Episode Notes | Transcript | AskTheGuest
Hi Fives (5 Highlights) 2-Minute Listen
In his sophomore year of college, John was losing interest in Physics. Then he stumbled upon UG Research that changed things completely for him. John subsequently went on to get his Phd in Nuclear Physics. Today he is the President of the Goldwater Scholarship and the Excellence in Education Foundation.
Set up in 1986 to honor Senator Barry Goldwater’s distinguished public service, the Scholarship promotes undergraduate research by awarding scholarships to students.
In this podcast, John gives us an overview of The Barry Goldwater Scholarship, How Students can Apply, What they look for in their Scholars, and Advice for High Schoolers.
Hi-Fives from the Podcast are:
- Why UG Research?
- About Barry Goldwater Scholarship
- What the Scholarship Offers?
- What is the Scholarship Looking for?
- Advice for High Schoolers
Episode Notes
Episode Title: John Mateja on The Barry Goldwater Scholarship: Identify, Encourage & Support Students doing Undergraduate Research.
In his sophomore year of college, John was losing interest in Physics. Then he stumbled upon UG Research that changed things completely for him. John subsequently went on to get his Phd in Nuclear Physics. Today he is the President of the Goldwater Scholarship and the Excellence in Education Foundation.
Set up in 1986 to honor Senator Barry Goldwater’s distinguished public service, the Scholarship promotes undergraduate research by awarding scholarships to students.
In this podcast, John gives us an overview of The Barry Goldwater Scholarship, How Students can Apply, What they look for in their Scholars, and Advice for High Schoolers.
In particular, we discuss the following with him:
- About Barry Goldwater Scholarship
- What are they looking for in their Scholars
- How to Apply
- What the Scholars receive
- Advice to Applicants
Topics discussed in this episode:
- Introducing John Mateja, Barry Goldwater Scholarship [0:39]
- Hi Fives - Podcast Highlights [1:45]
- Professional Background [3:48]
- The Importance of UG Research [8:50]
- Barry Goldwater Scholarship [10:33]
- John’s Role as President [11:57]
- What do they look for in their Scholars? [13:13]
- The Application Process [15:11]
- Application Stats [16:51]
- What do Scholars get? [19:06]
- Success Stories [21:40]
- What’s Next? [25:34]
- Advice to High Schoolers [28:26]
- Close: Seek Research Opportunities [29:54]
Our Guest: John Mateja is the President of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and the Excellence in Education Foundation. John holds a PhD in Nuclear Physics from the University of Notre Dame.
Memorable Quote: “The real gold in the Goldwater Scholarship is not the money. The real value in this scholarship is going through the application process, which forces you to think about your career in ways that many students don't think about their careers.” John Mateja.
Episode Transcript: Please visit this episode’s transcript.
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Episode Transcript
Transcript of the episode’s audio.
<Start Snippet> John M 0:14
Upwards of 70% of those students who we award scholarships to go on and get PhDs. Another eight to 10% of them go on and get professional degrees. You know, an MD JD other degrees, like that.
Venkat Raman 0:39 [Introducing John Mateja, President Barry Goldwater Scholarship]
That was John Mateja, President of the Goldwater Scholarship and the Excellence in Education Foundation.
Hello, I am your host Venkat Raman.
Set up in 1986 to honor Senator Barry Goldwater’s distinguished public service, the Goldwater Scholarship granted its first set of awards in 1989.
The Scholarship was created to identify, encourage and financially support undergraduate students interested in pursuing a research career in STEM fields.
Venkat Raman 1:16
In this podcast, John gives us an overview of The Barry Goldwater Scholarship, How Students can Apply, What they look for in their Scholars, and Advice for High Schoolers.
Venkat Raman 1:30
Before we jump into the podcast, here are the High-Fives, Five Highlights from the podcast:
John M 1:45 [Highlights - Hi Fives]
[Why UG Research?]
I don't care whether you're in journalism, whether you're in chemistry, and economics, whatever field you're interested in pursuing, you really can't become a chemist by simply reading about it, you need to get into the lab, get your hands dirty.
[About Barry Goldwater Scholarship]
We're looking to identify, encourage and financially support students who are interested in a career in science, engineering, and mathematics.
[What the Scholarship Offers?]
While money is important, the real gold in the Goldwater Scholarship is not the money. The real value in this scholarship is going through the application process, which forces you to think about your career in ways that many students don't think about their careers.
[What is the Scholarship Looking for?]
You have to write a research essay. And you can write a research essay on a proposal of work that you have not done. But you're going to be much more competitive if you've done a research project.
[Advice for High Schoolers]
And I've got to be real blunt here. If there's no opportunities at the school you're visiting for you to become involved in research and look somewhere else.
Venkat Raman 3:17
These were the Hi5s, brought to you by College Matters. Alma Matters.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Venkat Raman 3:28
Now, I'm sure you want to hear the entire podcast on Goldwater Scholarship with John.
So without further ado, over to John Mateja!
-------------------------------------------
Venkat Raman 3:39
You know, if you're ready, we could get started and maybe share a little bit about your background and then we can go from there.
John M 3:48 [Professional Background]
Sure. Well, I grew up on a farm and in western Pennsylvania, first generation college student went for the local public high school. I have a lot of different interests as the high school students from working on the high school paper to submitting a science project that actually made it to the state competition. My parent's expectation fortunately, was that my brother and I would go to college. That really wasn't true for a lot of my high school classmates, enrolling relatively few of them went went on to college. I honestly don't remember why I decided to major in physics. I applied to four colleges and was admitted into three out of them. I chose to go to Notre Dame because it had a wide range of curricular options. If the sciences didn't work out, you know, there were lots of other non science options available. Sure. Some of the other schools I applied to are much more science focused and you If I decided to change directions, I might have to change schools. That's sort of my early years. Yeah.
Venkat Raman 5:11
So then, tell us a little bit about, you know, it looks like you went deep into physics. You're a nuclear physicist. How did that evolve?
John M 5:21
Well, that's actually a pretty interesting story, I think. So, you know, I'm a college freshman at the Notre Dame taking a pretty standard set of courses for a physics major. I spent most of my evenings and weekends doing problems at the end of the physics, chemistry and math chapters. Quite honestly, I didn't see where all of this was heading, I really didn't know. Nor do I think you can know what a career in science or any field means. Or is life if all you have is classroom experience? Sure.
So when I entered college, there was certainly no thought of going beyond a bachelor's degree.
You know, a PhD in physics was something I thought only Einstein, Newton, or Newton, Physics major might might think of, I didn't see myself in that league. And I also didn't see myself as a physics faculty member, they could work all the problems at the end of the chapter. And I could work most of them but not all.
So this all went on into my sophomore year at this point, I was becoming somewhat disillusioned with the major physics and was thinking about changing majors to my interests were photography and economics at the time, I could have gone into one of those, which would have been fine, but I would have missed a career that, that I thoroughly enjoy. Yeah.
So this is kind of where the luck intervenes. And, you know, I stumbled across a bulletin board announcements that they were looking for undergraduates to run shifts, for the accelerator group. And, and so I volunteered to do that. And after doing that, for several months sign, you know, ask them if I could have my own research project. And that's when everything changed. And it was relatively unusual at that time. This is years ago now. Undergraduate to be involved in any kind of graduate student like research project, right.
But again, this is this is what changed everything, it had such a positive impact on me, I spent most of my professional career working to change the undergraduate experience from sitting in a classroom taking notes, to something that looks more like a graduate school, where you're practicing to become a professional in the field.
Venkat Raman 8:09
You've been doing all these wonderful things, you know, associated with undergraduate research over the years, including being the president of CUR, and now of course, the Barry Goldwater. So tell us, you know, I see that it was very personal, I see that it made a, you know, changed your career course, or actually made things much more solid and specific. How do you think it applies to all the students? I mean, is it something that you think is, would would impact all students most students? Or is it is it something that you have to have in you to make it happen?
John M 8:50 [The Importance of UG Research]
Yeah, I personally think that if you really want to understand what a career in the field you're interested in pursuing is all about, you really need to have this kind of experience. I don't care whether you're in journalism, whether you're in chemistry, in economics, whatever field you're interested in pursuing, you really can't become a chemist by simply reading about it, you need to get into the lab, get your hands dirty, and and, you know, experience what, what it really means to be a chemist. And, you know, for most students that I've encountered, once they've had that opportunity, they're kind of hooked, okay? If chemistry is the right field for them, for example. There's really no going back but then there are a few students that say, you know, this isn't what I want to do. And that's, and that's, that's a good thing to have happened to so that you know, you can make a change early rather than later and and pursue what your real interests are. And again, you know, sitting in a classroom, it's really difficult to figure out what those interests are. So I would say every student should do it. You know what they're what they're going to find will change from one student to the next.
Venkat Raman 10:22
So, with that as the backdrop, tell us about the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, what is, what is it and how did it come about?
John M 10:33 [Barry Goldwater Scholarship]
Well, the scholarship is named after the former Senator Barry Goldwater. And he was retiring from the Senate in 1986. He had many, many years of public service. And so to recognize this service, Congress created this scholarship in his name. In 1986, the first scholarships were actually awarded in 1989. And basically, it was created to encourage students early in their academic careers who are interested in science to seriously consider pursuing a research career. So we're, we're looking to identify encouraged and financially support students who are interested in a career in science, engineering, and mathematics. And of course, these kinds of individuals are important to the country's defense, which Goldwater was certainly very interested in. And in its economic competitiveness. And, and so this scholarship has been around since the mid 80s.
Venkat Raman 11:51
So you're the current president. What does that role entail?
John M 11:57 [John’s Role as President]
Well, I'm leading the effort, I have a board of trustees that consists of eight individuals appointed by the President of the United States, and to House members to Senate members, and the Secretary of Education. And so the foundation's office, and we're a small operation, there are only two full time employees in the Foundation office. And we have a contractor that supports the competition. So I'm out here promoting the scholarship, obviously, I selected the individuals who review for the scholarship. And right now I'm working with Congress to to increase funding for the scholarship program. So that gives you a general overview of of what I'm responsible for.
Venkat Raman 13:01
Tell us a little bit about the scholarship. What does it offer? And when, you know, what kind of benefits or resources do the students get?
John M 13:13 [What do they look for in their Scholars?]
Well, there's obviously the scholarship money. Yeah, this can be nominated. And you don't just apply you have to be nominated by your school for this scholarship. In the fall of their sophomore year, should they be selected and we notify them in the spring, then they receive $7,500 in their junior and their senior year. So 15,000 total, if you nominated as a junior in the fall of your junior year, and you are selected in the spring, then you get $7,500 in the year senior year. Now, money is important. The real gold in the Goldwater Scholarship is not the money. The real value in this scholarship is going through the application process, which forces you to think about your career in ways that many students don't think about their careers. You know, if you want to do research, what kind of research do you want to do, what graduate schools you want to go to? And even what faculty member at that graduate school is doing the kind of work you're interested in, and you'd like to work with? A couple of our applicants even think about where they might like to do a postdoc after graduate school to further enhance their credentials and skills. Thinking through all of this, and for many students filling out the Goldwater application is the first time they've done this. It's just extremely important. The self reflection is very important.
Venkat Raman 14:59
So now you said they have to be nominated. Now, is that a faculty member at their school? Or how's the nomination work?
John M 15:11 [The Application Process]
No, every school in the country can nominate a student if they have a Goldwater campus representative. Okay. And that individual is generally always appointed by a dean or the provost or president of the university. And if you go to our website, Goldwater scholarship.gov, www Goldwater scholarship.gov. In the top right hand corner, you're going to see something that says campus, campus representative locator, click, click on that. And that will open a box where you can type in the name of your school of your college. And that will bring up for you the name of the Goldwater campus representative on your campus, their phone number, their email, address their contact information, you should then go and talk to that person about, you know, being nominated by your school for the scholarship. Now, if you don't find your school on that list, call our office and we'll work with you in in identifying a campus representative for your school. But most schools are there over 1800 of them. That haven't Goldwater, campus representative.
Venkat Raman 16:34
Okay, that makes sense. So, so what is, what kind of eligibility or what kind of criteria to students use? Or is there to apply? I mean, to be nominated when what do they need to do or have done? So that big? Okay.
John M 16:51 [Application Stats]
Importantly, go to our homepage, Goldwater scholarship.gov. And all of this is detailed, but to answer your question, you have to be a full time student pursuing a degree in science, engineering, mathematics, and an accredited two or four year school, which most students are going to be unique to intend to pursue a research career in science, engineering, or mathematics. You have them. You don't have to have a perfect GPA you have our GPA requirement is three point out two point scale. And last year, the students who won Goldwater scholarships had a range of GPAs from about 3.3 to 4.0. Okay. And you have to be finally a US citizen, or permanent resident, okay?
Venkat Raman 17:48
How many, how many students apply? How many students get nominated every year?
John M 17:54
Okay, approximately 1300 gets nominated every year. And of those 1300, we select about 480 for the scholarship, and so your odds are pretty good. being awarded the scholarship, roughly one in three.
Venkat Raman 18:17
Yeah, that's
John M 18:20
let me add that, you know, in the event that you get nominated as a sophomore, and you don't get selected, apply again the next year. You have two shots at this once in your sophomore year. And again, in your, in your junior year. And, you know, we looked at some of the statistics. And those who are nominated a second time because they have more work and they are more experienced with the process actually have a higher success rate.
Venkat Raman 18:50
So what do you, what do you guys look for in these scholars? The four hundred and eighty that make it? What are you looking for?
John M 19:06 [What do Scholars get?]
You know, we're looking for that enthusiasm. There is as part of the application and you can go to our site, you'll see we try to be as transparent as possible. Everything we're out detailed that we're looking for. You have to do a write a research essay. And you can write a research essay on a proposal of work that you have not done, but you're going to be much more competitive if you've done a research project.
So now think about this for a second. If you're being nominated in the fall of your sophomore year. What's that mean? What that means is you really need to be looking to get involved in a research project in your freshman year. Or at least in the summer, following your Your freshman year. So when you get on campus, the first thing you really need to start doing is to looking for an opportunity to engage in research. And that's what's going to make you competitive because as part of the application, as you might guess, we have letters of recommendation.
And those letters will come from the faculty who you've worked with on a research project or a course instructor who you've talked to about your research interest. And so you really have to start early, getting engaged, the most meaningful comments coming from those those letter writers are going to be based on the work that you've, you've done with those faculty. So that's, that's really what we're looking for.
We are looking for some leadership characteristics. Have you been involved in any clubs? Have you had leadership positions there, but being the president of science club, without some research experience, it probably isn't going to win you a Goldwater Scholarship.
Venkat Raman 21:17
Yeah, this has been going on since 1989, you said was the first time a scholarship was awarded. That's how, what any interesting stories, success stories, I don't know, however, you define that, with the scholars over the years. Anything that might be worth sharing here?
John M 21:40 [Success Stories]
Oh, this, our scholars are doing amazing work. You know, we find in subsequence surveys of our students that upwards of 70% of those students who we award scholarships to go on and get PhDs. Another eight to 10% of them go on and get professional degrees, you know, an MD JD other degrees, like that. So a very high percentage of the students don't stop their their education at the bachelors level, they go on and pursue these advanced degrees. They're doing amazing kinds of work. As undergraduates in schools across the country, they're publishing, in professional journals, leading professional journals, they're, they're presenting their work and professional society meeting. And of course, now that if you get started as a freshman, you have the opportunity to develop projects that lead to these kinds of outcomes. So again, I can't emphasize enough early get started as early in this arena is absolutely possible.
Venkat Raman 23:06
Now, yeah, go ahead. Sorry. You know, I was gonna ask is, you know, obviously, all this is across disciplines. Are you finding any specific disciplines more than others? Or is that a fairly nice spread? Or is it growing in a variety of disciplines that you hadn't seen before?
John M 23:26
Well, I can't say that I've seen it. It's certainly growing in cutting edge areas, students are getting getting involved in some very cutting edge quantum research and things like that. Quantum Computing. Now, we see a good spread across, you know, chemistry, physics, math, engineering, probably well, not probably, but something on the order of 30% of our nominees are in the life sciences. When we're getting students who are interested in pursuing medical research, we're seeing maybe an increase there, and probably for obvious reasons with what's been going on in the world. Now, I do want to make a point about students interested in medicine. Pursuing a medical practice, that's clinical is your certainly to be commended for that. But if it's not research, that's that's a great career direction, but it's not Goldwater. What we're interested in doing is having individuals pursue medicine from the research standpoint. Now, we don't care what you want to do. With your career, you could you could be a faculty member at a university They you could pursue research for a pharmaceutical company at a national lab that we don't care really where you you ended up doing research as long as you're doing research. Those are the students that we're trying to support.
Venkat Raman 25:20
So what's what's next for the scholarship for the Barry Goldwater Scholarship? Where were you guys headed more students? Are you mentioned at the outset that you are looking for more funding? What's that total that accomplish?
John M 25:34 [What’s Next?]
We are pursuing additional funding from Congress, we would like to increase the amount of the scholarship, okay. And that's important. But what's also important is that students have these research experiences. And we were just given the approval by Congress to provide not only scholarships, but research opportunities, internships, and so over the next two or three years, we hope to be developing an opportunity that would provide students who might otherwise not have an opportunity to engage in research, we're looking for community college students, for example. And, you know, sometimes on community college campuses, there aren't a lot of opportunities to engage in research. And so you know, that might be one group that could take significant advantage of a program like this. But we're, we're seeking money from Congress, we don't have it yet. And hopefully, we will in another year or two, and be able to roll this program. Because again, that's going to make you competitive for the Goldwater Scholarship. And I might add, I don't think I've mentioned this, that if you're preparing yourself to be competitive for Goldwater Scholarship, by doing the things that I've talked about, you're also preparing yourself to be more competitive for graduate school admission. And graduates graduate school fellowships now, you know, if you could win a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow award that's worth $135,000. And that's not the big one. I mean, you know, there are others out there, the Hertz fellowship, for example, is worth a quarter of a million dollars to go to grad school. So, again, if you're preparing for Goldwater, you're preparing for these other things at the same time.
Venkat Raman 27:52
John, you know, undergraduate research really made a huge difference in your own career, how you got started and where you went from there. What? And then, of course, you're looking at these scholars every year.
What kinds of skills should high schoolers be developing so that they can step on campus and as a freshman, engage in research or be comfortable doing research? Well, is there anything that they can be doing right now in high school?
John M 28:26 [Advice to High Schoolers]
Well, you know, some of our applicants began doing research while they were in high school. And so if you have an opportunity, maybe there's a college in your local area, go to that college and see if they have any opportunities for high school students to become involved in research. And so be proactive about this. I would very much encourage students when they're looking at a college, to ask the question when they visit the campus, what research opportunities are available for undergraduates and ask if you can get involved in research as a freshman, asked to talk to some of the undergraduates who are working in research. And I've got to be real blunt here. If there's no opportunities at the school, you're visiting for you to become involved in research and look somewhere else. I'd seriously look at different schools.
Venkat Raman 29:40
So John, we are beginning to wind down here. Any closing thoughts for you know, either the college students and their freshman or sophomore years or, you know, the faculty out there?
John M 29:54 [Close: Seek Research Opportunities]
Well, again, I think what I'm really saying is, be proactive. to go out there and seek these opportunities, in most cases, they aren't going to come looking for you. You need to go looking for for the opportunity. And, you know, every student who's starting has zero skills. So don't don't worry about that. Okay, you'll learn what, what you need to know when you need to know it. And so, you know, again, just take advantage of whatever opportunities are out there and go find those opportunities.
Venkat Raman 30:41
Fabulous. So, John, thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your views on both undergraduate research and of course, about the Barry Goldwater Scholarship. I'm sure we'll talk more in the future but for right now, thank you. Take care and be safe.
John M 30:58
Thank you. enjoyed the opportunity.
Venkat Raman 31:01
Sure. Thanks. Bye.
--------------------------------
Venkat 31:10
Hi again!
Hope you enjoyed this podcast with John Mateja, President of Goldwater Scholarship.
John gave us a great overview of The BW Scholarship, How to Apply, What they look for in their Scholars, and advice for High Schoolers.
A huge takeaway for all you college-bound seniors is to start engaging in Research when you get to campus to avail of opportunities like the Goldwater Scholarship.
For high school juniors, as you make your college lists, make sure your college has an infrastructure to support UG Research.
Good Luck!
For 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].
To stay connected with us, Subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify or visit anchor.fm forward slash almamatters [anchor.fm/almamatters] to check us out.
Till we meet again, take care and be safe.
Thank you!
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