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Jenny Hyest is the Director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards at the University of Cincinnati.

When Jenny was in college, she did not apply for any of the nationally competitive awards. In fact she didn’t even know of their existence.

It so happened that Jenny discovered Fellowship Advising after she graduated with her PhD. She really liked working with college students, helping them with their writing, and helping develop their goals.

That experience brought her to the University of Cincinnati to head up the Nationally Competitive Awards Office.

In this podcast, Jenny Hyest shares her background, her role as Director, The various Awards, The Importance of Awards, How they help students with the awards applications process, and Advice for High Schoolers.

Hi-Fives from the Podcast are:

Role at the University of Cincinnati
Why Awards Office is Important
Types of Awards
Helping Students
Advice for High Schoolers

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Episode Notes

Episode Title: Dir. Jenny Hyest of U of Cincinnati: Advising for Nationally Competitive Awards.

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When Jenny was in college, she did not apply for any of the nationally competitive awards. In fact she didn’t even know of their existence.

It so happened that Jenny discovered Fellowship Advising, after she graduated with her PhD. She really liked working with college students, helping them with their writing, and helping develop their goals.

In this podcast, Jenny Hyest shares her background, her role as Director, the various Awards, The Importance of Awards, How they help students apply, and Advice for High Schoolers.

In particular, we discuss the following with her:

Jenny Hyest’s Background
Nationally Competitive Awards’ Office
How to Apply?
Advice for High Schoolers

Topics discussed in this episode:

Introducing Director Jenny Hyest, University of Cincinnati [0:46]
Hi Fives - Podcast Highlights [2:00]
Professional Background [4:48]
Coming to U of Cincinnati [8:48]
Awards Office Role [13:17]
Why is the Awards Office Important? [15:50]
Types of Awards [18:05]
Fulbright Scholarship [22:56]
Goldwater Scholarship [25:25]
Applying for Truman Scholarship [26:27]
Helping Students Apply [29:32]
Awards Office Student Outreach [33:19]
How Students Apply? [35:26]
Application Trends [38:52]
Advice for High Schoolers [40:36]

Our Guest: Jenny Hyest is the Director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards at the University of Cincinnati. Director Hyest earned her PhD in English from Lehigh University.

Memorable Quote: “...the last piece of advice that I would give is to embrace the fellowship, the world of fellowships, as an important part of your college experience, and not just something that is kind of tangentially related to it. Because I think I mentioned this before, but I think a great way to use these scholarships is, they can make things that hadn't even been imaginable before, put them in the realm of possibility.” Jenny Hyest.

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Episode Transcript: Please visit Episode’s Transcript.

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Episode Transcript

Transcript of the episode’s audio.

<Start Snippet> Jenny H 0:14

You said earlier that receiving one of these awards is transformative, and it is. But one of the reasons I like doing the work of fellowship advising is I think working on the applications themselves is transformative. That I think students, they have to dig so deep in order to write these materials, and they're, they're thinking about their why, like their why, why do I do these?

Venkat 0:46 [Introducing Jenny Hyest, University of Cincinnati]

That is Jenny Hyest, Director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards at the University of Cincinnati.

Hello, I am your host, Venkat Raman.

When Jenny was in college, she did not apply for any of the nationally competitive awards.

In fact she didn’t even know of their existence.

It so happened that Jenny discovered Fellowship Advising after she graduated with her PhD.

She really liked working with college students, helping them with their writing, and helping develop their goals.

That experience brought her to the University of Cincinnati to head up the Nationally Competitive Awards Office.

Venkat Raman 1:31

Before we jump into the podcast, here are the Hi-Fives, Five Highlights from the podcast:

Jenny H 2:00 [Highlights - Hi Fives]

[Role at the University of Cincinnati]

I do a number of things here, I set the strategic vision for the office, I decide which awards are in or advising portfolio, kind of set the plan for for promoting those awards, build relationships across campus to try to make sure that we're getting the word out to students get the support that we need from other faculty and staff, which is so essential to a fellowship, advising enterprise, and, you know, hold information sessions.

[Why Awards Office is Important]

It makes these opportunities that much more accessible, just because, like, I like I was as an undergrad, I think your average student doesn't even know these exists. And these are the kinds of opportunities that can be really transformative for a student.

[Types of Awards]

That falls, one of the ways that we could divide up the nationally competitive awards that we advise I was we could talk about them as post baccalaureate opportunities and pre baccalaureate opportunities. Sure, and so meaning an opportunity that can be held, once a student graduates versus something that they can apply for and have while pursuing a bachelor's

[Helping Students]

came out of the recognition that realized that working with so many students that you see who are all going through essentially the same thing, right, but they're doing it alone. And that there's some value in bringing these folks together who want to opt into this and forming a community around that. A community of mutual support for they recognize, oh, I'm struggling with this piece of the application. Somebody has to it's not just me, it's you know, it's a, it's a process.

[Advice for High Schoolers]

Think I'm just looking for curiosity, like somebody that has a core curiosity about the world around them about others about why things work the way they do curiosity about themselves, wanting to know themselves better. I think if you can come in with that curiosity and that desire to learn that will serve you really well in college.

Venkat Raman 4:15

These were the Hi5s, brought to you by “College Matters. Alma Matters.”

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

For my Newsletter, visit almamatters.substack.com.

Venkat Raman 4:32

Now, I'm sure you want to hear the entire podcast with Jenny.

So without further ado, here is Jenny Hyest!

-----------------

Venkat Raman 4:41

So maybe the best place to start is tell us a little bit about yourself - your background and then we can dive in.

Jenny H 4:48 [Professional Background]

Sure. Well, I My name is Jenny Hyest. I am the Director of the Office of National and competitive awards at University of Cincinnati. I am Originally from Ohio, I grew up in a small rural community, although not near Cincinnati. So when I moved back to Cincinnati for this job, that was my first time, living in Ohio for quite some time. When I went to college, I went pretty far from home, I went down to Nashville, Tennessee. And I went to a small private university there. And I actually started college as a finance and economics major. And I ended up switching my major after my first year of college, because it just wasn't, there was something that I was wanting from college that it wasn't providing to me, it didn't feel entirely satisfying to me. I think there was a kind of intellectual work I was craving in college. And I decided to switch my major to English. I started studying literature. And I really found what I was looking for through that. The kinds of questions that I was wanting to ask about the world around me. Oh, I don't think the study of literature is the only way to ask those questions. But I do think it's a pretty special way of doing it. Sure. I will say looking back, I think if I had stuck with the economics major and gotten out of the first year introductory courses, I probably would have found it a little bit more exciting when we got into more of that theoretical work. But I didn't get there, I switched to English. And I ended up completing my bachelor's in English and minoring in Spanish and I kept a minor in in business. I did not apply for any nationally competitive awards. Go ahead and volunteer that it didn't even know about them. I had no idea existed. But I took a couple of years off from between undergrad after undergrad. And I decided to go to graduate school. So I went made another big move up to eastern Pennsylvania and I went to Lehigh University, and I enrolled in a master's program in English. And that was a what we would call a generalist master's program. So it required students to take courses in a wide variety of literary fields, little different time periods. And after I completed that master's degree, I just I went on to do my PhD. I ended up specializing in, in well, my major field was American literature 1865 and 1945 with American realism, naturalism and modernism. And then my secondary field was British modernism. And I ended up writing a dissertation on female modernists and their literary experimentations. I read about both American and British artists. And then by the time I graduated with my PhD, I had a lot of teaching experience under my belts, I was a fellow throughout the whole duration, mostly taught first year writing courses. So I spent a lot of time reading student essays and, and, and teaching writing. I talked to literature along the way. But I got to graduated with that doctorate and a lot of teaching experience. The time I graduated, I had one publication out on Harlem Renaissance Renaissance poet named and Spencer and I had another essay under review that eventually got published. So we're gonna first so I had research projects that I was really excited about, and why did you can experience that doctorate? So that's my educational background.

Venkat Raman 8:45

So how did you end up at the University of Cincinnati?

Jenny H 8:48 [Coming to U of Cincinnati]

Yeah. Well, it wasn't the most direct path in some respects, because, like a lot of fellowship advisors, I, I did not go to grad school to become a fellowship advisor. Now, there I have met someone who did actually the Assistant Director in my office, she went to grad school so she could do fellowship advising. But I got a PhD in English because I wanted to be an English professor. And when it became increasingly clear to me that well, let's just say the the, the, the job market and tenure track professorships, especially in the humanities is grim. Yeah, and that's probably that's a topic for another conversation or different podcasts. But there aren't a lot of them out there. And so when I when I first went to grad school, I think I went with the idea. I was I was young when I started and I thought, well, I'll move anywhere for any job and and when I came out the other side that just didn't feel as true. I was I was different and By that time and, and the path to going after that Intertek position felts certainly uncertain. And will require a lot of moving around and temporary positions. And I was fortunate when I graduated to get a visiting assistant professorship at Lehigh. So it kind of gave me this holding space to apply for those jobs. But I also started asking myself some questions about, about what I really wanted my life to look like. And if I just didn't have the option of being a tenure track, Professor, what would I do? And those were some big and scary questions to ask. Because it was also asking questions about who I am. And my identity, because I think being an academic, is really also an identity. Being a scholar. And so I started to think carefully about all the experiences that I had the different forms of work that I'd done teaching research. And I started to think about, well, what do I really love about their things? What are the core features of them, that I that I like that are standing? And I also asked myself, What do I not like about those things? Because even if you like the work that you're doing, there's something about it, you don't enjoy probably some feature. And so from there, I started to think about, well, what are the qualities of that I like that might be reproducible elsewhere. And I realized that I really felt like it was such a privilege to get to work with college students, I really enjoyed the conversations around that we would have around their writing, that were also connected to who they are and how they were developing their goals. And so just had some good fortune that at the time, Lehigh was building a Fellowships Office, and the chair of my department sent me a link to the job ad and she said, that sounds like something you might be interested in. I had never heard of fellowship, advising. And when I started to read about it and learn more about it, and I thought, well, there, I see such parallels between the work that I did as a as an instructor, the teacher, and fellowship advising, and, and it was half fellowship, advising half some other work in the area of International Affairs. And they both parts of kills me, so I got the job. I started as an assistant director of fellowship, advising and United Nations programs at Lehigh. And I did that for a while. And from I started in January 2017. And I quickly realized that the fellowship advising side of things was really for me, that was exciting to me. And when I saw the job at the University of Cincinnati, come open, that would bring me back to my home state, I applied for that. And I've been here ever since November 2018.

Venkat Raman 13:04

So maybe the best thing to talk about next is, what's your role at University of Cincinnati. And then I want to kind of talk about why this is all important, all the awards and all that, but let's just first talk about your role here.

Jenny H 13:17 [Awards Office Role]

Well, as the director of the office, up until very recently, I was the only full time professional staff in the office. So I was not all things. But most things to that office, I had some, I had some wonderful support from a graduate assistant and from any, for any students who are listening and might not know what that is, I'll just say that a graduate assistant is a graduate student, a full time graduate student, who is pursuing their degree and then they work in my office 20 hours a week for us. And so, so we were a team and what I do, I do a number of things, you know, I set the strategic vision for the office, I decide which awards are in our advising portfolio, kind of set the plan for for promoting those awards, build relationships across campus to try to make sure we're getting the word out to students get the support that we need from other faculty and staff, which is so essential to a fellowship, advising enterprise, and, you know, hold information sessions. And a big part of what I do also is one on one advising so students can come to me and we have conversations over the course of the years that they work with the Office, very focused on how they are developing students what their goals are identifying any awards that could be a good fit for them. And then when, if and when they decide to apply for an award. I'm there to help them navigate that process. So everything from Giving, brainstorming their their approaches to their essays, giving feedback on their essays, helping them figure out how to get letters of recommendation. Help them through all of that. I also oversee any campus selection process that might take place for certain awards. And then, if they get an interview, where do you interview prep as well? We have writing workshops, things like that. So we try to be a pretty full service office.

Venkat Raman 15:34

So why are these competitive awards important? I mean, what's, what's the importance of these? I understand that students, obviously, it means a lot to them. What does it mean to the university? What does it mean to the ecosystem?

Jenny H 15:50 [Why is the Awards Office Important?]

That's a great question. I think a fellowship advising enterprise serves a few different important roles at the university. First of all, it makes these opportunities that much more accessible, just because, like I, like I was, as an undergrad, I think your average student doesn't even know these exhibits. And these are the kinds of opportunities that can be really transformative for a student. And so so. So it's important to have an office like this. So the students aren't missing out on the chance to, to do the kinds of things that really enrich their experience with students enhance their development, open up possibilities for them.

So that's, that's one thing. And I think the another thing that's pretty exciting about a fellowship advising office, is that we provide a kind of, I think, specialized and intensive mentorship to students that are that, in especially I think, in a university, like the University of Cincinnati, that's very large. It's a way to kind of create a smaller environment in which students who have that drive, and that determination and that excitement to, to maybe pursue a path that's a little bit less conventional, perhaps, I think a lot of these awards do represent that. It's a way to to foster that, that potential and those students through that individualized attention, that I think can really help students flourish.

Venkat Raman 17:45

Cool. So tell us a little bit about you know, the different types of awards? I mean, there's so many of them. How does a student navigate through the array, give us some of the top ones first, and then we can sort of talk about, you know, when it makes sense, what a student think about these things?

Jenny H 18:05 [Types of Awards]

Sure. Well, I would, you know, I don't know how everyone defines up award. I will say, one of the ones that I think is most popular at the University of Cincinnati is the Fulbright US Student Program. And that falls, we wonder the ways that we could divide up the nationally competitive awards that we advise I was we could talk about them as post baccalaureate opportunities and Freebox trade opportunities shouldn't so many an opportunity that can be held once a student graduates versus something that they can apply for and have while pursuing a bachelor's degree.

So Fulbright falls into the post baccalaureate opportunity, you can apply for it. Of this, you can start working on your materials the summer between your junior and senior year, that's your first chance to apply. But it is a 10 month post baccalaureate grant that takes you abroad and you live and work in your host community carrying out your Fulbright project. One of the reasons I think Fulbright is so popular is that it's it's a vast program. 160 countries participate in it. And there are two different grant types.

One is study research so that you would be conducting a research project of your own design and your host community under the supervision of an affiliate, they're sure or you could in some cases depending on where you're going pursue graduate study with a supportive Fulbright.

The other grant type is the English teaching assistant grant which we tend to refer to by its acronym ETA. And in that case, you are spending 10 months placed in a school where English is being taught and you are there as the fluent English speech speaker to assist that instructor. Very popular award among UC students. So undergrad, graduating seniors can apply grad students can apply for it. There's just so much versatility to it. I think Fulbright kinda likes to say there's a Fulbright for everyone. And I think they can see that because there's just so many opportunities. So that's one option.

Another that's one popular award, Another one that that we have a strong track or track record with is Goldwater Scholarship. I know I know, you had the gallbladder president on your, your podcast, but but Goldwater is, it is the goal of the Goldwater Scholarship is to identify and support undergraduate researchers in the natural sciences, math or engineering. And so that is one of the pre Baccalaureate opportunities that you shouldn't apply for. And the the we can, I don't know, we can talk more later about some of the selection criteria, if you want, but are the eligibility criteria, but it is. That's pretty popular. There's there's a whole range of things.

There's so many if you want to study a Critical Need Language, there are awards for that that's Critical Language Scholarship and Boren that will take you abroad to have a cultural immersion experience where you study the language. There's the Truman Scholarship, which provides funding for graduate school for for change agents that want to pursue careers in public service. There's just so many different opportunities if you want to go go to the UK after you finish your undergraduate studies to pursue a graduate degree.

There's a whole host of awards there with Mitchell and Marshall, Rhodes and gates, Cambridge, there's no Tennessee at Stanford to support graduate studies there. It really comes down to your question of, of what your goals are, what you want to achieve, and find, you know, an award to good fit for you.

Venkat Raman 22:16

I'm assuming all these awards come with money that helps the student I mean, in the case of Fulbright, for their 10 months abroad. You know, and of course, with Goldwater, I know, it's a amount to do research for their junior and senior years typically. Now, let's just take full ride. I mean, you said it was the most one of the most popular ones. What is it that Fulbright season a student that they give an award to? I mean, what is it that an alum act or maybe an alum, I guess, since it's after they graduate? So what are they looking for?

Jenny H 22:56 [Fulbright Scholarship]

Yes, so you are right when you said student, because you can work on your application while you're still enrolled. But, well, Fulbright is one of the ones where I think you want most if you're talking about Fulbright, you should just wear a shirt that says it depends on it. That's what the Fulbright reps tend to say as well, because what what they're looking for, can be so specific to the grant and the country.

But I would say that the first thing that students have to remember if they're interested in Fulbright, is that the Fulbright mission is cultural exchange, and improve mutual understanding. And I think whether it's Fulbright or any award, an important first step is to look at the mission and the history of the program. So that you can really understand what it's all about. Because again, you're trying to find that that good fit for yourself. And, and so knowing anybody who's working on a Fulbright application needs to always remember the ultimate goal is that exchange, and these projects are a way of achieving that exchange.

So with that in mind, knowing that they're looking for people who essentially going to be cultural ambassadors, they're going to be representatives of the, the US and all its diversity abroad. We can know that, that Fulbright is going to be looking just for some general criteria like flexibility, cultural sensitivity, and respect, you know, the ability to communicate across cultural differences. There are plenty of ways to be able to demonstrate one's capacity for that without having a broad if somebody you know, hasn't had a chance to do they're looking for you know, that curiosity that open mindedness, maturity here because again, 10 months living on your own abroad, you need to have that. So those are just some of the characteristics in general that they're looking for, then I can get kind of specific, you know, if you're, if you want to be an ETA, they're looking for certain past experiences that you've had same for your research experiences that are appropriate to the project.

Venkat Raman 25:19

How about the Goldwater Scholarship? I mean, I'm guessing the fewer number or is that a much larger number?

Jenny H 25:25 [Goldwater Scholarship]

Yes, no, that's a smaller pool. It is, you know, when you get more into some of the niche awards, sometimes you get a smaller pool, because, you know, for Goldwater, you have to have at least a 3.0 GPA, you have to have that commitment to pursuing a PhD in your field and, and a research career that, you know, whether that research career is at a national, or academia are flexible in that, but you have to really be going after that career. But I would say, typically, we have smaller numbers for that, we can shoot forward for candidates. And that's, that's, that's another thing that students need to realize that some of these awards have have caps on the number of students that an institution can nominate. So we're limited to four, possibly five.

Jenny H 26:27 [Applying for Truman Scholarship]

The Truman application has a lot of work. And I think that's something that you can apply for your junior year. And they are looking for a pretty special combination of a strong track record of public service, a strong leadership profile, and, and an academic strengths that are appropriate to what it is that you're planning to do, I'd say, go out there, excuse me, Truman does not have a minimum GPA, they're probably a little bit more flexible. When it comes to okay, then perhaps some other awards, but they're looking for that that combination. So, so looking for a student that really has, I think, their vision, their their issues that they really care about, and they understand that the effect that they want to have in the world, it's not something that they have to wait until the future, yeah, to start to work on, they're doing it from where they are right now. And they're, they're doing everything they can to tap into the resources that are available them to, to effect positive change in the communities that they're serving. And so having, so there's a certain kind of background, a certain kind of profile that you're looking for, for a Truman, Truman Scholar for Truman candidate. And then it's a pretty involved application process to have to say, you, you commit to that work, there's a lot of essays to write, it's involves a lot of self reflection, and you write a policy proposal. So so it's an involved process. And but I think that that is, you know, you said earlier that receiving one of these words is transformative, and it is. But one of the reasons I like doing the work of fellowship advising is, I think working on the applications themselves is transformative. That I think students, they have to dig so deep in order to write these materials, and they're, they're thinking about their why, like, why why do I do these things? Why do they matter to me? What's the effect that maybe with a level of concentration that maybe they hadn't, they haven't quite done before, it doesn't mean that you even thought about it, or they don't know why, but they haven't been, they haven't had to put it into words. And so I think that in the process of applying students more fully come into their own than they ever have before. And I think that they're able to return to the work that they're doing, and actually do it better.

Venkat Raman 29:20

So tell us a little bit about how you help them with the application. Let's just take Fulbright, for example. How do you how do you kind of assist the students?

Jenny H 29:32 [Helping Students Apply]

Well, we ideally, what we love it is actually if we have known the student for a while before they even apply. Okay, you know, if there's a student that's kind of been coming in for a couple years, and we really had a chance to get to know them and, and then it's here and they're applying for Fulbright, because that just gives us a lot of a wider knowledge base and makes it easier for us to help them by There are plenty, plenty, plenty of cases where that doesn't happen, you know, somebody finds their way to our office, through our Fulbright advertising and our relationship starts when the application process really started, so we help them we have a big Fulbright week. In early April, we host that every year, it coincides with the opening of the Fulbright application. And it just really, a series of events are designed to just kick off the process for everyone. So we're, once we get our students who are interested in applying, we encourage them to go through our Fulbright boot camp. And it's a cohort based advising apparatus basically, that that came out of the recognition that realized that working with so many students at UC, who are all going through essentially the same thing, right, but they're doing it alone. And that there's some value in bringing these folks together who want to opt into this, and forming a community around that community of mutual support for they recognize, oh, I'm struggling with this piece of the application, somebody has to it's not just me, it's you know, it's a, it's a process, it's this is just to kind of normalize that. Or conversely, I struggled with this piece, but my my peer over here, they came up with a really interesting way to approach it. And it's made me kind of think differently about how I might handle it. So so just let them be a resource to one another. So we do have some workshops that we run through that. But it's also largely, we train them on how to do peer review. They do peer review, throughout the course of the month that they participate in boot camp. And the goal was not to complete the application in that month, because it usually takes a bit more than that. But to just give them a really solid launch on that application. And hopefully, they'll also form some relationships in that space that they carry with them out of there. So they continue to offer peer review to one another on their own time. Sure. So that's one way but that along the way, we're also reading their drafts, providing feedback to them. We can engage before that and brainstorming conversations if that's what they need. But really just having giving them that feedback, having conversations about the feedback, and giving them advice on on how to get their affiliations, helping them think about how to approach their their recommenders so that they get the strongest recommendations possible. That I'd say those are the main ways that we're we're supporting our our students through the Fulbright process.

Venkat Raman 32:55

How do how do students find out about you? I mean, is there as a freshman would be no the existence of your office today? No, these awards exist? How do you kind of let students know so that they're thinking about it early on, rather than, you know, a week before the Fulbright applicants?

Jenny H 33:19 [Awards Office Student Outreach]

Well, that is our kind of never ending task, I'd say is trying to figure out how do we how do we get the word out about our office? Right, we do it. We engage in a variety of outreach efforts. We we have a newsletter that we send out, but you already have to get connected to our office to get that. Yeah, we are trying to do in class presentations. We have social media, we try to put our announcements in other offices, newsletters, we are sometimes we do direct emailing, we can pull student lists. For Fulbright, we can't do that that's not really practical, because really any major a student from any major could apply. So there's over 46,000 students that you see, we can't, we can't email 46 students, but for things like Critical Language Scholarship, which offers opportunities among other languages to study Russian, Japanese, Arabic. Well, we have students that are taking Russian and Japanese and Arabic shows are smaller lists so we can pull student lists and do some direct outreach, but it's just constant. It's with a variety of themes and we try to have strong relationships with other offices, faculty on campus and just whatever way we can try to get students into the office.

Venkat Raman 34:53

I was just wondering if there are any interesting stories or see one of the one of the challenge I would imagine is that students want to apply to award acts. But you know, do you do you kind of feel like that might not be appropriate? Or they might not qualify for some reason? Is that something that you would advise against? Or is that you just let anyone who wants to apply for an award system? Is there? Is there a filtering process of any kind? Or you wouldn't engage in that?

Jenny H 35:26 [How Students Apply?]

Well, I there's two different kinds of awards. Let's start with that. There are there are a direct apply VI said there were postbaccalaureate and pre baccalaureate? Well, there's another way to divide the awards, there are awards that are what we would call direct apply awards. Yeah, and there are institutional endorsement awards. Okay, if an award isn't a direct apply award, then really, it's any student can apply it. And they don't even have to work with our office, they could entirely bypass the office of national and competitive awards and apply on their own and it's fine. We try to encourage them not to do that we want them to work with us, because even though their direct apply awards, we might have a lot of experience with the wars, maybe we've even served as national reviewers for some of those awards. So we want them to benefit from what we know about these scholarships, and what it takes to be competitive. But with those, really, it's just up to the student, if they want to go after it, and they want to try for it. That's great. Go for the endorsement awards, they have to go. It's competitive at the campus level. So you have to first go before a committee that's been assembled to review those materials. And, and then decide whether to put a student forward. Okay, and that is faculty and staff, who have experience with a scholarship, looking at those materials, conducting an interview, and then deciding who should get that nomination. Okay. So there can be some issues, I think the language is filtering out at the campus level there. As for whether we do that in our advising, really, it's a delicate balance, because I don't ever want to really take the stance of just telling somebody. Yes, no. Because also sometimes you don't know. Up Your Yeah, like you are. Yes, there are certain things that we know these awards are looking for, especially when you're getting to things like roads, martial law, enforcement, and they there's they weren't there. It's the big leadership profile that they're looking for. But sometimes it's in the course of working with a student and having conversation that you sort of excavate the full richness of their experience. Sometimes they don't do themselves justice. So you have to be careful early on. And so really, I don't think it's for us to be making a quick judgment, and they know you're not a good fit, but it's to try to facilitate a student's own self assessment. To help them figure out, do they think that this is a good fit for them? And did they think that they're a good fit for this scholarship, we don't want a student to rule themselves out. Because sometimes, these students can underestimate themselves. But we also understand this as a lot of work. And we that, that, that there are so many benefits to the process. But I think the most benefit comes from a student who's going through the process of applying for a ward that they're a good fit for.

Venkat Raman 38:39

Are you are you finding in the five years that you've been there now? Are the number of students applying for awards increasing? What is the trend like what does it look like?

Jenny H 38:52 [Application Trends]

It's tricky to speak of trends is where emerging from a pandemic. That's true, especially when so many of these opportunities are focused internationally, level opportunities, because so many things just didn't happen over over that time, or they had selected Fulbright, you may have won a Fulbright, but then you couldn't go on your Fulbright your Fulbright got deferred, or you you want to Critical Language Scholarship, but it had to be done remotely. And and so I think it's I hadn't been here very long before it started. It's it's difficult still to speak about what typical or and we're figuring out now, what's that? What are the phrase that gets thrown around our new normal? Yeah. So I would say throughout the pandemic, the thing I thought was really remarkable on our end is that our numbers stayed pretty consistent. Okay, because I think it would have been easy for things to fall off. But as far as this trends, you know, one year Sometimes it's a bit unpredictable to one year, a certain word will just get a lot of applications. It's just popular year, another year, maybe it's less so and then another one kind of spikes. So I can't necessarily identify rhyme or reason behind that.

Venkat Raman 40:21

Okay, so Jenny, we're gonna start winding down, and I thought would be a good idea, you know, as they think about college and from your own experience and their experience on you Cincinnati's campus now, what would you tell them

Jenny H 40:36 [Advice for High Schoolers]

Really embrace college as a time for exploration. They're the the major that you start out with, and may not be the one who end up completing it might be, but you might change or, I guess. In other words, they're the whole point of college. And the whole point of an education is to encounter ideas and possibilities that you hadn't encountered before. Coming to know things you didn't previously know. Which means that there are so many opportunities that are going to open up in front of you, and to try to be really, really receptive to that. And I think that the best thing, if you were to ask me across all of the awards, what is the what's the characteristic that I think I'm looking for, and that makes me think, oh, this this person, there could be something here and these awards for them. And especially when I'm meeting somebody in their first year, where a lot of potential was still kind of unrealized, you know, it, I think I'm just looking for curiosity, like somebody that has a core curiosity about the world around them about others about why things work the way they do curiosity about themselves, wanting to know themselves better. I think if you can come in with that curiosity, and that desire to learn, that will serve you really well in college. And I think that can be easier said than done, because a lot of high school, or K through 12 education, not all of it. There's a lot of variety in it. But it can lend itself toward a focus on getting the right answer getting the Good answer. Good answer that can go on the test. Yeah. And, and I understand, to some extent why that is the way that it is. But when you come to college, if you can start to shift your mindset to getting really interested in asking good question. And following the question to whatever it takes you think that's a, that's a great way to to get a lot out of your time in college and to achieve your own exciting growth. So I think that's one piece of advice I would give, just in general about college. The other second piece, to my second piece would be to really prioritize developing mentoring relationships in college. That is something that I think, first year students don't always think about doing. And maybe in part, it's because they've always been in school, and maybe it starts to feel like they always will be, there's always a next year. And college goes surprisingly quickly. And to start from the time that you're there and being intentional in seeking out your your relationships with faculty and staff, who can support your development. And think it takes more work in your first year, because as a first year student, you might be in some really large classes. And it might be easy to feel like you're just a number in the crowd. And that's where using Office Hours becomes really important. And sometimes students don't go to office hours because they think it's for students that are struggling. Right. And if you're struggling, go to office hours, certainly. But it's also for students that are excited to be there and have some questions outside of class. And, you know, maybe it's an instructor who's in their field, and you're thinking you want to go to grad school, well, they went to grad school, so go talk to them about that and start learning about that. So building those mentoring relationships and maintaining them. I think students did have a really positive college experience. They have those those networks. And then I guess maybe the last piece of advice that I would give this fellowship related specifically is to embrace the fellowship, the world of fellowships, as an important part of your college experience and not just something that is this is kind of tangentially related to it because I think I mentioned this before, but I think the great a great way to use these, these scholarships is they can put, they can make things that hadn't even been imaginable before. Like they put them in the realm of possibility, you know, you can imagine that they, that there's, they, as you learn about a scholarship, you are learning about a possible path, or you're learning about opportunities that you didn't even know exist, or things that you could do that you didn't even know you could do. And, and I think that they can be sort of, well, on one hand, I would never, ever advise a student to do anything for just for a scholarship. Like, you know, you know, if I could just check this box, then I'll be a good candidate usually doesn't work that way, either. But it's a good way to go through life. But But, but they can sort of the roadmaps and you think, well, whether or not I apply for treatments, cars, maybe I will, I love the ideals that treatment is described. And that's the kind of person that I want to be. And that's the kind of impact that I want to make in this world. Well, let me learn a little bit more about what they think a Truman Scholar does, while they're in college. What are the kinds of experiences they seek out how they develop? And so I think it can give you some direction. Yeah, and so in a way that that's not about just doing something for the scholarship, but it kind of gives you a roadmap to think about how to use your time and how to use resources to become the person that you want to be while you're in college. And so I think that that's a great way to do that to to kind of fold it into your experience. And even don't fixate too much on on the selection rates. Yeah, to the point that they you know, don't let this be a deterrent. It's really about finding, you are the best candidate for an award that is a really good fit for you. Yeah, and that's what what it'll come down to and to just just really be open to all the possibilities that could come your way through that.

Venkat Raman 47:12

No, that's awesome advice, Jenny, I think you outlined some really good, deep ways of thinking about it. And I just want to thank you for taking the time and sharing your insights on these awards. And, you know, the way to operate so that, you know, folks out there can understand them as they step on their individual campuses, you know, in the near future. And we'll talk more and I thank you for all the support and help you've given me in terms of talking to lots of students and alumni from University of Cincinnati. And we'll talk again, thank you so much. Take care, be safe.

--------------------

Venkat 48:02

Hi again!

Hope you enjoyed our podcast with Jenny Hyest about Nationally Competitive Awards & Fellowship Advising at the University of Cincinnati.

Specifically, we covered:

The Office of Nationally Competitive Awards;
Types of Awards & the Popular Awards;
How to Apply;
Advice for High Schoolers.

I hope you check out and find a Nationally Competitive award that fits your goals and interests in college.

For your questions or comments on this podcast, please email podcast at almamatters.io [podcast@almamatters.io].

Thank you all so much for listening to our podcast today.

Transcripts for this podcast and previous podcasts are on almamatters.io forward slash podcasts [almamatters.io/podcasts].

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Thank you!

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Podcast for High Schoolers, College Majors, US Colleges, College Podcast, High School Students, College-bound, Georgia Southern Honors College, GSU, Steve Engel, Political Science, Study Abroad, Undergraduate Research, Capstone, Co-op.

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