The Office of Prestigious External Scholarships (OPES) moved into its own space on the third floor of Nunnelee Hall on Aug. 15, 2024.
The office, previously located within the Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College at Griffis Hall, advises students interested in applying for prestigious external scholarships and internships.
David Hoffman, the interim director of OPES and mentor for the Presidential Endowed Scholarship Program, said that the main focus is on the “external” factor of the scholarships, meaning they are not scholarships awarded by Mississippi State University. However, “prestigious” may be used to describe the selectivity of many scholarships that OPES typically advises.
Some scholarships for which OPES has historically advised students include the Rhodes Scholarship, the Marshall Scholarship, the Fulbright Scholarship, the Truman Scholarship, the Goldwater Scholarship, the Astronaut Scholarship and the Fulbright UK Summer Institute. However, Hoffman said that students are always bringing new scholarships into the office for advising.
“Basically, I would not turn anybody away,” Hoffman said, “if they’ve found an external scholarship opportunity that they want to apply to and they are looking for some help.”
Hoffman said that the number of prestigious scholars from MSU has dramatically increased since the creation of OPES, and there was another increase when he took over the office in 2017. He specifically spoke about the amount of Fulbright Scholars that the university has produced.
“A little humble brag here: from 1949 to 2016, Mississippi State had, I believe it was five Fulbrighters, US Student Fulbrights,” Hoffman said. “Since I took over in 2017, we’ve had 12.”
The Fulbright US Student Program is an international program that sends graduating seniors, graduate students and early career professionals worldwide each year. Recent MSU recipients include Jenny Baldwin, Hanna Clark and Valencia Epps, who all received the award in 2024.
Another program offered by the Fulbright Commission is the Fulbright UK Summer Institute for college freshmen and sophomores. Payton Kelly-Van Domelen, a sophomore biomedical engineering major, said that she initially met with Hoffman because he was the presidential scholarship advisor. However, she said OPES was a major help with her Fulbright UKSI application.
“He was there for me for the entire application,” Kelly-Van Domelen said. “He helped me tailor my application essays and really hit what they wanted.”
OPES offers many services to students, including planning for future scholarship applications, mock interviews, scholarship essay advising, resume and cover letter services. Although OPES is part of the Honors College, students from all departments at the university are encouraged to visit the office if they wish to apply for an external scholarship.
Hoffman emphasized the importance for students seeking scholarships to visit his office “early and often.” He recommended that students start coming in as early as their freshman or sophomore year to receive guidance on scholarship applications that might not be due until their junior or senior years.
“As a freshman coming in, you know, maybe you want to be competitive for things, but you don’t know how to do what you need to do,” Hoffman said. “There’s a lot of mentoring in that way.”
Hoffman has been working with Hallie Smith, a freshman political science major, on her Fulbright UK Summer Institute application since last semester. Smith also said that Hoffman has connected her to several people within her field who can help her achieve her future career goals in public service.
“[Hoffman] is like, ‘Send emails here and there, and when you email, tell them Dr. Hoffman sent you that way,’” Smith said. “I got a little backing for it from him, so it’s definitely useful because he’s very plugged in.”
Hoffman is currently the only OPES mentor, but he hopes to expand the office with time and funding. Since the move to Nunnelee in August, he has hired student workers to help run the office. He has also hired a graduate assistant to assist students with applications.
Additionally, the fall semester marked Hoffman’s first semester as the full-time director of OPES. The office has existed since 2012, and it has been functioning under a part-time director for most of the time. Before August, Hoffman served in this role and as a professor within the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures. He said that he has been able to devote much more of his time to the office since his promotion.
“Thanks to investment from not just the Honors College, but from the Provost’s Office, in seeing the utility of this office means that I’m able to focus on this full-time,” Hoffman said.
Kelly-Van Domelen said that she plans on applying for several other scholarships with OPES in the future, including the Astronaut Scholarship and the Goldwater Scholarship. She said that her time in the office working on the Fulbright UKSI application has helped her learn a lot about what prestigious scholarship applications are like.
“It’s always worth a shot,” Kelly-Van Domelen said, “because even just going through the process of applying, even if you don’t get it, can help you mentally.”
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