Interview by Elisa Shaholli, Peer Research Ambassador

National Scholarships & Fellowships
Part 2: Applying

A Conversation with Dr. Vin Moscardelli, Director of UConn’s Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships (ONSF).

Click here to view part 1 of this 2-part series.

How can someone best strengthen an application for national scholarships & fellowships?

Start thinking early because many of these applications require not one, not two, but at least three and sometimes more, letters of recommendation. Finding meaningful letters doesn’t happen organically. You have to make that happen. You have to build these relationships, cultivate them, and sustain them. I encourage you to start thinking early about what your network will be because you want advocates.

For most of these scholarships, they have a scholarly component to them so you do need to take care of things in the classroom and be intellectually curious and you need to be aware of what’s going on in the world and engage as an original thinker in some kind of way. I think this is an important part for a lot of these but how much of an important part varies enormously across scholarships. For some, you need to be a good student but if you’re in the upper half of your class you’ll be fine. For others you need to be a truly great student – near the very top of your graduating class.  There’s a range of opportunities out there looking for different things and they weigh different components differently depending on their mission.  Again, it’s all about fit. Continue reading →

Interview by Elisa Shaholli, Peer Research Ambassador

National Scholarships & Fellowships
Part 1: Are They for Me?

A Conversation with Dr. Vin Moscardelli, Director of UConn’s Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships (ONSF)

Can you tell us about the Office of National Scholarships & Fellowships?

We are the office that works with students competing for nationally competitive awards. Some of these are awards people may have heard of like the Rhodes, Fulbright, Truman, or Marshall. If you’re a scientist you may have heard of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship or the Churchill. Most of these are for graduate study. People are applying to go abroad or to pursue graduate degrees.

We spend a lot of time working with students on application essays. We read essays, provide feedback, and work with students to try to get a sense of what the future holds for them and what the best path forward might be. The conversation tends to focus on the best path for you and the best opportunity for you. The fit is a really important part of this. It’s meant to be a learning process. What we do is try to help students think clearly about what they want to do and why. Continue reading →

By Claire Fresher, Peer Research Ambassador

When getting started in research, it’s important to think about what motivates you and what is going to drive your passion for research. Do you love the process of finding solutions and answering questions? Is it a competitive drive to create something new? Are you naturally curious and enjoy learning new things? Do you thrive off having goals, deadlines, and objectives to achieve?

As college students, we are all motivated to complete our degree. What drives the motivation to go beyond our academic comfort zone and pursue research? Research takes work, and you want to make sure you’re doing something you are proud of and are learning about a topic that you want to talk with others about. Recognizing how research motivates you is a great place to begin your research journey. Continue reading →

By Drew Tienken, Peer Research Ambassador

This past month, I submitted an abstract to present my research at my first international conference. After three years of pursuing independent research endeavors and developing transferable skills, I anticipated few obstacles to my pursuit of submitting a successful abstract. I could not have been more wrong.

After spending an exorbitant amount of time tweaking seemingly unimportant words, I sent my abstract over to my research advisor for some peer-editing. Despite only being seven sentences long, the paragraph had nearly 50 suggestions of things to change. I was shocked, and extremely upset with myself. How could I have received this criticism? Did I do a bad job? How could I spend so much time writing a piece that I thought was high-quality work, but receive such a large amount of feedback? Continue reading →

By Lauren Rudin, Peer Research Ambassador

As a second semester senior, my time as an undergraduate researcher is reaching an end and I have given my future beyond UConn serious consideration. When reflecting back on my experience while completing medical school applications, I realized that the skills research provides are much richer than the ability to check off a box on any application.

We have all heard of transferable skills, but how do you explain the skills you’ve developed through research and apply them to other settings? Continue reading →

By Mahima Mehta, Peer Research Ambassador

It’s easy to get in your head. I do it a lot. It’s especially easy when you’re surrounded by people you admire, people who obviously know what they are talking about.

For many of us undergraduates, research is a new and exciting opportunity. There is so much that comes with joining a lab. Think about your first lab meeting. You’ve made it past the interview stage and now you’re sitting beside your new labmates. They’re giving their elevator pitch about their research. Or maybe you are going over a research paper together. What are you thinking to yourself? Oh my god, what am I going to say when it’s my turn? They know I’m new to this. What if I say the wrong thing? Everyone starts somewhere. I don’t even know what they’re talking about. I don’t belong here– Continue reading →

By Alex Clonan, Peer Research Ambassador

Research is all about asking questions, each one viewed through a different lens and perspective. Our academic background, experiences, passions, and interests shape these different lenses. Together, a diverse community of investigators can work to ask questions and strive towards understanding.

I’ll tell you a little bit about my lens. As a first-year Electrical Engineering student, I applied to the Health Research Program and ended up having the opportunity to work at the Center for Quantitative Medicine at UConn Health. To be honest, leading up to my first day in the lab, I was terrified, having little to no experience in whatever ‘systems biology’ was, but I was eager to learn. I wasn’t quite sure how my engineering background would fit in, or what I would be able to contribute. Continue reading →

By Elisa Shaholli, Peer Research Ambassador

When synthesizing ideas  – whether it be for a research project, a plan for a class paper, or even just an idea for something personal like a DIY project –  I fall into the line of thinking of ‘this idea needs to be completely thought out and perfect.’ The more fool-proof the plan, the better the idea, because if it changes directions, that means my project wasn’t great to begin with and I’m doing it all wrong, right?

Well….. It’s actually the opposite! Continue reading →

By Kynza Khimani, Peer Research Ambassador

When people talk about their research experiences, they often focus on the positives. But what do you do when your research experience is not what you expected it to be? What if your academic interests and career goals have shifted?

If you find yourself asking one of these questions, then you may be able to relate to my research journey. Continue reading →