Two New College students receive Goldwater Scholarships

Although New College of Florida’s student body constitutes a tiny fraction of the state’s college population as a whole, the small liberal arts college produced two Goldwater Scholarship winners.

The prestigious award recognizes students who show potential to make significant contributions to math, science and engineering.

Caitlyn Ralph and Constance Sartor, both Orlando natives, received the $7,500 scholarship, which was given to 240 students nationwide and six students in Florida.

Ralph’s award honors her for work done at the Mind Research Network and University of New Mexico and work she completed in high school. In high school, she spent four years researching the benefits of technology use in classrooms, and in a more recent project she built an algorithm to analyze MRI data.

Ralph said she has a passion for science and has been competing in science events since high school.

“(Science) is basically my sport,” Ralph said. “I’m a super-curious kid. New College has fostered that and led me to experience so many different paths.”

Sartor spent last summer in Washington, D.C., working at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, where she used satellite imaging to update nautical charts in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

Sartor said she has her sights set on a Fulbright Scholarship and hopes for a career studying invasive species ecology. She has spent much of her New College career volunteering at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, which she described as significant in her studies. She got her start there when she painted a mural in exchange for scuba lessons.

“After that, I became a volunteer for them, and now I clean their shark tank, and that has led to some cool things,” Sartor said.

Among those “cool things?” Carving pumpkins underwater while wearing scuba gear at Halloween and assisting in two marriage proposals. She said whatever she ends up studying, she hopes to remain in the aquatic field.

Sartor said her love for science was developed while camping with her family and hiking with her dad.

“I think basically it just made me love the ecology of Florida,” she said. “Seeing different landscapes in Florida in depth without urbanization.”

This story was originally published April 6, 2017 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Two New College students receive Goldwater Scholarships."