Students honored with prestigious national fellowships and awards
SMU students honored with prestigious national fellowships and awards
DALLAS (SMU) - SMU students were honored with prestigious national fellowships and awards during the 2013-14 academic year. Here, we spotlight the Truman Scholar, the Goldwater Scholar, the Udall Scholar Honorable Mention and the Presidential Fellow:
Truman Scholar
SMU junior Rahfin Faruk has been named a 2014 Truman Scholar. The prestigious and highly competitive national scholarship recognizes college students who are “change agents,” with outstanding leadership potential and a commitment to public service careers.
Faruk was one of 59 students, mostly college juniors, from 52 U.S. colleges and universities selected to receive the award, which provides up to $30,000 for graduate study. He is the 14th Truman Scholar at SMU since the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation was established by Congress in 1975. He was one of 655 candidates nominated by 293 colleges and universities for one of academia’s most sought-after awards.
Faruk, of Richardson, Texas, is an SMU President’s Scholar majoring in economics, political science, public policy and religious studies, with a minor in mathematics, in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. He plans to pursue an MBA and a master’s in public policy to work in the social enterprise sector.
“As someone who wants to break down sectoral boundaries, I was attracted to the societal impact I could have as a Truman Scholar,” Faruk says. “Truman Scholars are everywhere – in a wide array of sectors and functions – and they are working to serve humanity in better ways.”
Goldwater Scholar and Honorable Mentions
Three SMU students have been recognized by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. Nicole Hartman was named a 2014-15 Barry Goldwater Scholar, while Sara Kendrick and Dalton Kim were awarded Honorable Mention in the national competition.
They are among 1,166 students nominated by colleges and universities nationwide for the award, which supports outstanding sophomores and juniors in the sciences, mathematics and engineering. The scholarship offers $7,500 per year toward tuition, fees, books, and room and board.
A President’s Scholar and junior from Lewisville, Texas, Hartman is one of 283 students to receive the award. She is majoring in physics and mathematics in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, and electrical engineering in the Lyle School of Engineering, and is a member of the University Honors Program.
As a Hamilton Undergraduate Research Scholar, she conducts research with Assistant Physics Professor Stephen Sekula and has been investigating the decay of two Z bosons. They are seeking insights into the Higgs boson “God particle,” which was observed in 2012 by the global CERN collaboration of thousands of scientists, including SMU physicists.
Udall Scholar Honorable Mention
Elizabeth Jewel Lipps, a senior majoring in environmental science and chemistry in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, received Honorable Mention in the 2014 Morris K. Udall and Stewart L. Udall Foundation Scholars competition.
A 14-member independent review committee selected this year's group of Udall Scholar applicants on the basis of commitment to careers in the environment, American Indian health care, or tribal public policy; leadership potential; academic achievement; and record of public service. The review committee named 50 Udall Scholars and 50 Honorable Mentions.
A member of SMU’s University Honors Program, Lipps has conducted environmental research as part of Dedman College’s Gaffney Family Interdisciplinary Initiative at the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man (ISEM) and the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. Currently she is working with Dedman College faculty mentor Bonnie Jacobs, a noted paleobotanist, and other SMU students to identify and characterize riparian forest communities within the Great Trinity Forest at the Trinity River Audubon Center.
Presidential Fellow to the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress
Brandon Bub ’14 was named a student Presidential Fellow to the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress in Washington, D.C., during spring 2014. The organization also recognized Bub with the Donald B. Marron Award for the Most Original Historical Analysis for his paper “Crucified: LBJ and Escalation in Vietnam, 1963-1965.” His paper will be published in the Center’s forthcoming annual publication, the Fellows Review.
Bub, who earned Bachelor’s degrees in English, history and political science in May from Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, was one of 75 students from across the country invited to attend the center’s two weekend conferences to study leadership and governance in Fall 2013 and Spring 2014. There, Bub had the opportunity to interact with high-level government officials involved in the policymaking process, as well as other high-achieving students.
The Plano, Texas, native developed his research paper under the guidance of Thomas Knock, an Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Department of History, as well as a mentor provided by the nonprofit, nonpartisan center. He presented his project at the conferences. Bub’s project was one of only three to receive an award from the Center this year.
Bub, a President’s Scholar and Tower Center Fellow at SMU, studied President Lyndon Johnson’s decision to escalate the Vietnam War in 1965, and whether there might have been opportunity to draw down the war and still achieve the president’s domestic policy goals. Bub believes Vietnam is still among the most important case studies from which we can learn.
2013-14 Awards Extravaganza and the Honors Convocation
SMU students, faculty, staff and administrators were recognized with teaching awards, service honors and the University’s highest commendation, the “M” Award, at the 2014 Awards Extravaganza on April 21.
On the same day, the University honored its best students at the 17th Honors Convocation. The address was delivered by Eric Bing, professor of global health in the Department of Applied Physiology and Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development and in the Department of Anthropology in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences.
SMU Office of National Fellowships and Awards
SMU's Office of National Fellowships helps SMU students and faculty to apply for external, nationally-competitive fellowships, scholarships and awards such as the Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, Mitchell, Truman, Goldwater, Udall, Guggenheim, and many others.
Learn more about SMU's Office of National Fellowships and Awards.
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