Scholar, Researcher and Future Professor

While some ambitious students may get involved in lab research their freshman year of college, few have what it takes to jump into fieldwork.

But when Elyce N. Gosselin came to the University of Idaho, she found not only the opportunities to do that research, but also faculty members willing to mentor her and bring her into their projects.

“They’re just so receptive to students,” Gosselin said of the faculty at U of I. “There are just endless opportunities to get involved.”

Now the junior, first-generation student and Boise native is part of an elite group of undergraduate scholars who are recipients of the Goldwater Scholarship, given annually through the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program.

Gosselin, who is double-majoring in ecology and conservation biology and mathematical biology, with a minor in Spanish, was one of two U of I students to receive the honor this year, and one of about a dozen in the past decade. She has been active in departmental research since she came to campus, hoping to earn her doctorate and one day teach.

“It’d be really cool to do that for a future generation of students,” she said. “It’s a cool feeling to be able to expand knowledge; to delve deeper and find answers to questions that haven’t been answered before, or haven’t been answered sufficiently.”

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