Voyager Scholarship: Sydney's Incredible Experience
Sydney Wilhelmy of Frederick Honors College at Pitt
Sydney Wilhelmy graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh.
Sydney joined me on my Podcast to share his undergraduate journey at Pitt.
He was fortunate to receive a number of Scholarships, but one in particular he loved to talk about was the Voyager Scholarship.
Here below, is an edited conversation on that topic.
Q: How did you hear of the Voyager Scholarship?
Sydney: Yeah, so the spring of my sophomore year, I was getting emails from my mother that the Obama Foundation was launching this huge, ambitious scholarship thing, and I should apply.
And I took one look at it I was like, that's not for people like me. And I deleted the emails every time.
Then my advisor here at the Honors College forwarded me an email. And then after that, my mom did it again, and I was okay, fine.
Just to end this madness, I filled out the form.
It's a surprisingly short application that's just a few essays and a short video. And so I did all that and sent it in.
Q: What happened next?
Sydney: That summer I had actually won a scholarship from the Department of Education to study Arabic in Germany, which altogether was a entirely different, cool thing.
And then one day I was checking my email, and I just like, stopped, because I saw the that I had won the Voyager Scholarship!
I had forgotten all about it and I just could not believe what I was seeing.
So I called everyone, and then it turned into one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
Q: How so?
Sydney: Because a few months after finding out, I was put on a plane with three other winners from Pitt. Pitt had four winners that first year out of 100 in the country.
So we were flown out to New York City, and we got to meet President Obama and the CEO of Airbnb. And there were just the most incredible speakers and engagements and networking.
And there was this one night, we were on the on the top of a skyscraper in NYC.
It was surreal. It was surreal!
Q: Tell us about the Voyager Scholarship
Sydney: It's a one time scholarship that covers $50,000 in Tuition Aid for your junior and senior year and $10,000 summer stipend.
There's $2,000 a year in Airbnb credits for 10 years.
Then for two years, you attend the summit where you get to meet the president and hear from the speakers and meet your other Voyagers.
And the thing that made this so unique is every student there, completely understood and were appreciative of what they had received.
They had no illusions of their own superiority, and we were all grateful to be there and understood how much it meant that we were there.
And because of that, it allowed us to be so much more open and connect with each other, and share ideas and contacts.
And the other Voyagers and my cohort are just doing incredible things, and it's just it's such an amazing, humble, cool group to be a part of.
Q: What did you do with the summer stipend?
Sydney: So you got $10,000 stipend for some service experience.
So it was like an internship. I applied myself. I searched for the jobs myself, other people, like, designed, like a research trip. They did all sorts of things.
I chose a human rights organization based out of Bonn in Germany.
And so I went there, and for three months I interned there, and it was one of the most formative and educational experiences of my life.
It was amazing, and it was totally paid for. We received about $4,000 in Airbnb credits.
So yeah, and that the lessons I took from that, and one of the goals of the scholarship, is that I was able to experience the field of International Relations that I am hoping to go into after graduation.
And so I'm just incredibly thankful. It was a highlight of my four years.
On with the Podcast
On our Podcast Sydney shares his University of Pittsburgh Honors journey, the Honors College, Getting the Voyager Scholarship, Majoring in Political Science, and his Advice for High Schoolers.
Listen to the Podcast with Sydney Wilhelmy of the University of Pittsburgh. (48-Minute Listen).
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Thanks.
Finally, Thanks to all my Podcast guests who have been generous with their time and counsel on my Podcast.
Have a great week!
Venkat