Academic Harmony
Scholarships help UM attract Montana's brightest students, empower them to pursue their passions
October 18, 2024
Lydia Garrick could have gone to college anywhere.
Coming out of high school, the Missoula native’s academic record was spotless. She graduated at the top of her class from Sentinel High School and served as National Honor Society treasurer. Beginning the summer before her junior year, she had interned in a microbiology lab at the University of Montana and presented her work at the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium and State Science Fair.
She had also established herself as a talented musician. After taking up the cello as a fifth grader in the Missoula’s Public Schools music program, Garrick went on to be first chair in the Montana Youth Symphony and Montana All-State Orchestra.
In short, she had all the necessary qualifications to knock any college application out of the park.
Yet the first-generation university student chose to stay home. Garrick said she never thought seriously about going anywhere other than the University of Montana, citing the school’s perfect blend of academic excellence, available artistic outlets and the financial aid offerings needed to help her reach her full potential.
“Most of the bigger academic scholarships I was looking at were for Montana schools,” Garrick said. “I also wanted to do orchestra or some sort of strings program, because I wanted that to be part of my journey. UM checked all the big boxes that I wanted, so it just made sense.”
Garrick applied for and received significant assistance from a bevy of privately funded scholarships. As a freshman she was accepted into the Davidson Honors College and received a Presidential Leadership Scholarship, the university’s most prestigious academic recognition for incoming students.
Presidential Leadership Scholarships are awarded annually to students attending UM from across the nation, based on good character, ability, and academic performance. The scholarships are supported by many generous donors motivated to aid high-achieving students at UM and the Honors College.
In 2022, Garrick was one of 25 students representing 11 states chosen for a Presidential Leadership Scholarship from the DHC’s largest-ever cohort of applicants. To say that she’s now making the most of the opportunities she’s earned — in part through the generous support of those scholarship donors — is a tremendous understatement.
As that unique combination of biochemistry major and music minor, her academic calendar is as diverse as it is jampacked. From one day to the next, she’s just as likely to be headed to classes like physical chemistry-kinetics and thermodynamics as she is to music history. In addition to her own pursuits, she also teaches music lessons to younger cellists and has tutored fellow students in chemistry.
Garrick notes that the financial stability provided by the scholarships she has received have allowed her to focus on her biochemistry studies without having to get a second job outside of school. Without that security, it might not have been possible for her to earn a pair of crucial paid summer internships through the Center for Translational Medicine.
Today, her work in associate professor Travis Hughes’ cutting-edge biochemistry lab is focused on proteins that may be involved in insulin sensitivity. Specifically, Garrick said, the lab is investigating avenues that might eventually lead to lessening the most harmful side effects of certain drugs used to treat Type 2 diabetes.
She said the work is challenging and cautioned it is still a long way from complete, but she relishes the idea of contributing to a project that has the potential to impact so many people.
“You work and work and work and then you get a little piece of a breakthrough and it’s just awesome,” she said. “Sometimes it turns out to be something, sometimes it turns out to be nothing, but all those little moments of success make the hard work so rewarding.”
Then there is cello, which Garrick said works as a balance to her biochemistry studies.
"When you're really frustrated with science, the cello is there to lift you up," she said. "Then when cello gets hard, you have science and you can think, ‘OK, this is my thing right now.’ So, they kind of even each other out."
Now headed into the fall of her junior year, Garrick said she’s scaling back her course load a bit, expecting a slightly slower semester — at least by her standards.
But that doesn’t mean she’s taking a break.
Instead, she’s using some of that spare time to get back into Taekwondo.
Garrick spent a decade studying and competing in the martial art — eventually earning a third-degree blackbelt — but drifted away from it around the time she started college. She only recently realized how much she missed the competition and camaraderie it provided.
"It's been a huge character builder for me," she said. "It takes so much discipline and perseverance. I think it's been a really big part of me getting to where I am now."
Where she is now is still in Montana, serving as another shining example of how scholarship donors can make a life-changing impact on the lives of students.
To help Grizzly students experience a transformational education at UM, visit SupportUM.org/Scholarships.