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Omanuwa receives Goldwater Scholarship
April 1, 2004
CARROLLTON, GA - For the fourth time in the last five years, a student from the University of West Georgia Honors College has been selected to receive a Goldwater Scholarship.
Toma
Omonuwa, a junior from Douglasville majoring in chemistry, is one of 310
students selected nationwide to receive a Goldwater. Jason Hay, a physics
major, was selected in 1999; Yong Suh, a chemistry major was selected
in 2000; and Brian Bockelman, a mathematics major was selected in 2003.
Omonuwa intends to pursue a career in medical research combining M.D. and Ph.D degrees.
According to Dr. Donald Wagner, dean of the Honors College, Omonuwa is an extraordinary student. Only two credit hours short of being a senior, her grade point average is a perfect 4.0. She was recently selected as UWG’s Academic Recognition Day Scholar.
“In addition to her superb classroom performance, she has made two separate research presentations to the Southeast regional meetings of the American Chemical Society and a third research presentation to the National Collegiate Honors Council annual meeting in Chicago,” he noted. “Selection for each of these presentations is very competitive, and Toma’s record of achievement is remarkable.”
She served recently as a mentor in a National Science Foundation funded REU program and she is the only undergraduate student “superleader” for chemistry workshops. A “superleader” selects and trains mentors for other students in core curriculum chemistry workshops.
Omonuwa is a Presidential Scholarship recipient, the Lois Martin Scholarship recipient, the recipient of a West Georgia Foundation Award, an Ingram Scholar, the recipient of a Minority Achievement Award, and she has been on the Dean’s List every semester since she began her studies at UWG.
Finally, her extra-curricular work includes the following: she is a member of the Student Advisory Committee to the Dean of Arts and Sciences, a volunteer worker at the Carroll Rape Crisis Center, a tournament proctor at the West Georgia Youth Science and Technology Center tournament, a member and committee chair of The American Medical Association Students Association (AMSA), and she has assisted in science demonstration presentations at Carrollton Elementary School and with the Boy Scouts Science Training Program. She has also served as a speaker at the Nigerian-American Youth Association graduation ceremonies for two years.
Three University of Georgia students, one Emory University student, and two Georgia Tech students also won Goldwaters this year. Across the country this year, the University of Chicago, Harvard University, Princeton, Yale, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Penn State, University of Virginia, and the University of South Carolina each had four recipients.
Peggy Goldwater Clay, chair of the Board of Trustees of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, announced that the Trustees awarded 310 scholarships for the 2004-2005 academic year to undergraduate sophomores and juniors from the United States.
The Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,113 mathematics, science and engineering students who were nominated by colleges and universities nationwide. One hundred sixty-one of the Scholars are men, 149 are women, and virtually all intend to obtain a Ph.D as their degree objective. Twenty-nine are mathematics majors, 223 are science majors, 44 are majoring in engineering, 12 are computer science related majors, and two are in other science related fields. Many have dual majors.
Goldwater scholarships cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and room and board up to a maximum of $7,500 per year.
Recent Goldwater Scholars have been awarded 56 Rhodes Scholarships (six of the 32 awarded in the U.S. in 2004), 66 Marshall Scholarships (six of the 40 awarded in the U.S. in 2004), and numerous other awards and fellowships.
The Goldwater Foundation is a federally endowed agency established in 1986. It is designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. The Goldwater Scholarship is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields.
The Foundation, in its 16-year history, has awarded 4,272 scholarships worth approximately $42 million dollars.
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