VCU alumna conducts research in Australia as Fulbright student scholar
Laura Hayward wasn’t new to travel when she applied to the Fulbright Program. Growing up, her father was an army officer and the Hayward family lived in New York, Saudi Arabia, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, and Belgium before finally settling in Virginia. As an undergraduate at VCU, Hayward found her passion while studying under VCU’s Dr. Fong as a lab assistant in for the Department of Chemical and Life Science Engineering. Here, she began to consider the Fulbright program as the perfect means for her to go exploring once again while honing in on her already strong research skills.
Hayward received her bachelor’s degree in chemical and life science engineering from VCU in May of 2014. Hayward’s Fulbright proposal detailed plans to research diagnostic devices for cancer in Australia at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, at the University of Queensland. But Hayward, now currently in Australia on her Fulbright award, has met some unexpected challenges along the way.
“I’m not working on the project that I proposed in my application because the timeline for the Fulbright application is so long it’s sometimes difficult to predict a project in October of one year that will be feasible for the August of the next year,” says Hayward, who is now working to improve a bead technology for next generation sequencing application. Hayward has adapted her project based on the needs of the lab and her supervisor, Dr. Matt Trau.
Hayward hopes that with the help of her research, bead technology will become more scalable and eventually will allow for the whole sequence platform to be much more affordable. Hayward continues,
“The more people who are ill and have access to sequencing technology the more those people will benefit from the personalized diagnostic that it provides…It can potentially prevent individuals from suffering through general and painful treatments.”
Since arriving in Australia, Hayward’s love of travel has only deepened. Since arriving in August, she has been in an “endless summer”. She has even travelled more than she expected to! When not in the lab working on her project she goes exploring. “I have snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef out of Port Douglas in Northern Queensland, and I have climbed quite a few mountains. I have climbed Mt. Coot-tha in Brisbane, Mt. Coolum in Sunshine Coast, and most recently I pulled and all-nighter two Sundays ago to climb Mt. Warning for sunrise and I have to admit it was quite chilly at the top!”
She has snorkeled the shipwrecks, gone sand tobogganing, and swam on Moreton Island. She has been to the Opera House in Sydney and gone tree surfing in Melbourne. “I have plans to go back to Sydney in April to climb the Harbour Bridge and visit the Blue Mountains, and of course spend some time on Bondi beach. I will also visit Canberra the first weekend in April, and I am hoping to get down to Tasmania in order to do some hiking and to witness the Aurora Australis, the southern lights.”
The Fulbright Process
Like many other students, Hayward had the itch to travel but not an unlimited amount of funding. “I tried to find opportunities that would fund my adventurous spirit because as we know travel is not cheap.”
Established in 1946, the Fulbright Program aims to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries, through the exchange of persons, knowledge and skills.
Sponsored by the United States Department of State, the Fulbright Program provides funding for students, scholars and professionals to undertake graduate study, advanced research, university teaching and teaching in elementary and secondary schools around the world.
In addition to funding chosen scholars for a period of up to ten months in a foreign country, scholars have the opportunity to work with the National Scholarship Office at their home university to craft a comprehensive and competitive application that brings out their best ideas before sending the application to the Fulbright commission.
“Any student wanting to apply should definitely contact the National Scholarship Office. They have great resources such as writing groups that work through email over the summer to help applicants write their first drafts of the essays required for the application,” says Hayward.
She also mentions the importance of reaching out to a mentor, “It would also be a good idea to talk to your current research advisor because they might have overseas contacts that could be potential sponsors. If you don’t have a current research supervisor or you want to do research in a completely different field, no worries. I found my sponsor through Google. I knew that I wanted to go to either New Zealand or Australia and from there I just Googled universities in those countries and then looked through faculty profiles until I found someone who had similar research interests as myself. Once I found someone, I just sent an email.”
If this sounds familiar, it is. When applying to Graduate schools students often identify potential mentors at universities they are hoping to attend and reach out via email to form a network before even arriving at the university. This is considered an increasingly common practice for potential masters and doctoral students.
Students work hand in hand with the NSO by also participating in a series of panels with distinguished faculty at VCU. These panels aid students in the revision process by giving them a chance to experience a live critique of their application to further its impact. “The writing group is helpful to get your own ideas flowing as well as getting a sense of other’s projects. The panels are incredibly helpful and honest. And Jeff and Denise and the rest of the staff are always available to help in any way that they can whether it’s bouncing ideas, or editing drafts, or just some moral support through the long application process. I found the National Scholarship Office to be an incredible resource during my own application process, and I encourage all prospective students to take advantage of all of the resources that they provide.”
Hayward also had some great advice for students hoping to apply for the Fulbright Program in the future. Many students begin crafting their application ten months out from the deadline and the process can be a long one!
“The day I actually submitted was the day of the 2013 Folk Festival,” says Hayward, “I had set up a last minute meeting with Denise that weekend, and we both knew that before leaving her office I was going to submit. It was rainy and humid and just a gross day outside but I sat in Denise’s office making yet more last minute changes to both my personal statement and statement of purpose. We had to figure out how to shorten my personal statement because I was one line past the one page limit.”
She and Denise emailed every day for two months leading up to her submission date.
“Probably the biggest lesson that I learned was the more drafts of an essay that you write, although tedious and frustrating, the better…My final product was light years better than my first draft. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help if you are stuck. There was a time that I wanted to quit before completing my application and if it weren’t for realizing that I needed some extra help and a new perspective then I never would have submitted,” says Hayward.
“The day that I received the news that I won the scholarship, I first went to the national scholarship office to tell Jeff and Denise, but of course they had already heard. As soon as I walked in I asked the front desk if Denise was there and before I even made it down the short hallway to her office she came running,” Hayward recalls fondly, “We both spent a few minutes jumping up and down screaming. I laugh thinking back on it, but both these moments were great and it was wonderful to be able to share my own excitement with the people from the National Scholarship Office who I had worked so closely with for so many months.”
After she returns from Australia, Hayward plans to earn an M.D./Ph.D. It is obvious that Laura indeed will continue to pursue amazing opportunities, and look forward to hearing about them as they unfold.
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By Samantha Poelstra
VCU alumni or current students interested in applying for a Fulbright Scholarship or other nationally competitive scholarships should contact the National Scholarship Office at honorsnso@vcu.edu or (804) 828-6868.
Categories Fulbright Award, NSO Student Features