Arts & Sciences has Banner Year for Prestigious Scholars

16 national scholars hail from A&S

The University of Louisville today announced that 22 students and alumni – 16 from the College of Arts & Sciences – have earned some of the world’s most prestigious scholarships. The scholars will head to destinations throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Many award winners credit faculty mentors from across A&S for their achievements. Truman Scholar Hannah Wilson (Political Science, Women’s & Gender Studies, and Philosophy) noted that faculty from Philosophy, English, and Political Science were instrumental in her accomplishment.

“Undoubtedly, much of my success is credited to these amazing people and others too numerous to name individually,” Wilson said.

Fourteen scholars – nine from A&S – earned Fulbright awards, meeting the university’s all-time record of 14 in a single year and making it likely UofL will again place among the nation’s top public institutions for the prominent prize. Since 2003, UofL has had 103 Fulbright awardees, more than all other Kentucky public institutions combined, and 75 percent of those Fulbright award winners studied, and were mentored, in the College of Arts & Sciences.

“I am so proud of the accomplishments of our students and of the time and expertise so many of our faculty shared in mentoring them,” said A&S Dean Kimberly Kempf-Leonard. “All of our award-winning students embody the ideals of a liberal arts education, and their success demonstrates the relevance of a degree in the arts and sciences in today’s diverse and rapidly changing world.”

Patricia Condon, who heads the national and international scholarship program, said there were originally 30 Fulbright candidates for 2016. Of those, 22 were selected by the U.S. selection committee and recommended to various countries—a high success rate that earned UofL recognition from Fulbright award organizers.

Besides the 14 who were ultimately selected for the award, two were declined, four were chosen as alternates and one is still waiting to hear.

Those receiving U.S. Student Fulbright Awards from the College of Arts & Sciences are:

• Christina Baker, Carlisle, graduating senior, political science, will teach in Estonia.
• Christian Brawner, Glendale, graduating senior, anthropology, will teach in Jordan. He also earned a Critical Language Scholarship and will spend part of the summer in Morocco.
• Hanna DeMarcus, Villa Hills, 2015 graduate, English and humanities, will teach in Belarus.
• Rae Hodge, Bardstown, 2013 graduate, political journalism, will conduct research and study journalism at Cardiff University, United Kingdom.
• Shelby Lawson, Bowling Green, 2014 graduate, economics and Spanish, will teach in Indonesia.
• Megan Seldon, Louisville, graduating senior, English and humanities, will teach in Malaysia.
• Ariel Weaver, Tulsa, Okla, graduate student, geography, will conduct research on conservation efforts in Namibia.
• Shacoya Kidwell, Jeffersonville, Ind., graduating senior, will conduct research on local culture and the community while also studying the work of writer Earl Lovelace, author of “The Wine of Astonishment” and other texts, in Trinidad and Tobago.
• Chloe Zoeller, Louisville, graduating senior, Spanish and political science, will teach in Colombia.

Other Fulbright winners include:

• Jessi Dietrich, Louisville, graduating senior, economics, will teach in Malaysia.
• Jessica Nelson Eaton, Louisville, third-year medical student, will conduct research on traumatic brain and spinal cord injury in sub-Saharan Africa in Malawi.
• Mackenzie Flynn, Louisville, third-year medical student, will conduct research on mother-to-child HIV transmission in Kenya.
• Abigail Wittmer, Fort Mitchell, graduating senior, middle and secondary education, will teach in Spain.
• Private, California, graduate student, education, will teach in Brazil.

Six students from the College of Arts & Sciences were selected as Critical Language Scholars, including Brawner, who is also a Fulbright. They are:

• Jeremy Ball, Manchester, junior, political science and economics, will travel to Oman for immersion in Arabic.
• Anna Cecile Pepper, Elizabethtown, sophomore, political science and history, will travel to Oman for immersion in Arabic.
• April Willis, Elizabethtown, junior, anthropology, will travel to China for immersion in Chinese.
• Tanner Wright, Louisville, sophomore, political science and history, will travel to Morocco for immersion in Arabic.
• April Willis, Elizabethtown, junior, anthropology, will travel to in Xi’an, China, for immersion in Chinese, at Shaanxi Normal University.

The university previously announced that A&S students Hannah Wilson, who won Kentucky’s only Truman Scholarship, Conrad Smart, who won a Goldwater Scholarship, and Brandt Coleman, who won a Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals, were also the recipients of prestigious national awards.

“We repeatedly talk about our goal to be a premier, nationally recognized, metropolitan research institution and these results make it clear that we are achieving that goal,” said UofL President James Ramsey. “Our prestigious scholar program is a point of pride that showcases UofL’s many opportunities for student global engagement.”

For more photos of the prestigious scholars, visit Honors Scholars Reception.