Truman, Watson Foundations declare winners
The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation and the Thomas J. Watson Foundation have each awarded money to Rice students for post-graduate study.
Every year the Watson Foundation funds the international research projects of 60 students around the country.
This year, Emily Velz, a senior at Brown College, will receive $16,000 from the foundation to pursue a year- long independent study project entitled "Understanding the Chicana: Women in Mexican Art and Oral Tradition."
Velz plans to travel to Mexico in August to carry out her three-part program. To study the Zapotec Indians, she will first go to the southern tip of Mexico -- Oaxacha. From there, she will travel to Mexico City to explore the mix of indigenous and European cultures and its effect on the lives of Mexican women. She will conclude her trip in the borderlands between Mexico and the United States which she describes as a cultural and political "war zone."
Velz plans to study the women in each region not only by talking to people and observing their different cultures, but also by examining the history, art, literature and oral traditions of each area. She will use photography, poetry and prose to record her research.
Velz is an English and Spanish major who plans to teach at the secondary level in Texas after graduation. She said she became interested in Chicano culture after extensive contact with it. Last year, she spent five months in South America, and this year, she coordinates the English as a Second Language program for the Food and Housing employees at Rice.
"I find [Chicano culture] so fascinating that I want to study its origins both politically and in terms of literature and art," she said.
Since Texas has such a large Hispanic population, Velz also thinks her studies will help her be a more effective teacher. "I think it's so necessary for teachers and administrators to understand the other ethnicities that are in their school."
Out of the four Rice students who applied to the Watson Foundation this year, Velz was the only one selected for an award. Mark Scheid, the director of Academic Advising, attributes Velz's success with the Foundation to her enthusiasm, the quality of the writing in her proposal and her ability to articulate well during her interview. He said that the Director of the Watson Foundation, William Moses, described her as "clearly the best."
The Harry Truman Scholarship gives money to outstanding college juniors who are interested in a career in public service. They choose a resident from each of the 50 states as well as a number of at-large students for awards.
This year, Wiess College junior Maryana Iskander is the prize recipient for Texas. Iskander will receive a $30,000 scholarship which she plans to use to attend a joint graduate and law school program. She will also have the opportunity to attend the Truman Scholars Leadership Week in Liberty, Mo., and the 1997 Truman Scholars Summer Institute in Washington, which consists of seminars, workshops and internships.
The application process for the Truman Scholarship is extremely rigorous, and, according to Iskander, very valuable.
"Even if I had not gotten the award, the process I went through was one of the most beneficial experiences of my life," she said.
The foundation also looks closely at the applicants' grades, job experience and involvement in high school, college, community and government-related activities. They require three letters of recommendation describing leadership experience, academic potential and public service. They also ask each applicant to write nine short-answer essays and an analysis of a particular public policy. Iskander said she did a lot of research to answer these questions.
"I started working on it in the summer, and it was due in December. It's not something that you pick up the week before and decide to do," she said.
The applications are first reviewed by a committee at Rice which chooses three students to compete at the state level. The Truman Foundation selects finalists from each state from this applicant pool to be interviewed by regional review panels. The interviews are conducted by panels consisting of former Truman Scholars, public servants and government and university officials. Iskander prepared for her interview, which was held on Feb. 5 in Dallas, by doing mock interviews with 10 professors, carefully reading the New York Times daily and researching Truman.
Sheid said the careful preparation was the key to her success. Iskander is the first Rice student to win a Truman Scholarship in five years.
Iskander encourages others to apply for the scholarship. "I learned more about myself from doing this than anything else at Rice," she said. "Because of this process, I know what I want to do when I graduate. I know what direction I'm headed at least."
This item appeared in the News section of the March 29, 1996 issue.
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