Fayetteville-Manlius alumna Christine Swanson has been named a recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship, considered the preeminent award for undergraduates passionate about natural sciences, mathematics or engineering.
Now a junior at Union College, Swanson is one of two winners and four nominated from the Schenectady school.
This year, approximately 5,000 nationwide applied for the scholarship with encouragement and approval from their particular institutions’ faculty members, but that pool would eventually be narrowed down to around 1,200 finalists and 417 selected students.
“It’s just such an amazing honor because it’s very competitive, so it really enhanced my confidence as a researcher and a scientist,” said Swanson, a 2019 F-M graduate.
Like the other awardee from Union, Hailey Stoltenberg of Wisconsin, Swanson majors in environmental science. Both will receive up to $7,500 to cover tuition, fees, books, and room and board.
“I thought it was really amazing that two female environmental science students were recipients of the Goldwater,” Swanson said. “I think that really just proves that if you have the passion for something, you can do it.”
Her decision to declare that major has its roots in a ninth grade earth science class taught at F-M by Marcus Pitts—a course she “fell in love with” by virtue of its “very interesting” material and her enjoyment of nature.
She later developed an interest in groundwater hydrology her sophomore year at Union College while taking a course in that discipline with Mason Stahl, an assistant professor of environmental engineering.
“That was one of the main classes that I’ve taken at Union where I was like, ‘Wow, I really feel like I could pursue this field of work as a career,’” she said.
For her scholarship application, Swanson submitted a three-page research proposal and a few 500-word essays along with letters of recommendation from Stahl, her plant ecology and intro to biology professor Jeffrey Corbin, her paleoclimatology and geomorphology professor Donald Rodbell, and her academic advisor John Garver.
“It was a pretty lengthy application process, but obviously it paid off,” she said.
A practiced clarinet player, Swanson has been a member of the Union College Community Orchestra since her freshman year. Her other extracurricular activities include involvement with the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society and the CNY Association of Professional Geologists, and she serves as vice president of her Κappa Delta Phi sorority.
Inclined toward not only hydrology but also data analytics, the Manlius native is currently working on projects related to water quantity and quality issues and another that zeroes in on hydrologic factors controlling stream turbidity.
Swanson’s overall goal is to obtain her doctorate in environmental engineering with a focus on hydrology as part of a five-year program.
Altogether, 308 of the Goldwater Scholars are majoring in the natural sciences, 45 are either mathematics or computer science majors, and 64 are engineering majors.
Named after the senator from Arizona, the federally endowed Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation was established by the United States Congress in 1986.
