College is a time rife with opportunities for growth, and it's hard to forget it. The amount of tabling, emails and LinkedIn notifications received—telling you exactly what you could be doing for yourself or your career—can sometimes even feel overwhelming, especially if you don't have the resources to study abroad or explore that dream internship on your own.
That's where fellowships come into the picture, and Gamecocks across campus are taking full advantage of the unique experiences they make possible.
Ria Kothari spent her summer in D.C. as an intern conducting biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health thanks to the Fellowships Program.
“The internship was a great stepping stone for me because it sort of catalyzed what I want to do in my career,” Kothari said. She initially pursued the program for research opportunities, which she found in rare diseases—or, more specifically, research into therapeutics for rare diseases. Before, she was unsure of where her interests lie, but she soon learned her niche.
Not only was this internship a personal breakthrough; it was also a professional one.
“Because the internship program was so prestigious, it has also opened up a lot of opportunities for me,” Kothari explained, “so I would be able to get maybe more internships that are more specific to what I want to do.” It also fits nicely in a resume, something Kothari hopes will help her get into graduate school.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing, however. Her biggest roadblock manifested in a lack of experience—how can she compensate for what felt like a lack of qualification? She decided to focus on what this program can teach her and why that matters most.
“I worked a lot on how can I shape my application to show that I have the capacity to keep growing and learning despite not having as much experience,” Kothari said. “So I was focusing on ‘What soft skills do I have? How do I convey that I'm able to learn something just by having less experience?’” Interviews were particularly difficult for Kothari, but she made sure to be upfront and emphasize the strengths she did have in order to land the internship.
Without the National Fellowship Office, Kothari didn’t believe she’d reach these heights. She was unsure about her application—how could she make it stronger? How could she stand out as an applicant? The Fellowships Office helped her find the answer.
“I think the biggest thing about the Fellowship Office is that they can provide you so much support in something that can feel kind of lonely.”
Mariana Orihuela was a National Fellowship Ambassador and found two programs through the Fellowships Office: Amgen Summer Research Program with the NIH and the CDC Lewis Scholarship at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. Both opportunities revolved around biomedical and clinical research, showing her different aspects of her field of study.
“So for Amgen, what I did was mostly learn about how research impacts policy,” Orihuela explained, “and how, as a scientist, you can do translational research to cater more towards how you impact people directly instead of doing research just for the sake of knowing stuff that, in real life, it’s hard to use or it’s hard to actually help people with.” This was only one part of the program—the rest of her time was spent doing literature reviews, data cleaning and professional workshops.
The CDC Lewis Fellowship worked a bit differently. She did hands-on work at a children’s hospital where she was involved in data analysis and worked directly with autistic children. It’s here she was able to see what it was like to give an autism diagnosis.
Both fellowship programs provided different perspectives necessary for her career. Orihuela graduated with a degree in psychology and a minor in neuroscience, two interests with a lot of overlap. Amgen provided her with neuroscience research, really digging deep into the biology behind psychology, while the CDC Lewis Fellowship highlighted the mental and public health perspective.
“After all that, I was able to identify truly what I wanted and what I was passionate about,” Orihuela said.
She did hit a few bumps in the road, though none were big enough to hold her back. It was hard for Orihuela to juggle the application process with the rest of her responsibilities since she was applying to many different programs.
“I had to give a little more of myself,” she explained, “which was at times difficult and very stressful.”
Amgen was her first internship, so there was a bit of a learning curve when it came to professional presentation. She struggled to navigate this new experience, and she had to learn how to advocate for herself in a professional setting. Despite her struggles, she ultimately used these experiences to help other Fellowship scholars as an ambassador for the Fellowships Program.
The Fellowships Office is not the only part of the program that supported Orihuela, the community also offers a shoulder to lean on.
“I also think that it’s a really good community in terms of highly motivated people that keep you on track of what you want,” Orihuela said, “because everyone’s so talented, and they inspire you to continue to pursue your passions and work hard and fight for your dreams.”
Orihuela finds that, if she could, she’d join the Fellowships Program again and again.
“It was a really good experience,” she said. “I met wonderful people, I really grew a lot personally and professionally, and I would do it again.”
Sophia Rowan received the Critical Language Scholarship, allowing her to study abroad in Kyrgyzstan to study Russian. The program is federally funded by the U.S. Department of State to encourage students to study languages that are important for the United State’s national security. She was practically paid to study abroad—Rowan not only went for free, but she also received a $900 stipend when she was there.
Rowan found the scholarship through her Russian professor after struggling to find a program that fit her financial and academic needs. The application required four essays, all of which were proofread five separate times.
“It was just a lot of rewriting my essays, really trying to define what my story is, why I should get this scholarship, why I’m passionate about Russian, and just talking with people and trying to gain some perspective as my essays communicate what I’m trying to say.”
Rowan believed her role in the school’s international business program and her mother’s Russian lineage made her a unique candidate. Her story got her to Kyrgyzstan, and the experiences she took home will continue to impact her career.
“When I go and apply for every single internship or I apply for different programs within the business school, I'm able to bring that knowledge from Kyrgyzstan and implement it into my work environment and my future career,” Rowan explained. She’s already connected with an alumni over studying abroad for the sake of language immersion, the hurdles and hardships, and the ultimate satisfaction. He currently works at a bank that Rowan is interested in, potentially opening a professional door in her future.
While networking is an added souvenir, Rowan ultimately left with the intention of fully dedicating herself to the Russian language. It was hard for her to commit herself to Russian on campus, and studying abroad offered her a change to fully immerse herself in the cultural knowledge and insight surrounding the language.
“I had a language partner while I was over there. She's a Kyrgyz girl, and we would only speak Russian when we were together, and then my classes were fully taught in Russian,” Rowan said. “And, you know, at first it was a very hard adjustment because going into the program I was a very, very beginner at the language, but I committed myself fully and I feel like I got a lot out of it.”
Because there were students in the program who seemed more fluent than her, Rowan struggled with Imposter Syndrome, something she eventually overcame as she met her peers.
“We had so much in common because of the fact that we're all passionate about Russian and passionate about international affairs and passionate about post Soviet Union countries,” Rowan explained, “and so it was very exciting to be surrounded by these people who take the same interests as you and are as equally as motivated as you.”
As a National Fellowships ambassador, Rowan urges students with any interest in studying abroad to give this program, and others like it, a chance.
“I really believe that going abroad and learning about different cultures and living with different people, it broadens your perspective on the world, it broadens what other opportunities there are in the world or it teaches you how to connect with people. It teaches you how to approach situations in a more human way."
In the midst of distributing prescription glasses or teaching literacy lessons people in the Khwamba Village, Tristen Davis didn't immediately realize everything he was learning.
Davis, a junior civil engineering major, was awarded the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship to fund a study abroad experience in the African nation of Malawi. Interacting with their host community and completing service each day, he learned to value the impact of service-learning, even going so far as to start a blog cataloging his experiences.
"It wasn't just sightseeing. We were in the community, volunteering in the villages, interacting with the natives and kids, understanding their society on a deeper level than just going and visiting the important structures," Davis said.
After diving deeper into the culture in Malawi and getting to know the villagers he was volunteering for, a sense of gratitude has followed Davis back to the States.
“I kind of have a better perspective,” Davis said. “I get to do this homework even though I don't want to do it. I get to do this homework, I get to go to this meeting or I appreciate being busy and having things like that going on.”
The Gilman scholarship—a federal scholarship for Pell Grant recipients seeking to study or intern abroad—was instrumental in facilitating Davis’ illuminating time in Malawi, but the application process proved rewarding in and of itself.
“You really have to search,” Davis said. “Why am I applying to this? Why do I want this opportunity? That is the biggest obstacle, but I think it's also the biggest benefit.”
This self-discovery aspect of Davis’ fellowship and service experiences has made his future even clearer—or, as he puts it, his “why.”
“Before that, it was more so I wanted to graduate and I enjoyed civil engineering, but now I really want to impact people's lives and see the change,” Davis said.
It’s 5 p.m. in Homer, Alaska and the sun is already dipping into darkness outside Ainsley Cain’s window. Briefly back in the small town in January 2025 to present her research, the view is in stark contrast to the bright glare of summer, when Cain was last in Homer.
Cain, a junior marine science major, received the NOAA Hollings Scholarship in 2024 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, studying the diets of pacific halibut. The scholarship allowed Cain to gain valuable field experience.
“I was cutting open fish stomachs all summer, and I absolutely loved it,” Cain said. “It kind of taught me how to build a research project from start to finish, and how to conduct that because I got to do it independently, with help from an advisor.”
After throwing herself into her research in Alaska, Cain is taking that same enthusiasm for ichthyology—the study of fish—into her work this year at USC, where she will be presenting her research at the Discover USC conference.
“One thing that was really rewarding for me was that it helped solidify that this is what I want to do,” Cain said. “I took this experience studying fish and found out that that's absolutely what I love doing.”
While returning to Alaska to share her summer research, however, NOAA was rattled by a federal funding freeze announced by the Trump administration on Jan. 28, which has since been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.
While Cain will now be able to receive this semester’s scholarship installments, the pause in funding left her briefly shaken and uncertain about the future of NOAA.
“If that federal funding freeze had gone into effect, I wouldn't have gotten that scholarship money until whenever the freeze [was] over, which I use that scholarship money to pay my rent,” Cain said. “People are having a harder time getting grants to conduct their research, so some offices maybe aren't hiring right now, because they're uncertain about what the future looks like.”
However daunting the future of federally funded research may seem, Cain is excited for the work ahead of her, now informed by her fellowship experience.
“You might as well put your hat in the ring. And so, I did, and it's honestly been the best decision I've ever made,” Cain said.
As Cecilia Callozzo stepped off a plane and into Kyrgyzstan, she saw not only the opportunities awaiting her, but also a familiar face—her high school classmate, Benazir.
Callozzo, long since inspired by her friend to major in Russian and dig deeper into Slavic culture, was finally experiencing a dream come true.
“I knew that I specifically wanted to be able to study Russian so that I could sort of follow in her footsteps, travel the world, get to see her homeland and reunite with her,” Callozzo said. “It was just such an exciting experience. I think I cried; I missed her so much.”
After receiving the Gilman Scholarship in 2024, Callozzo spent [amount of time] studying in Kyrgyzstan, primarily staying in the country’s capital of Bishkek.
Though being in a new country felt out of her comfort zone, Callozzo appreciated the push—and the opportunity to practice her language skills.
“It was a lot of fun, and it was really special to me, because everyone that I met, whether they knew it or not, was helping me practice my Russian,” Callozzo said. “Just every day when I went to the grocery store, got on a bus, people were just helping me all the time, and they were so patient and so lovely.”
In addition to conversations on the street and with English-language students, Callozzo also kept a diary in a mixture of English and Russian to catalog her adventures abroad—an exercise which has imbued her with a new confidence.
“I’ve looked back on that diary and I realized I've grown so much, and I think that's been the biggest thing I've been trying to take with me from the experience,” Callozzo said. “Remembering the experience of looking at that diary and feeling that dissonance between all those nights where I thought I'm not good enough, and then realizing I've made so much progress.”
The experience inspired her to become an ambassador for the National Fellowships Program, and aided her in applying for the Fulbright Scholarship this year.
“The process of applying for fellowships in itself is really rewarding,” Calozzo said. “Even if you don't get the award, different things may work out, and those skills are totally transferable.”
