Three win a Mellon fellowship

In the spring of her sophomore year, College senior Afia Ofori-Mensa did the unthinkable -- she switched out of Wharton and into the College.

But far from ruining dreams of a successful career, she said this move ended up changing her life, sending her down the road to a Ph.D. and the prestigious Andrew Mellon Fellowship.

"I decided right away that I would major in English because I knew that I liked literature and reading books," Ofori-Mensa said. "I transferred and declared an English major, and I didn't know what I could do with an English major besides become a professor."

And she's definitely on the right track.

On Wednesday, the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships notified Ofori-Mensa, along with College senior Paul Padovano and 2000 College graduate Beatrice Jauregui, that they had been selected for the Mellon Fellowship, which will pay for their first year of Ph.D. study in the humanities, as well as provide a $15,000 stipend.

"I think the Mellon is the most academic of the prestigious scholarships for graduate study," CURF Director Art Casciato said. "There's emphasis on evidence of outstanding future promise as a teacher and scholar."

Ofori-Mensa said her first reaction was one of utter surprise and excitement.

"I called my dad and said I had just gotten this e-mail from CURF saying I had won, and I wasn't sure if it was true or not because I hadn't received a letter [from the Mellon Foundation], so he checked the Web site and the list was there, and we were on it," Ofori-Mensa said. "I was really excited and I was kind of shocked because I had thought my interview had gone terribly."

Padovano said he was similarly pleased and surprised.

"I wasn't expecting to win because I felt a little intimidated by the interview," Padovano said.

Casciato, however, said that he was not surprised in the slightest.

"All of them have excellent academic records," Casciato said. "Both Paul and Afia have GPAs over 3.9. They all scored highly on their GREs. And all of them, when we gave them mock interviews, seemed to be terrifically likeable people and serious about what they want to study in graduate school."

But despite what she believed to be a shaky interview, Ofori-Mensa said she already had some acquaintance with the Mellon Foundation as the recipient of the Andrew Mellon Minority Undergraduate Fellowship.

"My second semester freshman year, I took an African-American literature class, and a lot of the students in it were in the Mellon undergraduate program that I'm in now," Ofori-Mensa said. "When they heard I was interested in getting a Ph.D., they really encouraged me to apply for the Mellon Undergraduate Fellowship."

Padovano, however, said he had received less academic direction and almost stumbled on the scholarship by chance.

"I remember seeing flyers around campus, and one of my history professors told me about it," Padovano said. "To tell you the truth, I didn't do that much research about the fellowships that were out there."

Padovano said he found his inspiration elsewhere.

"I basically met a student here at Penn who got me really excited about philosophy," he said. "I am just very interested in finding truths, and I want other people to be as well. I want to inspire other people to love philosophy the way I was inspired."

Once he gets a Ph.D. under his belt, Padovano said he probably will find himself in a university setting -- both because of his desire to inspire and the research opportunities.

"I would like to teach at a university," Padovano said. "I don't know if I would call everything that's done in philosophy research. Sometimes, it's just sitting down in a chair and thinking really hard."

But for now, Padovano said he will be thinking really hard about which graduate school to choose -- Princeton University, University of California at Berkeley or Stanford University.

"I see philosophy as a way of life rather than simply a profession," he said. "It isn't something that I will walk away from when classes are over and I'm away from the University.

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