Students receive scholarships with help of faculty, staff

by Becca Manning
Staff Writer

Ohio University graduate Margaux Cowden said winning a nationally competitive scholarship is easing her transition into her first year of graduate school.

Last year, Cowden, 22, received an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies, an award that pays a student's tuition and fees for their first year of graduate school. The fellowship also gives students a stipend of $17,500.

Faculty and staff members in OU's Office of Nationally Competitive Awards assisted Cowden through the application process last fall by engaging her in mock interviews, proofreading her application and offering encouragement, Cowden said.

Cowden is studying literature at the University of California in Irvine. Although she planned to attend UC without the award, Cowden said she would have been "substantially poorer."

ONCA was created in 1999 to encourage OU students to apply for national scholarships and assist them in the process, director Ann Brown said.

"We're kind of coaches here. We find students with potential and help them highlight their talents," Brown said.

Brown distributes scholarship information and links applicants with faculty members to aid the process, she said.

"The faculty members are crucial to students' successes. They make this office work," Brown said.

OU students try for scholarships varying from the prestigious Rhodes and British Marshall scholarships to small awards, Brown said.

Twenty OU students applied for nationally competitive awards in 2000. Three students were named finalists and three won awards, according to Brown's year-end report. Others were alternates or received honorable mention.

Twenty applicants from a campus of about 20,000 students is a small representation, Brown said.

Many students do not realize the awards exist, said Joe Shields, an OU associate professor of physics and astronomy who advises some applicants.

One student working with Shields, OU junior Dan Wik, a physics and astronomy major, is applying for the Goldwater Scholarship, which pays for tuition, books and room and board for up to two years of undergraduate study.

Wik, who received an honorable mention for the scholarship last year, said faculty members helped him develop ideas and proofread his research proposal.

"The research proposal is usually the hardest part of the whole application – that's generally where students need the most help," he said.

Students benefit even if they do not win awards, Brown said.

"They get a chance to think critically and begin to see things differently. It really expands their horizons," she said.

Learn more about national awards at the ONCA Web site at http://www.ohiou.edu/onca.