Hunter College congratulates Rania Darwish MHC ’25 for winning a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship.
Darwish is the seventh Hunter student to win this distinction during the last three years. She is among 438 Goldwater scholars selected from a field of more than 5,000 applicants nationally.
The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation — one of the most competitive in the nation — awards the scholarships to students who have the potential to make significant research contributions in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics. Each Goldwater Scholarship provides as much as $7,500 each year for as many as two years of undergraduate study.
Darwish, a McNulty Scholar at Hunter, is a first-generation college student. She majors in Human Biology with a concentration in Body, Mind, and Health. In her first year at Hunter, she began performing neuroscience research in the lab of Assistant Professor Allyson K. Friedman and has worked subsequently in labs at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Praised by her recommenders as among the most outstanding undergraduates with whom they have worked, Darwish has co-authored two articles in neuroscience and is among the authors of another paper under review. She serves as a junior senator in the Undergraduate Student Government, vice president of the Muslim Student Association, a peer teaching assistant in the Chemistry Department, and a peer mentor in the Human Biology Department. She hopes to become a medical doctor and researcher.
Hunter’s Office of Prestigious Scholarships and Fellowships has a stellar track record in preparing students for competitive scholarships and fellowships. In recent years, the college has produced two Rhodes, two Marshall, six Schwarzman, five Luce, seven Goldwater, and 39 Fulbright Scholars among many other prestigious awardees