After completing their Honors citations and graduating from UMD, University Honors students go on to do remarkable things in a variety of disciplines, professions, and areas of research. One such senior—and “UH-lum” to be—Nataliya Stepanova was recently named a 2021 Marshall Scholar. The Marshall Scholarship is widely considered one of the most prestigious and competitive national scholarships available to graduating students in the United States. After graduating this semester with a dual degree in Mathematics and Computer Science and a minor in Linguistics, Nataliya will use her Marshall scholarship to study Speech and Language Processing at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
We recently had an opportunity to catch up with her about her experiences in University Honors and at UMD, and to hear what advice she has for fellow UH students.
Ever since high school I knew I liked studying both languages and math. However, it took some time at UMD for me to figure out how to combine the two interests. What really helped me during this process of soul-searching was joining several different programs to learn about language science from a variety of different perspectives. For example, participating in PULSAR allowed me to learn about the different subfields of language science research, while through Global Fellows I learned about the intersection of science and policy making. In my eyes, one of the biggest perks of studying at UMD is that there are so many opportunities on and near campus. In my personal case, alongside participating in PULSAR and Global Fellows I was able to work as an undergraduate research assistant at ARLIS, intern with the Department of State in D.C., and intern with START, all of which were invaluable experiences and allowed me to solidify what specific professional path I wanted to take.
Through UH I was able to take several incredibly interesting and thought-provoking classes. For example, taking the honors seminar called “Language and Mind” my freshman year piqued my interest in linguistics and served as the starting point for all my subsequent language science experiences. Through the Honors College I was able to meet and learn from many interesting professors from a variety of academic departments. In fact, some of the most memorable courses I took were from outside of my majors – taking such classes allowed me to obtain a better understanding of how my courses of study fit into the larger world of knowledge and made me more well-rounded intellectually.
The first step I took was to contact the National Scholarships Office (NSO) at UMD. The NSO staff were extremely helpful with all steps of the application process, from proofreading essays to coordinating mock interviews. In order to write compelling essays, I also spent considerable time thinking very hard about my ultimate academic/professional objectives and how the Marshall scholarship could aid me in achieving them. Talking through these topics with professors and mentors really helped in solidifying my goals and figuring out how to best articulate them through my application materials.
Through UH I was able to take several incredibly interesting and thought-provoking classes. For example, taking the honors seminar called “Language and Mind” my freshman year piqued my interest in linguistics and served as the starting point for all my subsequent language science experiences.
The NSO does a great job of advertising national scholarship opportunities (Marshall, Fulbright, CLS – Critical Language Scholarship, etc.) through a variety of listservs, and in their ads they always list what next steps interested students should take (how to contact the office, how to attend an info session, etc.). In my case specifically, reaching out to the NSO was absolutely imperative, as to compete in the national competition for the Marshall I needed campus endorsement from UMD. In terms of timing, as soon as the NSO starts advertising a specific scholarship, that is when you should reach out, if you’re interested. I think that as long as the NSO is advertising a scholarship, that means it’s still not too late to get started.
I am really happy that I had the opportunity of serving both as a Strauss TA for the Math Department and as a Teaching Fellow for the Global Fellows program my junior year. I learned that I really enjoy teaching, especially sharing tips and tricks on how to think about certain mathematical concepts and how to solve certain types of problems. I definitely hope to be able to continue teaching in some way or another in the future – teaching a concept often makes me aware of holes in my own understanding, and students ask very poignant questions that make me look at it from a different perspective. Teaching is itself a learning experience!
I’m looking forward to learning from an international network of language scientists. Aside from academics, I’m also really excited to experience Scottish culture and to visit famous historical landmarks in the UK (pandemic-permitting, obviously!).
I’m interested in working in natural language processing (NLP), either in industry or in an academic position. NLP is a subfield of computer science that specifically works with language, both verbal and written. Some applications of NLP that are pretty ubiquitous nowadays are: spellcheck, speech recognition (think of Siri and Alexa), and sentiment extraction (automatically detecting the emotion expressed in, for example, a product review on Amazon). I’m specifically interested in focusing on how NLP can aid in the fight against the proliferation of dangerous misinformation and disinformation online – I want to work on the question of how to make computers be able to “understand,” with a large enough accuracy, whether something is a blatant lie, slight fudging of the truth, or completely in line with what is true. Of course, there is a lot to unpack here – is there always a “ground truth,” and even if so, how do we establish it and teach it to a computer model? And these questions represent just the very tip of the iceberg! In any case, I hope to be able to contribute to the research on these and adjacent topics.
Most importantly, be proactive about your education – there is so much knowledge to learn! Don’t shy away from trying different opportunities and joining a variety of programs. Attend talks by experts in various fields, volunteer at events, apply to be a TA for a class you really liked – there are many different opportunities at UMD, so do your best to learn as much as you can during your time here.