Daniel Hubbard

Describe some of the steps you took to obtain your scholarship.

There were many steps in the process of applying for the Truman Scholarship. I started the process in September working with the Office of National Fellowships. In the beginning stages, I developed my essays to reflect personal experiences ranging from my childhood to more recent endeavors. After a few months of reflecting on my experiences and writing about them, I was one of five students selected by Florida State University to formally apply for the Truman Scholarship. After another month of editing and preparing for future interviews, I learned that I was selected by the Truman Scholarship Foundation as a Truman Finalist. A couple of months later, I was interviewed with five other students from the State of Florida and was ultimately awarded the Truman Scholarship.

How far in advance did you prepare?

I started my Truman Scholarship application in the fall of 2014. The entire process didn’t finish until early April, so I spent a good portion of the academic year working on this in some capacity.

If you used any Career Center services or events to obtain the scholarship, what were they? How did these help you in the application process?

The Career Center had a large part to play in my experiences since joining the Florida State community. As a Community Ambassador through the Center for Leadership and Social Change, I was placed within a partnered nonprofit legal firm here in Tallahassee. The Career Center provided me the opportunity to transform this internship experience into a more meaningful civic engagement. Through the Experiential Certificate Program (ECP), I reflected on my semesters in a structured way, and this allowed me to gain a greater understanding of my motivations and the impact I had on the lives of others. Furthermore, ECP provided me the tools for reflecting on future experiences.

In addition to the ECP, the Garnet and Gold Scholar Society (GGSS) has provided me a structured way to approach my overall experience at Florida State University. It was through this program that I learned about Community Ambassador Program and the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, two of the most enriching activity groups at Florida State University. The Garnet & Gold Scholar Society was also the vessel through which I learned about ServScript. This program allowed me to document my service experience and receive credit for it on my transcript!

Describe some of your responsibilities or duties as a Community Ambassador for Legal Services of North Florida.

At Legal Services of North Florida, I functioned as a volunteer recruiter, legal assistant, and student. My primary responsibility was to learn what problems are facing citizens in our community and how this nonprofit organizes to alleviate those concerns. To do this, I often found myself looking for community resources for clients, identifying general laws or regulations that could affect them, and reporting these to the attorneys for their review. Additionally, I recruited FSU students to volunteer for the agency and played a part in fundraising a time or two.

What was a typical day like?

I don’t know that there was a “typical day” at Legal Services of North Florida. Every day brought new challenges that required individualized treatment. Being challenged in this way every day I stepped foot in the office was one of the more enriching aspects of my experience.

What are some major takeaways from your experience? How will these help prepare you for the next step after graduation?

All of our clients had severely restricted incomes and needed nonprofit legal services to prevent their legal matters from progressing to a point of becoming unmanageable. However, as much as this firm would like to do for the community, both the large number of people applying for aid and an increasingly limited access to grant money limited them in their efforts. My largest takeaway from this experience is that we need to provide agencies like these with the resources to make an impact in more people’s lives.

Did this experience help clarify your career path? How so?

This experience has definitely clarified my career path. Much of my time at FSU has been spent working with a psychology lab studying suicide. In particular, I developed a strong interest in veteran and military suicide. For much of the last year, I thought that I would pursue a degree in clinical psychology. However, with the help of The Career Center and as a result all of my experiences at FSU, I have found that I now want to pursue a dual degree in law and urban planning.

Anything else you would like to share with aspiring Seminoles?

Garnet & Gold Scholar Society (http://garnetandgoldscholar.fsu.edu/) and The Career Center (http://www.career.fsu.edu/) are two websites you need to click around before getting on campus. Look through the requirements on the Garnet & Gold Scholar Society website and identify programs that you want to join, and then apply to them. Take a look at The Career Center’s website and talk to your career advisor – they are good people! You have one shot; do this right!

Daniel Hubbard

Daniel Hubbard

"The Career Center provided me the opportunity to transform this internship experience into a more meaningful civic engagement."


Major: Psychology and Sociology, Class of 2016
Award: The Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation: 2015 Truman Scholar

 

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