Each year, our sophomore Tower Scholars sit down with the NexPoint Tower Scholar seniors to interview them so that they can create a “Senior Spotlight” blog post highlighting the senior’s unique story. Seniors share their journeys to develop a well-informed perspective on policymaking and international affairs through a combination of theory and practice in the program, alongside their multidisciplinary major courses of study. The conversations captured reflect the experience of our scholars and their learnings not only in the Tower Center but at SMU overall.
Shriya Siddhartha ’26 interviewed Hayden Ovanes ’24 to learn more about her time as a NexPoint Tower Scholar and to understand how the Tower Program (and experiences she had through it) fostered her passion for policymaking and bolstered her interest in a career dedicated to research and service.
Hayden Ovanes is a senior graduating in 2024 and currently majoring in applied mathematics and minoring in chemistry, French, and public policy and international affairs. Hayden hopes to pursue a fellowship after completing her undergraduate degree and aspires to potentially pursue graduate education in quantitative economics or civil engineering.
Why did you apply for the Tower Scholars Program and what have been the highlights from the past three years of being a Tower Scholar?
Even before she applied to SMU, Hayden had heard about the Tower Program and was excited by the direct and clear path to changemaking it promised students. Having been a scholar for three years now, Hayden is grateful for the hands-on experiences in policymaking she has had through the Tower Program that she will carry well into her future.
Looking back on the past three years, Hayden fondly recalls the client project as being one of her favorite memories. Her class’s client project, which was conducted in conjunction with the city of Trinidad, Texas, introduced Hayden to valuable skills such as policy research, economic policy creation, and networking. However, the real benefit for her was the ability to create a policy and observe its potential to make a real-world impact.
Hayden is also grateful for the close-knit community she’s found among her fellow scholars and for the support of her professors and Tower Center faculty and staff. Through experiences like the D.C. trip and taking classes such as Gateway to Global Policymaking with her cohort, Hayden enjoyed bonding with her fellow scholars over shared experiences, debating issues with them, and hearing about her peers’ varied policy interests. Hayden credits her professors with guiding her personal growth, helping her crystallize her career goals, and serving as role models for her.
How has the experience you’ve had with the Tower Program informed your changing career plans? Has it impacted your passion for the sciences?
One of the things that drew Hayden to SMU was the interdisciplinary nature of SMU degree programs and how students are encouraged to take courses outside their major or area of study. At the start of her time at SMU, Hayden was a student interested in mathematics and the environment, but through her journey with the Tower Program became interested in environmental policy. This year, Hayden completed her practicum in this field with the City of Dallas. The practicum only bolstered her passion for science while allowing her to explore opportunities at the intersection of public policy, environmental science, and data science.
How did working on your practicum and any other relevant experiences you’ve had through the university shape your view on public policy?
One major takeaway that Hayden garnered from completing her practicum was a sense of how “long-term” the policymaking journey really is. The practicum, coupled with NSC simulations she partook in via the Gateway course also showed her the intricacies involved in policymaking on a global scale. Hayden credits the practicum conducted through the City of Dallas with showing her how to voice policy concerns while introducing her to methods of data collection, analysis, and presentation that are the foundation of new policies in a data-driven world. Moreover, her practicum helped her explore how dynamic public policy is, as even the minute details of policy can fluctuate. Overall, she believes these experiences bolstered her interest in continuing similar policy work well into the future.
From being a math department TA to conducting research as a URA and holding a myriad of on-campus leadership roles, how did you find the time to balance all your different roles and responsibilities?
“It’s so important to balance your academics and your extracurriculars while making time for your friends and family,” Hayden said. As an involved student, finding and prioritizing the things that tie in most directly to her long-term plans helps Hayden allocate her time wisely. Moreover, being open-minded about novel experiences and being willing to try out different organizations and clubs to see which ones resonated with her goals and values allowed Hayden to discover new opportunities for involvement that she may not have considered before. Hayden also stressed the importance of making time to involve oneself in experiences that may not relate directly to one’s long-term goals, providing her experience with her sorority as an example. Being a part of a sorority helped Hayden build confidence in herself while helping her find a community to which she could turn. As a naturally shy person, she credits her experience with her sorority to helping her gain self-confidence in public speaking and the ability to try new things, thanks to the support of her sisters.
Going forward, what advice do you have for sophomores just starting their journeys with the Tower Program?
“Take advantage of all the opportunities they offer! Not just the internships or office hours, but the lectures, tickets to the Tate, and networking opportunities from the Tower Center.” Hayden points to an impactful experience she had at the Bush Library one September 11th when President Bush gave an address. Thanks to tickets that the Tower Center provided, Hayden was able to attend this meaningful event, which was sold out otherwise. Hayden urges incoming sophomores to take the opportunity to attend lectures, even if the topic of the lecture seems foreign, as students may encounter new ideas and professionals that they wouldn’t have otherwise. Only by making time to attend these lectures, having novel conversations, and interacting with new groups of people can students explore the full offerings of the Tower Center.