Five Dartmouth students won major national scholarships and fellowships this year. The awards celebrate the students' achievements and recognize the diversity and depth of their academic pursuits.
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Melanie Chiu '04, winner of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, notes that the stereotypical image of a scientist "often [is that] of a bespectacled, wild-haired person." Chiu is anything but that, "except in the mornings," she says. She is a music minor and plays violin with the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra. She has also pursued competitive martial arts, with black belts in tae kwon do and kung fu, and enjoys long-distance running.
But Chiu's primary interest lies in chemistry, her major and the focus of research she has conducted as a Presidential Scholar and as a summer intern at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. Next year, she will pursue a graduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley, to study synthetic organic chemistry, a field where Chiu found she could "utilize the abstract laws governing the dances of the stars to not only understand but also create a variety of concrete systems of vital importance in everyday life."
National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships grant $30,000 per year for three years to approximately 900 graduate students in math and science.
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As a Fulbright scholar, Anna Hrachovec '04, a film major modified with Japanese, will combine her academic interests in Japan, China, and popular media. Hrachovec, who speaks both Japanese and Chinese and has been an intern at the Beijing Bureau of CNN, will spend a year in Japan studying the Manchuria Motion Picture Association (Man'ei). The Japanese created Man'ei as a propaganda tool in the 1930s "to popularize the idea of the ‘liberated' nation of Manchuria [the region Japan had colonized in China] to both Chinese and Japanese audiences."
Hrachovec's research will center on Ri Koran, an actress who became Man'ei's biggest star. Hrachovec will study both Ri Koran's films and her publicity, concentrating on "the negotiation of gender and nationality during a time when fanatical Japanese patriotism was the predominant tone in popular media."
The Fulbright Program awards approximately 1,000 grants annually to American students for international study in more than 140 countries.
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Jonah Kolb '06 is one of only 16 U.S. students to be selected a 2004 Goldman Sachs Global Leader. An environmental studies major, Kolb enjoys spending his time in the Dartmouth woodshop, exploring New Hampshire's wilderness, and leading trips for the Dartmouth Outing Club's Cabin and Trail division. He has also been co-chair of the programming board and is a Rufus Choate Scholar.
Kolb says he plans to pursue a career in corporate environmental risk management and business ethics, ideally in a position that would require creativity, leadership, world travel, and political savvy. He believes that "business, when aligned with social priorities, will serve as the catalyst for social and economic change," such as the transition to renewable energy.
One hundred Goldman Sachs Global Leaders worldwide each receive $3,000 for educational expenses every year.
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Viana Turcios '05, a psychology major, has won a Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowship for Students of Color Entering the Teaching Profession. Turcios, who is working toward an elementary school teaching certification, has served as a mentor at Summer Enrichment at Dartmouth (SEAD) and as a teaching assistant for education and Italian classes.
Turcios's parents are immigrants from Honduras. She says her childhood and the education courses she took taught her about "the inequities in the public school system." This, combined with her experience working with children with special needs, has led her to believe that "if children believe they are smart, capable, good human beings and have good self-esteem overall, they will get far in life.
"This needs to start out with more personal interactions between teachers, children, and their families," she adds.
Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellowships are awarded to 25 juniors who plan to pursue a master's degree in education and teach in public elementary or secondary schools. Fellows receive up to $22,100 over a five-year period.
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Patrick Ward '05, winner of a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, says he wants to pursue "a career that attempts to bridge the gap between scientific and medical progress."
A biochemistry and molecular biology major, Ward hopes to "become a successful researcher at a major academic medical center, who makes groundbreaking discoveries in molecular biology and biochemistry that can be translated quickly into improved patient care." He plans to pursue both an MD and a PhD to practice and do research.
Ward has been working with Dr. Lee Witters of Dartmouth Medical School on the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), "a key regulatory protein in several aspects of metabolism." Ward is also a competitive runner with the cross-country and track and field teams.
Goldwater Scholarships grant up to $7,500 per year for one or two years to approximately 300 undergraduate sophomores and juniors in the United States who study mathematics, science, or engineering.
- By Shiori Okazaki '04
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