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Lafayette’s commitment to nurturing the intellectual development of its students, including their personal, social/civic, and professional responsibilities, is one that deeply resonates with Julia A. Goldberg, the College’s new assistant dean of studies for graduate studies and pre-professional and fellowships advising.
“Lafayette embodies the very best of both worlds – the research and intellectual agenda of a major university and the personal, individualized attention of a small college,” she says. “With its national reputation for academic excellence, I’m excited and honored to become a member of the Lafayette community, celebrating the College’s vision of stimulating and nourishing students both as individuals and as members of the larger global community.”
Lafayette has established excellent programs to support students who are competitive for prestigious scholarships/fellowships and professional schools, says Dean of Studies Gladstone Hutchinson. With the addition of Goldberg, Lafayette is committed to developing a more systematic and cohesive process for identifying, recruiting, and developing potential candidates early and throughout their undergraduate careers.
“The liberal arts education provided by Lafayette will open the door to many prestigious scholarship/fellowship opportunities for undergraduate and postgraduate study and research, as well as attendance at top tier graduate and professional schools,” says Goldberg. “Being competitive for such programs and institutions, however, requires planning and preparation. It is our mission to assist students and recent graduates in fulfilling their intellectual and professional goals. We will accomplish this by promoting awareness of external scholarship/fellowship and pre-professional opportunities, while providing the advice and support necessary to successfully compete in such endeavors. Lafayette’s outstanding undergraduates – those of exceptional academic and social promise – are our focus and beneficiaries.”
Included among the prestigious scholarships/fellowships are postgraduate programs for international destinations, such as the Marshall, Rhodes, and Gates Cambridge scholarships to the United Kingdom, the Mitchell to Ireland (Northern or Republic of), and Fulbright Grants to countries worldwide. Programs for undergraduate and postgraduate study in the United States include the Jack Kent Cooke, Goldwater, Truman, and National Science Foundation scholarships and fellowships.
Lafayette students have the ability to be nationally competitive for these scholarships/fellowships, says Goldberg. Daniel Ruddy ’03, Alyssa Picchini ’04, and Daniel Swarr ’03 are recent recipients of Goldwater Scholarships for their work in engineering, mathematics, and the sciences. Crystal Taylor ’03 won a Jack Kent Cooke Scholarship this summer, while Guangxi Wang ’03 was one of just three students in the world to receive a Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Undergraduate Scholarship from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for the upcoming school year. Matthew Patton ’02, was one of just eight undergraduates to receive a Microsoft Scholarship Award this spring, recognizing him as one of the very top computer science students in the United States, and is a past recipient of a Goldwater Scholarship as well. In addition, other students received national recognition for their research and dedication to others.
To secure these opportunities, it is no longer sufficient to be an exceptional student as measured by grade point average alone. Goldberg will work closely with faculty mentors, academic departments, Career Services, and the Landis Community Outreach Center to ensure that high-achieving students are encouraged to participate in activities that could enhance their academic and intellectual development and postgraduate and fellowships competitiveness. These activities include EXCEL Scholars research, study abroad, independent study, honors theses, internships, externships, and community service.
Faculty nominations for fellowships/scholarships are strongly encouraged, since students often are not aware of their own strengths and potential, says Goldberg. It remains students’ responsibility, however, to establish the mindset and planning to be competitive, she adds.
“Our message to students is that it is never too early to start,” Goldberg says. “Students should exploit the myriad of opportunities that College offers; speak with faculty, administrators, staff, and fellow students/alumni; engage in research/independent study; take the initiative in leadership and service to others; and plan their summers and spare time creatively to do something significant while still enjoying life. The activities that create a strong candidate are those that enrich one’s life and others.”
One of Goldberg’s goals is to ensure that the application process is inherently valuable and not merely a means to an end.
“Candidate benefits include enhanced self-awareness, clarification of one’s goals and values, increased confidence, enhanced written and oral communication skills, and the strengthening of personal relationships with faculty and others,” she explains. “For the greater Lafayette community, the benefits include continued enhancement of the intellectual climate and outstanding reputation of its students and faculty, where students are encouraged to realize their full potential personally, professionally, and as citizens with responsibilities to the betterment of society.”
Goldberg received her Ph.D. in linguistics from Cambridge University after obtaining undergraduate and graduate degrees in Russian Language and Area Studies, Russian and Balkan History, and the Teaching of English as an International Language from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was a professor at University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Wyoming before returning to UIUC to direct its office of international fellowships/scholarships. During her tenure at UIUC, Illinois students and alumni successfully competed for Marshall, Rhodes, Fulbright, NSEP and Gates Cambridge Scholarships in addition to the Truman, Goldwater, and others.
While at UIUC, Goldberg designed and taught a cross-cultural communication course for recent and future study abroad students. She is an active member of the National Association of Fellowship Advisors, the Northeast Association of Pre-Law Advisors, and the Northeast Association of Health Profession Advisors.