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The Minority Fellowship Program, hosted by the American Political Science Association (APSA), recognizes the research and hard work of political science students from underrepresented backgrounds. It\u2019s a competitive scholarship, and the APSA only honors 12 students each year. UCF student Angie Torres has just become one of those 12.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am excited and grateful when I found out,\u201d Torres said. \u201cThere were a lot of qualified applicants that applied and I was happy to be named among such hard-working and high-achieving students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torres is an undergraduate student, but she has already spent years pursuing her research. She\u2019s currently interested in the role gender plays in international security, post-conflict resolutions and the political development in Latin America.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an evolving area and there are not a lot of Hispanic, female international relations scholars working on it right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Torres is pursuing it as part of her Honors in the Major thesis. Last year, she even presented her findings at APSA\u2019s 2017 Annual Meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was my first conference and it just so happened to be the biggest conference in political science in the United States,\u201d she said. \u201cI was intimidated. However, thanks to the help from professionals and the other undergraduate students presenting alongside me, I was able to present my work and gain valuable insight. It was a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torres first realized she enjoyed research when she started working as a research assistant for assistant professor Jonathan Powell, Ph.D., discussing experimental methods and analyzing data. Now, it seems natural that Torres is pursuing a research career in political science, but she originally didn\u2019t know she wanted to major in it until she took her first international and global studies class and loved the material.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first year and a half at UCF, I was a biomedical sciences major,\u201d she said. \u201cI was not happy and decided I should enjoy my classes instead of dreading them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torres switched her major to international and global studies and then added a minor in global peace and security studies. She was much happier with the change.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up I was always interested in how things worked, specifically how governments worked, why people went to war, etc.,\u201d she said. \u201cI knew I wanted to work for an international entity or one day teach, but now I get to study the world instead.\u201d<\/p>\n
After she graduates this spring, Torres plans to pursue a graduate degree and eventually get her doctorate in political science. She has already been accepted to Cornell, Vanderbilt and Pennsylvania State University, but hasn\u2019t yet decided where she\u2019ll end up. The one thing she knows for sure is her time at UCF has helped shape her education and future.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy time at UCF has been filled with invaluable experiences, tremendous growth and incredible opportunities,\u201d she said. \u201cThe faculty, resources and research programs here have allowed me to achieve more than I could have thought possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Torres has certainly worked hard to make her mark within UCF\u2019s research department.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first came to UCF, I was told that being at one of the nation\u2019s largest undergraduate institutions made me a \u2018little fish in a big pond\u2019 and if I could survive here, I could survive anywhere,\u201d she said. \u201cI worked really hard to make that statement true. Being named an APSA Fellow allows me to feel like my hard work has paid off.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Minority Fellowship Program, hosted by the American Political Science Association (APSA), recognizes the research and hard work of political science students from underrepresented backgrounds. It\u2019s a competitive scholarship, and the APSA only honors 12 students each year. UCF student Angie Torres has just become one of those 12. \u201cI am excited and grateful when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":23032,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[38,13,16,28,29,30],"tags":[5539,215,4357,301,5541,4319,3954,1670,1842,2010,5538,2711,5382,3457],"class_list":["post-23031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-news","category-political-science-departments","category-top-news","category-ucf-news","category-undergraduate-student-news","tag-2017-annual-meeting","tag-american-political-science-association","tag-angie-torres","tag-apsa","tag-global-peace-and-security-studies","tag-honors-in-the-major","tag-international-and-global-studies","tag-international-relations","tag-jonathan-powell","tag-latin-america","tag-minority-fellowship-program","tag-political-science","tag-research-assistant","tag-ucf"],"yoast_head":"\n