Submitted by University of Puget Sound
University of Puget Sound students have secured a wealth of national scholarships that will take them abroad for work and study or on to graduate school over the next year.
The 14 national scholarships won this spring take the number of prestigious fellowships won by Puget Sound new graduates and ongoing students to a total of 155 since 2000.
Facing formidable competition from across the country, students secured two Watson Fellowships, a Goldwater Scholarship, two Princeton in Asia Fellowships, a Critical Language Scholarship, a Gilman Scholarship, a Udall Scholarship, two Boren Scholarships, and four French Government Teaching Assistantships. Two more students were chosen as alternates for Fulbright Scholarships, giving them a chance of winning those awards.
Awardees will be traveling all over the globe and undertaking special study projects or teaching. The countries they will visit for months at a time include Morocco, China, Thailand, Ecuador, Germany, France, Chile, New Zealand, Tanzania, Malaysia, and Japan, among others.
“The students who apply for these fellowships are of such a high caliber, academically and personally, that it is a joy each year to work with them and to share the thrill of their success,” said Sharon Chambers-Gordon, director of the Office of Graduate and Undergraduate Fellowships. “We congratulate them and feel confident that the pioneering journeys they started here will continue successfully until they achieve the goals they have already set and the new goals they have yet to discover.”
The recent national awards include:
Critical Language Scholarship
Madeline Waddell ’14 – Morocco
Watson Fellowship
Kelsey Crutchfield-Peters ’14 – Chile, Madagascar, Borneo, New Zealand
Haley Andres ’14 – Japan, Australia, Bolivia, Tanzania
Princeton in Asia Fellowship
Brenna Cameron ’14 – Thailand
Jeremiah Firman ’13 – Thailand
Goldwater Scholarship Honorable Mention
Elizabeth Meucci ’15 – science
Udall Scholarship Honorable Mention
Parker Raup ’15 – environmental
French Government Teaching
Moira Fagan ’14 – Amiens, France
Chesna Foord ’14 – Poitiers, France
Kirstin Howley ’14 – Poitiers, France
Amy Nichols ’14 – Montpellier, France
Ben LaBouve (waitlisted)
Boren Scholarship
Nathan Bradley ’15 – China
Michael Burley ’15 – China
Gilman Scholarship
Morgan Buckingham ’15 – China
Fulbright Scholarship Alternates
Hannah Findling ’14 – Ecuador
Alex Furlow ’14 – Germany
The students were assisted in their achievements by Puget Sound faculty and staff; by members of the Tacoma community who provided enriching work, study, and volunteer opportunities; and by their family and friends.
The Fellowships Office, directed by Sharon Chambers-Gordon, coordinates the student applications and handles student recruiting, interviews, evaluation, mentoring, and mock interviews.
The Graduate Fellowships Advisory Committee, chaired by Associate Professor of Religion Greta Austin, reads all applications, conducts campus interviews, and selects scholarship nominees. The committee members also include Associate Dean Martin Jackson, in mathematics; Monica DeHart, in sociology; Katherine Smith, in history; Amy Spivey, in physics; Seth Weinberger in politics and government; and Chambers-Gordon. In addition many faculty on and off campus provided indispensable assistance by acting as research advisors and mentors, or by writing letters of recommendation on the students’ behalf.
For more information about student fellowship and scholarship opportunities contact Sharon Chambers-Gordon at 253-879-3329 or send her an email.
