University Mabel Proenza stands in the Harry S. Truman Federal Building Hall of Flags, located in the U.S. State Department’s headquarters.
SIX AWARDS
Honors grad takes the prize for most national scholarships RECENT JUDY GENSHAFT HONORS COLLEGE graduate Mabel Proenza received a 2021 Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Spain, making her the most decorated national scholarship recipient in USF history. While at USF, Proenza earned six awards: the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to study abroad in China, the Freeman-Asia Scholarship to China, the Boren Scholarship to China, a CIEE Grant to China, the U.S. Department of State paid Foreign Service Internship Program, and now a 2021 English Teaching Assistantship from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Proenza graduated this spring with dual degrees in International Studies and World Languages and Cultures with double concentrations in Chinese and French. She will teach English in Spain for a year through the Fulbright program, and then plans to apply for graduate school. “It feels surreal to be USF’s most decorated national scholarship recipient,” says Proenza. “Receiving these scholarships has changed my life, allowing me to see a world of possibilities for my future. I am excited to teach in the Canary Islands, Spain, and experience a new culture and am confident that my path as a globetrotter has only just begun. It will be an honor to represent the United States and USF during my Fulbright year.”
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UNIVERSITY of SOUTH FLORIDA
HIGH HONORS
Two students earn most prestigious undergraduate science award in the country TWO STUDENTS IN USF’S Judy Genshaft Honors College, Kelli Ann Lynch and Alexander Mercier, have been named 2021 Goldwater Scholars, chosen out of nearly 1,300 students nationally. The scholarship is the most prestigious undergraduate award in the country for scientific research, and provides each recipient with $7,500 for educational expenses and research support. Both students have already completed research in public health. Lynch, a junior from Melbourne, Florida, majoring in physics, has spent three years researching with professor and computational physicist Inna Ponomareva. “We study the evolving properties of ferroelectrics,” materials that exhibit spontaneous polarization, even without an electronic field present, Lynch says. “When these materials are coupled with other mechanisms, such as mechanical stress or electric fields, and align through polarization, it allows us to use them in new ways, like powering a computer, for example.” Lynch was able to take a further step with her research in 2020, when she received an REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to spend the summer conducting computation biophysics research with Lehigh University. She was awarded a second REU to spend this summer researching at the University of Notre Dame. “We will be studying the bridge between condensed matter and biophysics, and applying quantum physics to evolutionary biology, and vice versa,” she says. In addition, Lynch will continue her work with Lehigh; the team is collaborating with researchers at Kyoto University in Japan to further their work. Also a junior, Mercier, from Irvine, California, is a dual major in microbiology and pure mathematics with a minor in Russian. He finished his high school career by completing an associate degree in mathematics through dual enrollment at St. Petersburg College. At the time, he was debating between enrolling at USF or MIT, but scholarships and a discussion with USF’s Office of National Scholarships (ONS) helped him decide. “I met with Dr. (Sayandeb) Basu, director of ONS, before I even started here as a student,” Mercier says. “Seeing his and his staff’s dedication to student success was the tipping point that helped me decide to enroll here.” As soon as Mercier started on campus, Basu connected him with USF assistant professor and integrative biologist Andrew Kramer. “I’ve worked on two projects with
