Jocelyn Navarro ’19 awarded NSF Fellowship

The National Science Foundation has awarded Jocelyn Navarro ’19 with the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. 

Navarro, who said she came to Conn to “study plants,” plans to attend the University of Arizona's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Ph.D. program.

“My research interests are understanding how climate change factors will affect plant functional traits, described as physiological and morphological traits, that impact the fitness of a plant by affecting growth, reproduction and survival. I’m also interested in biodiversity and conservation,” said Navarro, who majored in botany and minored in environmental studies and gender and women's studies.

While at Conn, Navarro was a student in the Science Leaders Program, directed by Marc Zimmer, the Jean C. Tempel ’65 Professor of Chemistry and chair of the Chemistry Department. Science Leaders is open to all prospective science majors at Conn, but it’s particularly focused on students from groups that are underrepresented in the sciences.

Zimmer said that in 2017 he advocated for Navarro, then a second-year student, to participate in a  Study Away Teach Away program in South Africa, normally reserved for third-year students. 

“Jocelyn made the most of her time in South Africa and she was an important stabilizing and unifying member of the group,” Zimmer said. 

“She is positive, intelligent, hard-working and conscientious. I’m confident that Jocelyn will make the most of this opportunity.”

Navarro said that both programs, Science Leaders and SATA, were instrumental in her evolution from student to future scientist.

“Science Leaders and participating in SATA in South Africa are two of the reasons why I’m in this position today. I attended Conn because I knew I wanted to study plants. I had no idea about the career paths or educational opportunities available to me. These programs changed that completely,” Navarro said.

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program helps ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and reinforces its diversity. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.

Leah Kosovsky ’22 has been awarded an Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) office of education announced. Read more.