Learning What You Love

Season 6, Episode 2

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W&L at Home

Learning What You Love

Mentoring Students through the Fellowship Application Process 

In this episode, Matthew Loar, Director of Fellowships and Student Research at Washington and Lee University, shares about his path from studying abroad in Rome to shaping the futures of current W&L students. He talks about how fellowships are transforming undergraduate experiences and why he is so passionate about the application process itself. We discuss Matthew’s work with programs such as Summer Research Scholars and Science, Society, and the Arts, and discuss how we at Lifelong Learning plan to introduce elements of these initiatives to our Lifelong Learning audience.

Recorded: January 22, 2025
Aired: February 11, 2025

"A fellowship application is an invitation to think about who you are, where you are, where you think you want to go, and what steps you need to take to get to where you want to go. I always tell students to think about: you’re at point A and you want to get to point B. How is a fellowship going to get you to point B? Or how is the fellowship going to get you closer to point B than where you are right now? And all of these fellowship applications ultimately ask students the same question: what does this have to do with your academic and professional goals? What have you done up to this point to prepare you for this opportunity, and what do you see this opportunity setting you up to do afterwards? And I think being forced to think about what you’re doing and why in that way, is a really productive thing."

~ Matthew Loar, Director of Fellowships and Student Research

W&L at Home