Meet three of TU’s latest award winners

Interested in earning awards and scholarships? Towson University’s Office of Competitive Fellowship and Awards (OCFA) continues to help TU students to make sure they are the top of the list. 

TU students have won some high-profile awards over the past year, which includes giving students money towards their education and providing chances to study across the country and abroad. 

Meet three TU students and alumni who have taken advantage of the resources offered at TU and have won national awards that recognized their hard work in the classroom, the lab and in higher education overall. 

“OCFA is extremely proud of all Towson University students for their hard work and resilience,” Mary Devadas, says OCFA director. “These three Tigers exemplify the strength of the TU student community. Working with exceptional students like them keeps my mind sharp and continually inspires me.”  

Sydney Braithwaite ‘25

National Science Foundation's
Graduate Research Fellowship

Sydney Braithwaite, a graduate of Towson University’s Forensic Chemistry program, won the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship in April. 

The fellowship is a five-year program with over $100,000 in funding towards my Ph.D studies.

The process of working with the OCFA helped Braithwaite start early and outline goals for both her personal and research statements and understand the scope of the research project.  At TU Braithwaite did her undergraduate research with Dr. John Sivey.

Working with OCFA initially,  her research principal investigator suggested that she take a different route with her application. The OCFA helped her pivot and rebuild the proposal while keeping the foundations of the writing style intact.

“Without the efforts of the OCFA, I wouldn't know how to approach these applications and the writing process that went into them,” Braithwaite says. “Working through various sources of feedback to create the best product possible is a skill that these application processes built for me over the years."

Kathryn Foreman ‘22

American Association of University Women (AAUW) American Doctoral Fellowship

Kathryn Foreman is a TU alumna who studied chemistry, forensic chemistry, and philosophy. She is now pursuing her doctorate in physical chemistry at Johns Hopkins University. 

At TU, she participated in undergraduate research in Khanh-Hoa Tran-Ba's Lab where she explored nanoscale transport in soft and interfacial materials.

AAUW American Fellowships are the oldest awards of their kind in the U.S., providing funding to women’s graduate studies in STEM fields since 1888.

“After asking my research professor if I could put an application forward, I then reached out to [Mary Devadas] TU’s director of OCFA to receiving feedback on the application I would submit,” Foreman says. “Even as an alumna, I still receive support from TU's OCFA. It is terrific to know that they care not only for current students, but also for our continued futures. 

“This really goes to show how wonderful the TU community is. Even when we leave, we know we still have a place of support.” 

Justin Zapanta ‘28

ORISE Critical Minerals
Undergraduate Scholarship Competition

Justin Zapanta is currently majoring in both chemistry and molecular biology, biochemistry and bioinformatic at TU. This summer, he finished second place in the ORISE Award's in Critical Minerals Undergraduate Scholarship Competition. 

This competition awards scholarships to students who expertly research and develop an infographic communicating the life cycle of a critical mineral or material. Zapanta was recognized for his interactive, web-based infographic about graphite. 

“I like to believe that it was a multitude of things that cumulated into my participation,” Zapanta says. “The concept of the competition was something that I found to be interesting. The creation of an informational infographic to present seemed to be oddly reminiscent of a poster research presentation that you see in professional conferences.

"Among other things, I figured that regardless of if I win or not, there is still instrumental value to be had in terms of learning valuable skills to be applied in other situations.”