Staff Spotlight: Mitch Hobza
As the Graduate College grows and expands its efforts to enrich the experiences of graduate students — we are excited to introduce our team members! Our fantastic staff are an integral component of our mission. From completing daily operations to investing in long-term projects and relationships — the ASU community would not be the same without them.
In this feature, we invite you to get to know Mitch Hobza, Senior Program Manager for Distinguished Graduate Fellowships at The Lorraine W. Frank Office of National Scholarships Advisement. He shares his love for the desert and cultural centers around the Valley. He also told us about his work with ONSA over the past two years and how students can benefit from the personalized assistance he offers.
Name: Mitch Hobza
Title: Senior Program Manager for Distinguished Graduate Fellowships
Dept: The Lorraine W. Frank Office of National Scholarships Advisement (ONSA)
Hi, I’m Mitch Hobza, the Senior Program Manager for Distinguished Graduate Fellowships at the Lorraine W. Frank Office of National Scholarships Advisement, known as ONSA.
I started college as an English major. My bachelor’s and master’s degrees focused on literature and women’s and gender studies, and my PhD is in Rhetoric and Composition with a focus on empathy and writing support. (I regret not adding art history to the mix). I’ve been at ASU for two years, and my knowledge about my work has improved significantly during that time!
About my work at ONSA and how students can work with me
At ONSA, I provide support to students applying to external, competitive awards such as the Fulbright U.S. Student Program and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Our office is part of Barrett, the Honors College, and we work with every undergraduate and graduate student from every ASU location. We even work with alumni! Our support for applicants includes information sessions, advising appointments, and writing support for their applications. The application process itself is a major benefit of applying to competitive awards, as students learn a lot about themselves and their objectives when they collaborate with us on an application.
As a fellowships advisor, I primarily work with students applying for awards that support graduate-level study and research. The Graduate College is a crucial partner in supporting ONSA’s work with graduate students, and we collaborate on outreach, news stories, presentations, and developing resources to best support applicants.
I’m currently revising and updating our resources, including information sessions for graduate awards. Stay tuned for new content in August!
For students interested in applying for the upcoming October deadlines for awards such as the NSF GRFP, the Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Innovation Fellowship, and the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, I strongly encourage them to schedule an intake appointment as soon as possible so we can work on the application over the summer. Competitive applications go through multiple revisions and take a lot of effort!
Graduate students new to working with ONSA should attend one of our Introduction to Graduate Fellowships and Grants information sessions in the fall. These sessions equip students with the tools to begin their own searches for funding. Once students have a list of awards they are considering, we encourage them to meet with a fellowships advisor to put together a timeline and a plan for applying. Due to the popularity of these sessions, we offer them once a month during the semester, along with other information sessions on specific graduate awards. Students are encouraged to sign up for our newsletter to stay up-to-date on our offerings.
About me outside of work
My dad was in the U.S. Air Force, so we moved around a lot during my youth — I even went to an American high school in Germany! My family comes from Nebraska, but Virginia will always have a special place in my heart, as that is where I lived the longest before attending my PhD program at Purdue University in Indiana. I am very happy to call Phoenix my home. There is something about the desert that is so vibrant and unlike any other place I have lived. When it’s cooler outside, I enjoy visiting the Desert Botanical Gardens and the Japanese Friendship Garden in Phoenix when everything is in bloom.
I am interested in literature and art, particularly those produced in the 20th century. My partner and I regularly visit the Phoenix Art Museum and the Heard Museum and attend the Arizona Opera each season. We also watch a film from the Criterion Collection every Sunday to learn more about global cinema. Recently, I’ve been exploring female artists who developed alongside the surrealist movement, such as Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, and Dorothea Tanning. I find their artistic work and literary fiction fascinating! When not thinking about art and literature, I engage with narrative through video games and “needlessly complicated” board games focused on human stories. I also read a lot of comics, with the X-Men being a perennial favorite because of the interesting questions the series asks about humanity.