2023-24 proved to be a banner year for many of Georgia Tech’s Stamps President’s Scholars, with graduating students selected for 14 prestigious scholarships or awards over the past year.
These accomplishments include:
- Two Marshall Scholars – Maeve Janecka and Haaris Jilani
- One Churchill Scholar – Venny Kojouharov
- Two Goldwater Scholars – Maeve Janecka and Venny Kojouharov
- One Astronaut Scholar – Venny Kojouharov
- Six NSF Graduate Research Fellows – Maeve Janecka, Venny Kojouharov, Jennifer Nolan, Abbey Oliver, Michelle Seeler, and Jacqui van Zyl
- One Knight-Hennessy Scholar – Venny Kojouharov
- One 2024 ACC InVenture Prize Winner – Jacqui van Zyl
Beyond these accolades, graduating scholars are going on to prestigious graduate or medical schools, including the University of Oxford, the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Northwestern University. Those joining the workforce have secured positions at companies including Meta, Apple, and Mckinsey & Company.
“The Stamps President’s Scholars Program is tailored to aid already exceptional students in their pursuit of extraordinary opportunities through professional development and support,” said Chaffee Viets, director of the Office of Special Scholarships. “Seeing the continued success of our Scholars showcases that this program yields strong returns for our students and by extension, the arenas in which they hope to serve.”
Venny Kojouharov, a mechanical engineering graduate and Stamps President’s Scholar, was recently selected as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. The Knight-Hennessy Scholars program is a fully endowed scholars program at Stanford University that brings together students across disciplines with programming and leadership development.
“Not only did Stamps shape what I achieved during my time at Tech, but it also influenced what I want to do,” said Kojouharov. “I applied to the Knight-Hennessy program and was excited about it because I see a lot of the great things that I got from Stamps in this graduate program – learning broader leadership concepts, connecting with students from other research areas, and having the opportunity to study internationally with them.”
Kojouharov will start his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Stanford in the fall, continuing his research in bio-inspired robotics, meeting other scholars, and engaging with the Knight-Hennessy Scholar programming.
Providing Perspective, Community, and Interdisciplinary Opportunities
As Kojouharov celebrates his recent graduation and wraps up his time as a Stamps President’s Scholar with a program-funded study abroad opportunity to Australia and New Zealand, he emphasizes the value of the program in expanding his horizons as an undergraduate student and highlighting interdisciplinary work.
“Stamps gave me perspective,” said Kojouharov. “My friends are in completely different majors – biomedical engineering, public policy, biology. That’s a great community to have, and I’ve gotten to go on these trips and study government, economics, and social sciences in other countries. All of that has influenced what I want to do in graduate school and beyond.”
Jacqui van Zyl, another graduating Stamps President’s Scholar, also emphasizes the importance of community associated with the program.
“Everyone that I’ve met through Stamps has been unbelievably supportive of everything I’ve wanted to do, especially my cohort,” said van Zyl. “Being friends with them has been the biggest support system, especially as I moved through my academics and the stresses of navigating college and professional opportunities.”
Van Zyl was part of the 2024 ACC InVenture Prize’s winning team, along with fellow Stamps President’s Scholar (and sister) Caitlin van Zyl, and a third Georgia Tech student, Meg Weaver. Their idea of NeuroChamp, a concealed headband to continuously monitor pediatric seizures, won them $15,000 toward continued development of the product.
Over this summer, Jacqui will work on getting the patent process started for NeuroChamp’s technology and preparing the company to start the clinical trial process. She’ll continue working for NeuroChamp part time as she moves to Boston in the fall to pursue a Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Her graduate work, which will focus on brain organoids and brain-on-chips from a mechanical perspective, is funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP). The NSF GRFP funds about 2,000 graduate students each year from a pool of around 12,000 applicants.
Stamps Selection Process and Offerings
Stamps President’s Scholars are merit-based scholarship recipients handpicked from the top 1-2% of incoming students before they begin their first year at Tech. The program is funded by the generosity of E. Roe Stamps and the late Penny Stamps through the national Stamps Scholars Program, and more than 100 individual President’s Scholarship endowment donors.
The selection process involves multiple rounds of interviews and a visit to campus to determine best fit for the program values: scholarship, leadership, progress, and service.
Scholars receive a full ride scholarship to cover tuition, fees, housing, a meal plan, books, academic supplies, and a stipend for first-year students to purchase a laptop. In addition to covering immediate education expenses, the program also provides enrichment funds, faculty guide mentorship, annual cohort retreats, access to the nationwide Stamps Scholars Program network, and more resources for personal and professional development.
This year, 50 students were invited to join the Stamps Program, an increase of 10 students from past years.
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