KINGSTON, R.I. – May 10, 2017 – It has now become commonplace that University of Rhode Island students are winning some of the top scholarships and fellowships in the nation. Many major scholarship announcements over the past two decades have included at least one URI student. And this year is no exception.
Two URI students were named Fulbright Scholars this spring, another earned a Truman Scholarship, four were awarded Boren Scholarships, three earned Hollings Scholarships, and one received a Goldwater Scholarship.
“These are among the most highly-competitive and prestigious scholarship programs in the country, and it has almost become routine that our students are winning them every year,” said URI President David M. Dooley. “I couldn’t be more proud.”
“One reason for our great success is our pool of high-achieving students keeps growing,” added Kathleen Maher, who directs the URI Office of National Fellowships and coaches many students through the application process. “Our students also engage in a wide variety of co-curricular activities – like the Honors Program, undergraduate research, study abroad, and advanced language programs – that position them well to compete on a national level. Beyond that, it’s the extra mile that our faculty and staff are willing to go to foster the potential in students and to encourage them to strive for excellence.”
This year’s major scholarship winners at URI are:
Fulbright Fellowship
Senior Alexia Williams, an elementary education and sociology major from Johnston, was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship through the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Program enabling her to travel to Spain to teach English next fall. In addition, Hilary Lohmann, who grew up in Summit, N.J., and received a master’s degree in marine affairs from URI in 2015, earned a Fulbright research grant to conduct research at a marine sanctuary in Barbados.
Truman Scholarship
Autumn Guillotte, a senior history and philosophy major from North Kingstown, won a $30,000 Truman Scholarship for graduate study. She was selected by the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation for her academic achievement, leadership ability and commitment to a career in public service. She envisions a career as an attorney working with non-profit organizations that represent workers, taking on anti-discrimination cases, and working with the government to shape policies and laws to help protect people’s jobs.
Goldwater Scholarship
Cherish Prickett, a junior industrial and systems engineering major from Lilburn, Ga., won a $7,500 Goldwater Scholarship, the most prestigious undergraduate scholarship for students in the fields of mathematics, engineering and the natural sciences. She is enrolled in URI’s International Engineering Program and will spend the next school year working and studying in Germany.
Junior Rachel Bellisle of Exeter, a computer engineering major, earned honorable mention from the Goldwater Foundation.
Boren Scholarship
URI’s four Boren Scholarship winners have been awarded $20,000 each to study foreign languages abroad next year through the U.S. Department of State’s National Security Education Program, which aims to expand the pool of American citizens with foreign language and international skills. Samuel Browne, a junior Chinese and chemical engineering major from Portsmouth, will study in China; Evan Cummiskey, a sophomore political science and history major from Warwick, will study Arabic in Jordan; Zöe Mitchell, a junior political science major from Newport, will study Arabic in Morocco; and Joe Silva, a senior medical laboratory science major from Warwick, will study Portuguese in Mozambique.
Cummiskey also received a Critical Language Scholarship through the Department of State to spend this summer studying Arabic in Oman.
NOAA Hollings Scholarship
Three sophomore marine biology majors – Dawn Parry of Point Pleasant, N.J., Sara Shapiro of Austin, Tex., and Samantha Ward of Sudbury, Mass. – have been awarded the Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the most prestigious scholarship awarded to undergraduates studying the marine sciences. The award provides students with a total of $19,000 toward tuition in their final two years of undergraduate study plus a paid summer internship at a NOAA lab anywhere in the country. Since 2009, URI students have been awarded 23 Hollings Scholarships, one of the most of any institution in New England.
As advising services have expanded in the Office of National Fellowships, so has access to awards. In addition to the major national scholarships, this year URI students also won an Emerson Hunger Fellowship, a Venture for America Fellowship, 17 Demers Foreign Language Fellowships, four Metcalf Fellowships, and two DAAD Scholarships (the German equivalent of the Fulbright).
Numerous other students have been recipients of nationally competitive research internships such as National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates and the National Institutes of Health Summer Internship Program, which Maher refers to as “stepping stone opportunities” to the major awards.