In its 126 years of educating students, N.C. State has struggled to produce winners of prestigious scholarships despite its consistent high rankings among public institutions. 

Though N.C. State has had success in producing Fulbright, Goldwater, Truman and Marshall winners, it has yet to produce any Rhodes or Churchill scholars, according to Tiffany Kershner, the coordinator for distinguished scholarships and fellowships. 

Kershner said that before she came to N.C. State three years ago, there was no formal position for fellowship advising, and the job was handled by Larry Blanton, the director for the University Honors program, on top of his other duties. 

“We’ve had sporadic efforts to move toward a more formalized fellowship-advising program, and we gain momentum, but then the personnel changes, and it falls back and the momentum is lost,” Blanton said. “We have to gain momentum and maintain momentum, and I’m confident we will be successful.”

Since the creation of the fellowship advising position, there has been a significant increase in the number of students applying for these scholarships and fellowships, Kershner said.

Kershner also said that more fellowship representatives have visited the University to meet with students.

Blanton said it is important N.C. State begins developing a culture of thinking and knowing about the Rhodes Scholarship and other scholarship opportunities. The University also needs to convince students that these goals are worth striving for.

“Your odds of getting one of these are close to none, so the question is why bother? Why set yourself up to fail?” Blanton said. “But the process of thinking of who you are and who you want to be, it’s very valuable. There are bonafide benefits but it’s hard to convince students that it’s not worth it unless they win.”

Heidi Klumpe, a senior in English and chemical engineering, was a finalist for the Marshall Scholarship and although ultimately unsuccessful, Klumpe said participating in the fellowship process allowed her to discover what she was truly interested in and said she was thankful for the support she received from faculty members.

“Once I was applying I realized that are so many people that were really invested in me,” Klumpe said. “I realized I have lots of thank-you cards to write.”

Brian Gaudio, a senior in architecture and the founder of a nonprofit organization called Que Lo Que, was the endorsed nominee from N.C. State for the Rhodes Scholarship.

Gaudio said he advises students who are interested in applying for prestigious scholarships and fellowships encouraging them to excel in their schoolwork and to broaden their academic horizons to understand the topics they are interested about in a holistic manner. 

“As an architecture student, my coursework is quite technical and focused on courses surrounding the building environment,” Gaudio said. “The Rhodes Scholarship looks for well-rounded candidates, and my transcript did not show that.”

According to Blanton, another obstacle applicants for the Rhodes Scholarship may face is that they must compete with one another at a regional level. Because many of N.C. State’s students are in-state residents, they have to not only compete with each other, but also in a very competitive area. Blanton said that encouraging more out-of-state students to apply would increase the chance of success for the University.

Blanton said that another factor could be the degrees N.C. State students tend to earn can be unattractive for certain fellowships and scholarships.

“The Rhodes Scholars tend to be mostly students in the liberal arts and sciences,” Blanton said. “They are less enthusiastic about what they see in professional degrees like engineering and design because they are less attractive degrees for them.”

Blanton said students who are interested should start preparing early in their academic careers.

“They need to be thinking about very substantial scholarship activities,” Blanton said. “They need to be doing things like honors thesis and presenting papers, and they need to have very well established academic interests far beyond good grades. That’s an entire-time-at-N.C. State kind of thing, they need to start thinking about the day they come here and work toward that bearing in mind that doing that will position them to all kinds of activities, not just scholarships.”

“It really does take four years to develop your application, so start early,” Gaudio said.

According to Blanton and Kershner, there are grants donated by a private donor of about $5,000 to help students engage in extracurricular activities that could benefit them when applying for fellowships and scholarships to ensure there is a continuum in their activities.

“They need to make sense together. Not just a checklist, but a crescendo,” Blanton said. “They are looking for these integrated individuals who have found a way to take difference experiences and make them make sense in some kind of way.” 

Kershner said that right now it’s important to just get the word out because a lot of students are not aware that these type of fellowships exist, and because she relies primarily on faculty members to spread the word, there needs to be a change in the culture to ensure students are informed on their opportunities. 

“I encourage students to read newspapers and be well versed within their discipline,” Kershner said. “Get involved on campus and beyond and in service leadership activities. With larger fellowships you could be asked a lot of questions, and you need to be prepared.”