In our fifth year, the Office of National Scholarships and Fellowships has helped U-M students break records for national awards! ONSF works with students from all of U-M’s schools and colleges to recruit and nominate students for some of the most distinguished scholarships and fellowships in the world.
Here are some highlights from the year:
Rachael Merritt, a double major in Russian Language and Culture and International Studies, won a 2022 Rhodes Scholarship. This program provides full funding for two to four years of postgraduate study at the University of Oxford and is recognized as one the most prestigious international scholarships in the world.
Rachael intends to enroll in the master’s program in Russian and Eastern European studies, followed by a master’s in Social Science of the Internet.
This is the second year in a row U-M has had a Rhodes Scholar. Rachael is U-M’s 30th recipient overall and third in the last five years. U-M also had three additional Rhodes finalists: SMTD senior Sammy Sussman, LSA senior Karthik Ravi, and Public Policy alumna Amanda Kaplan.
Xalma Palomino, a junior studying Political Science and Latina/o Studies, has been selected as a Truman Scholar. The Truman Scholarship carries the legacy of the 33rd president by supporting and inspiring the next generation of public service leaders. Xalma plans to advance her career in public policy and voting rights advocacy, and will enroll in a master of Public Policy program.
Along with Xalma’s win, U-M had two finalists for the Truman Scholarship: Phimmasone Owens and Vincent Pinti. This is the 2nd year in a row that U-M had two finalists and one recipient.
Many U-M students have received elite STEM scholarships this year
U-M students have broken the record for most Goldwater Scholars in a single year with five scholars. The Goldwater Scholarship was established to honor former Arizona senator Barry Goldwater with the purpose of helping highly qualified STEM students planning to pursue a PhD and research career.
This year’s scholars are Pharmacy junior Nick Cemalovic, Honors Mathematics juniors Faye Jackson and Jonah Nan (who is also a computer science double major), sophomore Daniel Liu majoring in Chemistry, Computer Science and Business Administration, and junior Anna Simpson, a Physics, Astronomy, and Astrophysics major.
Along with her Goldwater win, Anna Simpson is also an Astronaut Scholar. The Astronaut Scholarship supports STEM students in all fields who intend to pursue research careers.
LSA Senior Karthik Ravi has won a Churchill Scholarship, which funds one year of graduate research and study in a STEM field at the University of Cambridge. He will be pursuing an MPhil in Medical Sciences at Cambridge. Karthik was a Goldwater Scholar last year as a junior.
Aerospace Engineering student José Luiz Vargas De Mendonça has received the U-M STEM Research Career Award. STEM RCA supports highly qualified sophomores and juniors who aim to obtain a PhD and go on to careers in STEM research. Unlike the Goldwater and Astronaut Scholarships which are only open to US citizens and permanent residents, the U-M STEM RCA is open to students of all nationalities and backgrounds.
The Raoul Wallenberg Fellowship
ONSF also recognizes the recipient of the Wallenberg Fellowship, a U-M based fellowship that provides a senior with $25,000 to carry out an independent project of learning or exploration anywhere in the world during the year after graduation. The fellowship honors the legacy of Raoul Wallenberg, a 1935 U-M architecture alumnus who is credited with saving thousands of Jewish lives in the Holocaust.
Chloe Hale is this year’s Wallenberg Fellow. Chloe is a double major in Political Science and Social Theory in Practice and will be traveling to the Rwandan capital of Kigali to investigate the relationship between school closures, teenage pregnancies, and young women’s rights in the country.
ONSF Advising
Many other phenomenal students were coached through the application process and nominated by ONSF for these highly competitive national scholarships. Though not selected this year, many of them will go on to excel in top graduate and professional programs in the future.
For more information on how you can apply for these national scholarship opportunities, please visit the advising page on our website.
