During 2010-11, more than 30 College of Charleston students have received some of the nation’s most prestigious nationally competitive awards, including a full undergraduate Fulbright Scholarship. These recipients, along with the College’s first Colonial Scholars, will be celebrated during a ceremony on Friday, April 22, 2011 at 4:00 p.m. in Alumni Memorial Hall in Randolph Hall.

Sara Sprehn, a senior Spanish and Anthropology major with a minor in Chemistry, has been awarded a Fulbright Full Graduate Scholarship to support graduate study at the Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas in southern Mexico. Sprehn will take coursework in public health and nutrition, while completing research on the intersection of traditional Mexican foods with the availability of packaged and convenience foods. Eventually, Sprehn plans to attend medical school.

Melissa Huber was awarded the Lionel Pearson Fellowship through the American Philological Association – the largest national professional society for the study of ancient Greek and Roman languages, literatures and civilizations. The fellowship is awarded to the top undergraduate student in the nation focused upon broadening and developing their knowledge of Greek and Latin literature in the original languages. The Pearson Fellowship funds a year of post-graduate study in classics at a university in the U.K.  Huber will study in the City of Rome masters program at the University of Reading. Upon completion of that program, she will begin a PhD program at Duke University where she has been awarded the James B Duke graduate fellowship. Huber also earned a Fellowship from The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and was a finalist for the Fulbright Scholarship.

A record nine graduates will also be entering the Teach for America program. Teach for America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit two years to teach in urban and rural public schools. Leila Ameli-Grillon, Micah Carpenter, Carly Clement, Shea Diaz, Antonio “TJ” Fielder, Josh Haffner, Joi Mayo, Jessica Ledford, and Alexandra Snyder will all join the Teach for America program.

Caroline Horres, a senior political science major, won a Boren Scholarship for six months of study (June – December 2010) in Amman, Jordan. Boren Scholarships provide up to $20,000 to U.S. undergraduate students to study abroad in areas of the world that are critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad, including Africa, Asia, Central & Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

Jamilla Harper ‘10 and Keri Hunigan ’10 each earned Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships to spend an academic year fostering friendly relations among people of different countries and geographical regions. Harper will travel to Nairobi, Kenya and Hunigan will travel to Colombia, South America. Both will take coursework at local universities and will work with Rotary Clubs in the area to address a critical humanitarian need in the community.

Other nationally competitive award recipients include:

Emily Allen ’10 – NSF Graduate Fellowship
Stephen Ferguson – ACS Nuclear and Radiochemistry Summer School Fellowship
Michael Griffin – Geological Society of America – Research Grants Program
Katherine Gumps – National Institutes of Health Undergraduate Scholarship
Zachary Hanson – Critical Languages Scholarship (Russia)
Alexandra Hooven, April Pineda, Maria Teruel – Gilman Scholarship for study abroad
Alexandra Keenan, Helen Rosko, Truitt Urbanic, Kelsi Ward – Peace Corps
Jeffrey Schwindaman – Council of Undergraduate Research – Posters on the Hill
Dyanne Vaught – Silverman Secular Humanist Scholarship
Frank “Tripp” Waters – South Carolina Space Grant Consortium Undergraduate Research Scholar
Maggie White – Universite de Versailles Fellowship

Nearly 70 students applied or were nominated for nationally competitive awards. For more information, contact Trisha Folds-Bennett at 843.953.6592.