{"id":27173,"date":"2025-04-14T20:16:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T20:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=27173"},"modified":"2026-03-13T19:33:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T19:33:31","slug":"macalester-junior-awarded-2025-goldwater-scholarship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2025\/04\/macalester-junior-awarded-2025-goldwater-scholarship\/","title":{"rendered":"Macalester junior awarded 2025 Goldwater Scholarship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Junior Frances McConnell \u201826 is a recipient of the 2025 Barry Goldwater Scholarship. McConnell is the ninth student from Macalester to receive the prestigious award since the scholarship\u2019s inception in 1988.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Award recipients are college sophomores or juniors who plan to participate in STEM-based research and show outstanding potential for contributions to their fields. The scholarship supports students until their graduation and provides a maximum of $7,500 per year. Funds may be applied toward tuition, fees, room and board, and books.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

McConnell majors in computer science and mathematics, with a minor in history. This year she has collaborated on research with Professor Lori Ziegelmeier, an opportunity that inspired her to apply for the scholarship. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat’s my first serious research experience with an actual faculty advisor,\u201d said McConnell. \u201cI’ve just really, really enjoyed that, and it\u2019s given me more direction about where I want to go and what I want to pursue. It solidified my decision to pursue higher education.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Ziegelmeier\u2019s team studies the \u201cscience of science.\u201d The researchers use topological data analysis to map the evolution of research over time. By building networks of scientific concepts, the team can identify gaps in existing knowledge. McConnell\u2019s work has focused on the applied mathematics network.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe goal is to use this computational tool to understand not only how science is changing, but also where there might be room for meaningful contributions or where grants might need to go,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

McConnell attributes her success to the small class sizes Macalester offers. She said that the tight-knit nature of the MSCS department allowed her to build close relationships with faculty and fellow students. These provided her with the opportunity to pursue research.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel really comfortable in the department. I feel like I know faces when I walk into classes, and I think that being comfortable in a space is a large part of success,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduation, McConnell said she plans to earn a doctorate in computer science, mathematics, or a combination of the two. Inspired by her work with Professor Ziegelmeier\u2019s team, she wants to continue to focus her research on analyzing social sciences. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

McConnell said she is also interested in teaching at the university level. Before college, she was frequently the only woman in her STEM classes. She hopes to provide future students with the strong community, inclusive space, and research opportunities she\u2019s found at Macalester.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCreating a welcoming environment in STEM is really important to me. It’s something that I think professors have tried really hard to create for me, and that’s made a really big difference in my whole life. It’s why I am here today doing what I’m doing. I want to pay that back and be that person for someone else.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Goldwater Scholarship<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The <\/span>Barry Goldwater Scholarship Program<\/span><\/a> honors politician and military officer Barry Goldwater. The program aims to \u201cidentify, encourage, and financially support college sophomores and juniors who show exceptional promise of becoming this Nation\u2019s next generation of research leaders.\u201d The program partners with the Department of Defense National Defense Education Programs (NDEP) and the company UWorld to give awards to approximately 400 students across the United States. <\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frances McConnell ’26 is the ninth student from Macalester to receive the prestigious award since the scholarship\u2019s inception.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":875,"featured_media":27175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[649,52],"class_list":["post-27173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-newswire","tag-fellowships-and-scholarships","tag-mathematics-statistics-and-computer-science","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/875"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27173"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29363,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27173\/revisions\/29363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}