BRANDON VILLANUEVA-SANCHEZ
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Neuroscience Major
For the second time in UNO history, two students have been nationally recognized as pioneers in the fields of natural science, mathematics, and engineering by earning a prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship Awards.
When UNO’s most recent Goldwater scholarship winners were announced, both sophomore Brandon Villanueva-Sanchez and junior Maia Bennet had to celebrate quietly.
“My lab meeting started at 11, so they were supposed to start the meeting while I got my results. But right before we started the lab meeting, I got an email that said Goldwater 2022,” Villanueva-Sanchez said. “I opened it and read the first line saying ‘congratulations.’ I turned to my mentor, I’m trying not to freak out because there’s like 20 other people in the room, and I’m just like, ‘I got the Goldwater,’ and he gave me a high five.”
Bennett received the news while participating in a panel for the College of Arts and Sciences.
“I was able to celebrate quietly with my mentor about 15 minutes after the Goldwater list was released,” she said.
Those who are awarded the scholarship are given up to $7,500 each semester for tuition, fees, books, and room and board for up to two years. It also carries prestige and a network that lasts a lifetime.
To be considered for the scholarship, applicants must excel at their academic and extracurricular activities, and provide a personal essay about what they are doing in their research. The application process can take months and that is even before their work is considered among fellow applications. Earning a scholarship is far from a guarantee.
“We did have some applicants who did not receive an award and that’s always a struggle every year,” Lucy Morrison, Ph.D., director of UNO’s Office of National Scholarship and Fellowships said. “But these students are investing in themselves by doing the application because they will learn about themselves, their career goals, their pathways, and it sometimes helps to narrow that focus. You learn about yourself, and you realize what you’ve already done, and all our applicants had outstanding research experiments already.”
In his application, Villanueva-Sanchez, an honors student and Johns Hopkins fellow majoring in neuroscience, detailed a study he is engaged in about the differences between male and female rats in dependency on opioids when exposed to early life stressors such as social isolation. He is the first in his family to pursue a four-year degree and plans to pursue an M.D. or Ph.D. program in the future.
“Brandon is the one leading the charge and he is doing a lot on his own. He is very insightful and he’s always thinking about how methodologies or particular technologies fit into the broader scheme of things, and I think that’s a very rare trait, especially for students at Brandon’s level,” his mentor, Ryan Wong, Ph. D., associate professor of biology, said.
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