Four West Virginia students who have excelled academically and made their mark both on and off-campus have been endorsed by West Virginia University for nationally competitive scholarships.
The scholarships and the endorsed students are:
Rhodes Scholarship: Terezia Galikova of Morgantown and David Laub of Martinsburg
George J. Mitchell Scholarship: Dylan Vest of Princeton
Marshall Scholarship: Douglas Soule of Bridgeport
They are all students in the Honors College.
Rhodes Scholarship
Two students with a passion for addressing the disparities in healthcare in West Virginia have been endorsed by West Virginia University for the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the world’s most celebrated awards.
Terezia Galikova and David Laub have thought a lot about healthcare and how access to it affects people in their home state. While their academic paths have been different, their desire to make the state a better place is one thing they have in common.
Galikova is an immunology and medical microbiology major in the School of Medicine. She has been interested in reproduction since childhood and has aspired to become a physician since middle school. She plans to become a reproductive endocrinologist and will pursue a master’s degree in the history of science, medicine and technology and a master’s degree in clinical embryology at Oxford University if she’s selected for the Rhodes Scholarship. It was during a trip to her parents’ homeland in Slovakia that she began to see the connections to healthcare issues in West Virginia and other parts of the world.
“I noticed that the problems haunting my parents’ homeland are similar to those West Virginia faces,” Galikova said. “I came to understand that social and political forces greatly impact the quality and accessibility of healthcare and that I want my life’s work to address the need in the place of my birth.”
Although he has traveled with the WVU Global Medical and Dental Brigades to Nicaragua, Honduras, and Ghana, Laub said it was a trip to Southern West Virginia that surprised him about the economic and health disparities within the state.
“It is impossible to state how unfair this seemed to me—that there were people, even in the United States, without access to the clean water, power, internet, and food that I took for granted every day,” Laud said. “I began to see health as the truest limiter of progress.”
Laub is majoring in biology and English in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. If he’s selected for the Rhodes Scholarship, he wants to enroll in their Population Health doctoral program.
Marshall Scholarship
Douglas Soule is majoring in journalism at the Reed College of Media because he wants to have a positive impact on the world. This is his second year as editor-in-chief of The Daily Athenaeum, WVU’s independent student newspaper.
“The role of editor has taught me so much more than just how to be a good writer and journalist,” Soule said. “It has taught me to be a leader inside and outside of the newsroom, bettering the publication and engaging with the public to create a dialogue between our staff and our readers.”
He has interned with The Globe Post, a digital media organization in Washington, D.C., the Charleston Gazette-Mail. He attended the 2019 POLITICO Journalism Institute.
Marshall Scholarships finance young Americans of high ability to study for graduate degrees in the United Kingdom. If selected, Soule plans to attend Cardiff University in Wales to earn a master’s degree in news journalism and international journalism. Soule is interested in the revitalization of local journalism.
Mitchell Scholarship
Dylan Vest is a first-generation college student who has studied abroad four times thanks to the opportunities offered at WVU. Vest is a double major in political science and French in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.
The Mitchell Scholarship is sponsored by the U.S.-Ireland Alliance to connect young Americans to Ireland. Vest, who spent his junior year in France, visited Ireland and fell in love with the country, the people and the culture. If selected, he plans to study international development at University College Dublin.
“I learned that Ireland used to be the poorest country in Western Europe but overcame their problems to now have one of the healthiest economies in Europe,” Vest said. “Coming from Southern West Virginia, I can connect the poverty in my state to what they experienced. I want to analyze Ireland’s success to see what we could to improve economic development here.”
The ASPIRE office prepares students like these four for highly competitive scholarships. Students who are interested in applying should email aspire@mail.wvu.edu to set up an appointment.