Nationally competitive scholarships open doors of opportunity By J.K. Devine Photos by Peggy Cozart
Four UNG students will travel to Thailand, Kyrgyz Republic, Indonesia, and Russia to spend 10 months as English Teaching Assistants. Six will head to Spain, Taiwan, Japan, and Jordan this summer to participate in credit-bearing study abroad programs. Four will trek to China and Japan, respectively, for a cultural immersion program. And two more will study a critical language for up to a year in Oman and Kazakhstan in exchange for working with the U.S. government for a year upon their return. They are UNG’s Fulbright finalists, Early Summer Gilman scholarship recipients, Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) finalists, and Boren award winners. These are just a handful of highly competitive scholarships UNG students have won in spring 2019. In fact, UNG collected two new awards this year: John Blessing was the school’s first Truman Scholar while Brendyn Melugin became UNG’s first American Council on Education (ACE) Student of the Year. Each student plans to use their overseas experience and scholarship to help further their future professions in education, languages, law, and military and government service. For example, Petrus Schoeman plans to use his time in Russia as a way to achieve his dream. “My ultimate goal is to make language learning apps,” the 2018 UNG graduate said. So far, he is fluent in Chinese thanks to a yearlong study abroad in the Asian country. Now, the 27-year-old,
who was born in South Africa and lives in Dahlonega, Georgia, wants to be fluent in Russian. Schoeman will have that chance as one of four UNG finalists selected for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. He will spend the 2019-20 academic year teaching English to Russian students. The other UNG finalists selected for the prestigious award are: • Marcel Cantu who will teach in Thailand. The Newnan, Georgia, native graduated in May 2019 with a degree in English education. • Melissa Silva who will teach in Kyrgyz Republic. The Gainesville, Georgia, native will graduate in August 2019 with a degree in Spanish. • Caitlyn Webb who will teach in Indonesia. The Suwanee, Georgia, native graduated in May 2019 with a degree in history education with a minor in Spanish. Two UNG students were named alternates. If a finalist withdraws, the alternate may become a finalist. The two are: • Jenna Labbie who hopes to teach in Taiwan. The Locust Grove, Georgia, native graduated in May 2019 with a degree in history and secondary education. • Emily Symmes who hopes to teach in Republic of Kazakhstan. The Cumming, Georgia, native graduated in May 2019 with a degree in Russian.
Fulbright finalists and countries from 2015-19 2018-19 Katie Smith, South Korea | Amanda Hamilton, South Korea | Lily O’Clery, Taiwan 2017-18 Nicholas Allen, Senegal | Faith Brown, Bulgaria | Rachael Bryant, South Korea | Mitchell Fariss, Germany Darion Gibson, South Korea | Katie McCullough, Poland | Noah McDaniel, India | Anita Renfroe, Malaysia 2016-17 Cody Bijeaux, Taiwan 2015-16 Jacob Dietrich, Oman | Erika Evans, Russia
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UNIVERSITY OF NORTH GEORGIA MAGAZINE
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Spring/Summer 2019
