OU students recognized for achievements

by Becca Manning
For The Post

A few revisions and the motivation to try again paid off this year for Ohio University junior Dan Wik in the form of a $7,500 Goldwater Scholarship.

Wik, an astrophysics major, applied for the nationally competitive award during his sophomore year and received honorable mention. Wik then spent the summer studying galaxies at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Arizona. Armed with additional experience and a clearer vision of his research and educational goals, Wik reapplied for the scholarship this fall and was among 300 winners in the United States.

Wik is one of four OU students selected this year from hundreds of applicants nationwide to receive scholarships to continue their studies.

OU junior Matt Hill also received a $7,500 Goldwater Scholarship, and junior Katherine Smith won the Harry S. Truman Scholarship. Graduate student Patrick Madden received the Fulbright Award, which funds graduate or doctoral students’ international studies, and three other Fulbright finalists from OU will find out by June if they will receive the award.

More OU students have applied for and won national scholarships since the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards was created three years ago, Director Ann Brown said. Before ONCA, OU had produced a total of five Truman scholars and two Goldwater scholars. In just three years, OU has produced four Goldwater scholars, one Truman recipient and a number of finalists in various competitions.

Brown pairs students with faculty member mentors to guide them through the application process and organizes discussion groups and mock interviews to help students prepare. Fulbright applicants also work closely with Beth Clodfelter, assistant director of the Center for International Studies.

Smith, one of 75 Truman recipients, will receive $3,000 for her senior year and $27,000 for law school. She said preparing her application pushed her to plan the rest of her education and set career goals.

“It helped me focus a lot and made me better prepared to start applying to graduate school,” she said.

Smith, an English major, is in the Honors Tutorial College’s three-year program. But only prospective seniors are eligible for the Truman, so she will remain at OU for another year, taking courses to prepare her for law school and working on her senior thesis. After graduation, she will study public interest law with a focus on the feminization of poverty.

Hill, a triple major in biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology and legal communications, said he also found the application process beneficial. Because candidates for the Goldwater are not interviewed, Hill said he had to give the judging panel an accurate picture of himself and his abilities in his essays.

Madden, one of 960 recipients of the Fulbright Award, will leave in September for Uruguay to spend nine months researching and writing. The award will cover travel and health insurance expenses and provide him with a monthly stipend. Madden’s wife and two children will accompany him when he leaves this fall.

Madden, who spent two years in Uruguay as a missionary, said he will write a book about his experiences and those of people who lived through the country’s military dictatorship of the 1970s and mid-80s.

“(The project) is about catching some of the interesting stories from people’s lives: their miseries and their joys, the good and the bad,” he said.