Three University of Connecticut students were named Goldwater Scholars on March 27, earning a national scholarship established by Congress designed to support undergraduate students interested in pursuing research careers, according to the scholarship’s website.
Ashly Gasior, a sixth-semester chemistry and physics major with a minor in mathematics, Daniel D’Souza, a fourth-semester molecular and cell biology and applied mathematics major, and Mackenzie Robillard, a sixth-semester molecular and cell biology major, earned the scholarship.
Gasior said that receiving the scholarship makes her feel excited for her future research.
“This has solidified that other people recognize my passion for research, and I’m excited to be able to take that and run with it,” Gasior said. “It might make my life a little bit easier down the line now that people know what’s up, and I’m very excited to continue doing research through PhD and then hopefully at an institution.”
Robillard said that it was nice to be appreciated by something that’s “bigger than UConn.”
“[UConn] is not a small school, but it’s obviously smaller than the rest of the research community, so [the scholarship] gave me some enthusiasm,” Robillard said. “It just showed me that people believe in me enough that I could do something meaningful in the research community.”
D’Souza said that the award came with a “boost in confidence.”
“Research is pretty hard, in my opinion. You get a lot of failed results and it’s very easy to get caught in the weeds of that,” D’Souza said. “This award was, for me, a nice recognition of the fact that I am on the right path to pursuing a career that I want.”
Gasior said that she was coming back from the American Chemical Society’s spring conference and was having a “long day” when she found out she’d received the scholarship.
“My flights had been delayed, like, three times. I stood through TSA for two hours, so I felt so dead inside,” Gasior said. “Then, I checked my email, and I got it. I was with a friend, so I was like ‘oh my god.’ I was just kind of shocked and surprised. Made the day a little bit worth it. Very tired, but happy.”
D’Souza and Robillard were both in the lab when they found out they’d received the scholarship.
“I was with a lot of the grad students in my lab who’d helped me go over all my proposals and stuff I had to submit for this, so we were all very, very excited,” D’Souza said. “There were a lot of hugs. It was an absolute blast.”
Robillard said that she wasn’t expecting to receive the award because of the volume of applicants for the scholarship.
“I mean, people from all over the country are applying so I didn’t think that I would get it,” Robillard said. “In past years, they usually picked, like, one person from UConn, and I figured chances were pretty low, but they picked three of us this year which was very cool.”
Gasior said that applying was a “shot in the dark” for her.
“I thought that I had a pretty good shot, but I didn’t think that I was necessarily going to [receive it],” Gasior said. “I knew I had a pretty good idea for a proposal, and I really wanted to apply since I had an idea, so I was like ‘please help me,’ to my principal investigator and he did.”
D’Souza said that it felt like a “huge weight off his shoulders” to receive the scholarship during his sophomore year.
“I would have got to apply again, and my thought process was honestly expecting to apply again,” D’Souza said. “It was nice to be able to just put this out of the way, and of course it also does come with financial support which made me feel great about the fact that I get two years of support.”
D’Souza said that mentorship and support were huge parts of his story.
“Receiving this, especially as a sophomore, it’s recognition of honestly not just my hard work but all the amazing support I have around,” D’Souza said. “Great mentors, great friends and they make it very enjoyable to be putting in so much [effort].”
Robillard said that applying for the scholarship was a “really unique experience.”
“There’s a research essay and you don’t have a lot of space to talk about who you are and what’s made you into the type of researcher that you are, so it’s interesting to try to think about what matters most to you in that experience and make it all succinct enough to fit into an essay,” Robillard said.
The scholarship, named to honor Sen. Barry Goldwater, received over 5,000 applicants and selected 454 recipients to be named Goldwater Scholars.