreyer Honors College. Needless to say, it was an anxious time for her and certainly one of self-reflection. After many years of studying, test taking, paper writing, SATs, AP tests, and countless other activities it all came down to this moment.

Like you, we had many discussions about the pros and cons of the various schools where she applied. We talked about courses, academic resources, campus life, opportunities to learn beyond the classroom, where could she see herself living, cost, value —it was a long list. Finally, decisions arrived and she was accepted to several of her choices, including the Ivy. She ultimately chose to attend Penn State and the Schreyer Honors College. Why? Here are just a few of the reasons:

  1. Only 300 students in each class (approximately), which was appealing to my daughter to be in such a selective group.
  2. Strong faculty advising.
  3. The honors curriculum covers all majors.
  4. Opportunities to take part in leadership development activities specifically for Schreyer scholars.
  5. The Schreyer Ambassador Travel Grant, which provides financial assistance for about 200 students per year to pursue education, research, service, or study abroad.
  6. A number of new service and leadership initiatives that are now underway domestically and internationally.
  7. Guaranteed housing in the center of campus.
  8. Donuts with Dean Brady — an opportunity to meet with the dean in an informal setting.
  9. SHO Time first year orientation and the opportunity to be an orientation leader as an upperclassman.
  10. Preferred scheduling for classes. Your student will not have to enroll in the last section available, which is usually at 8 a.m.!

I’m sure there are many more personal reasons why students would choose the Schreyer Honors College. Meghan felt that it was a good way to make a large university smaller. She is able to take advantage of all the Penn State has to offer as well as those opportunities within Schreyer. I won’t kid you, the classes are hard (just hearing her talk about her math and physics classes made my head spin!) and time management is key. She is hoping to be accepted as a research assistant this summer on campus with a professor, is currently tutoring for a physics class, and is involved in the THON organization Atlas. She hopes to go to Singapore in May for two weeks for a class, and help with SHO Time orientation next fall.

Meghan made the right choice for herself and for her education. She had many opportunities and chose Schreyer Honors College.

Arkansas Honors College Alum Wins Marshall Scholarship

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Michael Norton, an alumnus of the honors college at the University of Arkansas, has won a Marshall Scholarship to study political science at Oxford University.  Norton also earned a Truman Scholarship in 2012, and he is going to interview for a Rhodes Scholarship in the near future.  New rules allow winners of the Marshall to go forward with other interviews.

Already in an elite group for having won a Marshall and a Truman scholarship, Norton would be in super-elite company if he were to add a Rhodes Scholarship.

UA senior Rachael Pelligrino will also interview for a Rhodes Scholarship.  In addition, she is a finalist for a Truman Scholarship.

Norton will become the 7th UA winner of a Marshall Scholarship.  The scholarships provide full funding for academic and living expenses for two years of study at any university in the United Kingdom.  Most winners choose Oxford, Cambridge, University College London, King’s College of London, the London School of Economics, or Imperial College of London.

Norton told the Arkansas Traveler that the UofA Office of Nationally Competitive Awards was central to the development of his successful application.

“The office is a great treasure of the university when it comes to these awards,” he said.  Suzanne McCray of that office is known for her mock “interviews.”

The Marshall Scholarship was established in 1953. It awards up to 40 American students each year.  For the 2013 year, 943 students applied for the scholarship and 34 were selected.