Alma boasts unpresidented Fulbright Scholarship nominees

Amy Willey

Staff Writer

This past Friday, six Alma College students discovered that they were recommended for Fulbright Scholar-ships by the United States Fulbright panel.

The recommended students are Marilee Brooks (04)--Finland, Lindsey Dalton (04)--Jamaica, David Hensley (04)--Belgium, Jessica Karbowski (04)--Mauri-tius, Timothy Slade (04)--Benin, and Luke Steinberg (04)--South Korea. The students have a wide range of majors from History, Politi-cal Science, and Foreign Service, to Exercise and Health Science (EHS) and French.

The Fulbright is a grant awarded to seniors to cover the costs of a proposed project in one of over 70 countries after graduation. The project must be specific and if it is accepted the students have an all-expenses-paid academic year in that country to carry out their project. Students recom-mended by the U.S. Fulbright panel, usually one and a half to two times the number that will be accepted, are then evaluated by the Fulbright panel in their respective countries who de-cide who will come.

This is the fourth year Alma has put forward applicants. For the first two years one student was put forward each year, but neither was recommended. The third year, last year, Matthew Friar (03) was put forward, recommended and accepted and is currently carrying out his project proposal in Finland. This year, an unprecedented six students have been recommended.

“This is one of the great days in Alma College history,” said Derick “Sandy” Hulme--associate professor of political science and a member of the recently developed Alma College Nationally Competitive Scholarship Committee. According to Dr. Hulme, “This is a product of four years of very hard work by the Alma College faculty, administrators and students to cre-ate extraordinary opportunities for a talented student body,” he says. The Committee is made up of ten faculty members and the provost with the goal of “identifying and cultivating promising students.”

As a result, in the past four years there have been 29 students recog-nized as semi-finalists and finalists of nationally competitive scholarship, and 10 winners. The winner’s scholarships are valued in excess of $350,000 and include one Fulbright, one Gates-Cambridge, one Goldwa-ter, two Trumans, and five Udalls. “We made a commitment to make this happen,” says Dr. Hulme, and now Alma College is one of the top private liberal arts colleges for winning scholarships in the country.

The decision of the Fulbright Panel in each country will be known be-tween March and June.

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