Nine Fulbrights named

When Alex Gibson took a first-year seminar taught by Professor of Religion and American Ethnic Studies Ulrike Wiethaus, it inspired him to start an educational outreach program at the Alexander Correctional Facility near Taylorsville, N.C. The program for inmates began with a monthly book club and expanded to include theater performances, debates and poetry workshops.

After graduation, Gibson will continue to combine teaching and service with a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in Malaysia. He is among nine Wake Forest seniors and recent graduates awarded Fulbright U.S. Student program grants for the 2016-17 academic year. Including this year’s winners, 111 Wake Forest graduates have received Fulbright awards.

Among this year’s Wake Forest winners, seven (including Gibson) were awarded Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships and will teach English in countries around the world.

• Hannah Alms (’16) of Catawba, N.C., will teach in Germany
• Matthew Aycock (’11) of Raleigh, N.C. will teach in Spain
• Alex Gibson (’16) of Sammamish, Wash., will teach in Malaysia
• Samantha Geary (’15) of Winston-Salem, N.C., will teach in Indonesia
• Fletcher Laico (’16) of Warwick, N.Y., will teach in Colombia
• Kate Llewellyn (’16) of Winston-Salem, N.C., will teach in Malaysia
• Carolyn Murphy (’16) of Orlinda, Calif., will teach in Indonesia

Two 2015 graduates were awarded Fulbright Study/Research grants:

• Eva Ward of Hendersonville, N.C., received a United Kingdom Study Grant to study political science at the University of Strathclyde.
• Dianne Uwayo of Greensboro, N.C., will pursue gender studies in Tanzania.

Three students have been named alternates in the English Teaching Assistantship program:

• Sean Dougherty of Pittsburgh, Pa., for Turkey
• Eric Kanigan of Darien, Conn., for Spain
• Sarah Millsaps of Raleigh, N.C., for Argentina

Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement as well as record of service and demonstrated leadership in their respective fields.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to build relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries that are needed to solve global challenges.

The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the program, which operates in over 160 countries worldwide.

Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in many fields, including 54 who have been awarded the Nobel Prize, 82 who have received Pulitzer Prizes, and 33 who have served as a head of state or government. This year marks the 70^th anniversary of the Fulbright Program’s establishment in 1946 under legislation introduced by U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. Since then, the program has given more than 360,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists, and scientists the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas, and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.