Future Aggies attend Scholars Day
About 200 high school seniors were invited to USU Thursday to participate in Scholars Day and interview for research fellowships, said Joyce Kinkead, associate vice president for research at USU.
Kinkead said 140 students were interviewed throughout the day and attendance totaled about 300 people including the students’ parents.
Katie Jo Nielson, program organizer, said, “They came from all over. They came from Alaska, from Vermont, Massachusetts, from Oregon. We have students from probably 20 different states.”
Each of these students is the recipient of either the Deans or Presidential Scholarship and received an invitation to Scholars Day in order to give them the opportunity to look into a research fellowship, Nielson said. The day included a fellowship interview with faculty, advising sessions, student panel, time to meet current fellowship students and a dinner. Nielson said each participating high school student was given a detailed personal schedule at the start of the day.
Scholars Day was created in conjunction with A-Day, where next year’s freshman class can visit campus, Nielson said. Scholars Day students can choose to stay in housing overnight so they can also participate in A-Day the following day.
Kinkead said faculty teams, representing the various disciplines offered on campus, set up the fellowship interviews. She said the students were paired with faculty within their area of interest. Before the interview, the faculty teams reviewed the students’ fellowship applications.
“The interview was really to find out about (the students’) passion for that field of study,” Kinkead said.
Scholars Day was created six years ago, Kinkead said.
“We found some of our best students weren’t competing well nationally,” she said of the university’s research students.
Kinkead said Scholars Day allows incoming freshmen to begin their research as soon as they begin their education at the university. This gives them a better ability to compete with other student researchers, she said.
The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships honor sophomores and juniors in research, and Kinkead said any university can submit four names to be considered for the scholarship per year. Before Scholars Day was created, USU hardly had any researchers that fit the requirements, but Kinkead said last year all four USU candidates were either awarded scholarships or received honorable mentions.
“Really, it’s about making USU as competitive as an Ivy League in terms of research,” she said.
Though research is often associated with science, Kinkead said students studying opera singing and violin performance also interviewed for fellowships.
Gregory Griffin is a freshman in biochemistry. As a Scholars Day participant last year, he said the interview process was nerve racking at first. Once he got into it, though, he said he began to feel confident.
Griffin has been involved in a project called PRMT1 and said his research will be useful as he continues his pre-med education.
“It’s been really fun to learn something I probably never would have learned in the classroom,” he said.
Griffin said his research will give him something extra to add to his resume.
“You’re not only book smart, but you learn to think analytically,” he said.
Courtney Buchanan attended Scholars Day Thursday. She said she flew in from her hometown of Walpole, Mass., where she attends an agricultural high school.
Buchanan said she found USU while completing a college search. The animal science program, the university’s location and the prospect of snow are what drew her in.
“I mean, even just the view from the (Sunburst Lounge),” she said, explaining how she thinks the landscape is beautiful.
Armando Porras from Dixie High School in St. George said he chose Utah State because of the way the university seems to treat students and the way USU faculty interacts with their students. The university doesn’t just care about the student body as a whole, but about the individual itself, he said.
Porras said he will be moving away from his parents and Scholars Day pumped him up for college and restored his confidence in the college experience.
“They made college life seem very, very appealing,” Porras said. “They gave me security that everything will be OK.”
–rac.ch@aggiemail.usu.edu