Boren Awards

6 BOREN AWARDS (5 Scholars & 1 Fellow) and 2 Alternates

Full details here

The National Security Education Program funds overseas study of languages critical to national security through the Boren Scholarship for undergraduates and the Boren Fellowship for graduate students. Students are awarded approximately $25,000 and in return are obliged to work in federal employment (which aligns with their career goals) for a period of one year. Awardees also have the opportunity to attend a convocation ceremony in Washington, D.C. where they meet with their representatives in Congress. URI has a very strong track record in this program.

This year 6 of our 9 applicants were selected, and two others were designated as alternates; URI placed fifth in the nation in number of undergraduate awardees, making it a “top producer” once again. Our rate of success continues to be much greater than the national average, thanks in part to our strong signature programs with emphasis on language study: the Chinese Language Flagship, the International Engineering Program, the International Business Program, and the International Studies and Diplomacy Program, as well as the graduate program in International Relations. Of the 44 URI Boren Awardees since the program’s inception, 40 have been selected since 2010, with an application success rate of 60%. An additional 16% have been designated as alternates.

Our 2023 Boren Scholars (Undergraduate), all from the graduating class of 2024 are:

Juniors Reagan Couture (Chinese Flagship and Global Business) and Abigail Frishman (Chinese Flagship, International Students and Economics) were designated as alternates.

Our 2023 Boren Fellow (Graduate) is:

Fulbright

4 FULBRIGHT US STUDENT GRANTEES, 1 ALTERNATE and 4 SEMI-FINALISTS

Full details here 

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the largest U.S. exchange program offering opportunities for students and young professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and primary and secondary school teaching worldwide. The program awards grants annually in all fields of study and operates in more than 140 countries.

Nine of our fourteen nominees to the Fulbright this cycle made it through the national screening process to become semi-finalists, meaning that their applications were forwarded to the host countries for final review. Ultimately, four were awarded Fulbrights and one was designated as an alternate. Two of our four Fulbrights this year are community college transfer students, and were Gilman Scholar alumni (a US Department of State study abroad scholarship program for Pell Grant eligible students).

The 2023 Grantees are:

Additionally, Nethra Prasanna ‘22 (International Studies and Spanish) was named as an alternate for the ETA to South Korea and the following students/alumni were semi-finalists:

• Nikol Damato
• Willow Dunster
• Clare Laroche
• Jami Miller
• Devin Thomas
• Myles Wagner

URI’s other 3 Fulbright nominees were:

• Aisling Macareag
• Mollie Mellnick
• Elizabeth Taylor

Since the 2010 cycle 50% of URI-endorsed applicants to the Fulbright have made it to the second round of the competition and 24% have been selected as Fulbrights (i.e. 48% of our semi-finalists go on to win.)

• 25% of URI’s Fulbrights in the past six cycles have been Talent Development Scholars.
• Since 2015 six Gilman Scholars have become Fulbrights.

Goldwater

3 GOLDWATER SCHOLARS

Full details here

The most prestigious undergraduate award for students in STEM disciplines, the Goldwater Scholarship recognizes those with strong potential for graduate studies and a STEM research career. For the 2023 cycle, URI nominated four juniors, three of whom were named as scholars:

The fourth nominee was Anna Cetera ‘24, a biomedical engineering major.

Since inception (1986) URI has had 27 Goldwater Scholars and many honorable mentions (the latter category was eliminated in 2019.)

Truman

1 TRUMAN SCHOLAR and 1 TRUMAN FINALIST

Full details here

Each year the Truman Foundation selects 60 college juniors who wish to make a difference through public service with a $30,000 award for graduate studies, as well a special summer internship program in Washington, D.C. Membership in the Truman Scholar community also leads to the benefit of an active lifelong professional network and special recruitment into leading graduate programs.

In the spring 2023 we nominated two juniors, both whom were selected as a finalist and interviewed in New York before an 8-person panel, one of whom was selected as a 2023 Truman Scholar:

Kathleen Maher was one of a select group of Truman campus advisors to be invited to Independence, Missouri (birthplace of Harry Truman) to participate in the final days of the Truman Scholar Leadership Week, where she served as a judge for a policy panel and had the pleasure of joining our 2023 Truman Scholar Lina Al Taan Al Hariri on the stage during the award ceremony. Lina is URI’s 16th Truman Scholar since the program’s inception.

CLS

Three URI students were selected for the highly competitive (<10%) U.S. Department of State CRITICAL LANGUAGE SCHOLARSHIP (CLS):

• Tiffany Morel to study Korean in South Korea
• Devin Thomas to Kyrgyzstan to study Russian
• A third student was selected for Chinese (to Taiwan) but had to decline due to military obligations.

Full details here.

Gilman

The Gilman is a U.S. Department of State undergraduate study abroad scholarship program for U.S. citizens of limited financial means (Pell grant recipients). While Gilman Scholarship applications are processed through the Office of International Education and Enrollment Services/Financial Aid, the Office of National Fellowships and Academic Opportunities assists in the promotion of the Gilman and critiques applications for any student who requests assistance. Alumni of the Gilman program are granted non-competitive hiring eligibility for federal employment and receive access to special career development and networking events.

During the 2022-2023 academic year, 13 URI students were offered Gilman Scholarships, ranging from $3,000 to $5,000, a 38% rate of success. Those in bold received direct support from ONFAO:

• Isabella Castor-Schmidt
• Charlotte Frost
• Benjamin (Ben) J Quell
• Leslie Ortiz
• Alexia B Vincent
• Kassia Almeida
• Nikita Noyes-Martel
• Lina Al Taan Al Hariri
• Melany K Feliz Garcia
• Daravuth Tep
• Charlotte O’Donoghue
• Derek E (Dakarai) Borbon
• Anahee J Jean-Gilles

HIA Fellowship

Honors Program Alumnus Christopher Parisella ‘20 (Political Science, WRT and French) was selected to participate in the HIA Fellowship Program. Parisella, currently a graduate student at McGill University in Montreal, was a 2019 Boren Scholar and a very active Honors Program participant. With help from ONFAO Chris applied for the highly competitive Humanity in Action (HIA) Fellowship and was selected after a 90-minute virtual group interview. He will participate in the “Mapping Democracy” program in Washington, DC. “…A group of approximately 20 American and European Fellows and Senior Fellows embark on a collaborative investigation and interpretation of spatial data to investigate the January 6th uprising at the Capitol.

Hollings

Sophomore Owen Fleischer was selected as 2023 NOAA HOLLINGS SCHOLARS this year. Over the course of two years, he will receive up to $19,000 in scholarship monies, a 10-week paid internship at a NOAA location, and participate in several NOAA-organized professional development conferences. Since the program’s inception in 2005, forty-two URI sophomores have been named Hollings Scholars! Full details here.

NSF GRF

One URI graduate student, two graduating seniors and one alumna were awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRF).

• Caroline Dowling ’23 (Mechanical Engineering) will begin her Ph.D. at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in materials science and engineering this fall.
• Hailey Hendricks ’23 (Chemistry, Honors Program graduate) will begin her Ph.D. at Princeton University this August, studying the interface of organic and organometallic chemistry.
• Bryan Plankenhorn, Ph.D. candidate in oceanography whose research focuses on harmful algal blooms.
• Alyssa Lopez ‘20 (Marine Biology, Honors Program graduate) will head to Oregon State University in September to do her master’s degree in wildlife science, studying killer whale acoustics off the coast of Washington.

Two URI alumni, now at other institutions, also received Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation:

• Erin Frates ’20 (cell and molecular biology, Honors Program graduate) is now at Boston University, studying environmental microbiology.
• Jada Garzon ’19 (cell and molecular biology) is working toward her Ph.D. degree in chemical and systems biology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

URI also had three honorable mentions in the competitive process: Willow Dunster ’23, winner of the 2023 Undergraduate Academic Excellence Award for marine biology; Kyrsten Weissheier ’21, now a Ph.D. candidate at Boston College; and Caroline Caton, a current master’s student in biological and environmental sciences.

Full details here.

Voyager

Katie Riedy ‘24, a communications studies and Gender and Women’s Studies major, became part of the inaugural class of Obama-Chesky Voyagers. This program awards rising junior with financial need and a commitment to a career in public service with up to $50,000 in scholarship monies, funds a “voyage” of up to $10,000 design by the individual during the summer before senior year. Full details here.

Additional Programs

BEATRICE S. DEMERS FOREIGN LANGUAGE FELLOWS PROGRAM

Since its inception in 2011 the BEATRICE S. DEMERS FOREIGN LANGUAGE FELLOWS PROGRAM has awarded over $2.7M to URI students, who receive preference in the competition. This year 19 students, 1 faculty member and 1 professional staff member from URI were collectively awarded over $280,600 from the Demers to support immersion experiences in foreign languages. Names and full details here.

MICHAEL P. METCALF MEMORIAL AND CHRISTINE T. GRINAVIC ADVENTURER’S FUND

Kamila Guerra ’24 (CMB major with pre-med and Honors Program participation) and Andrea Ricciutti ’24 (Biotechnology and Sustainable Food Systems) were awarded grants from the MICHAEL P. METCALF MEMORIAL AND CHRISTINE T. GRINAVIC ADVENTURER’S FUND, administered by the Rhode Island Foundation. They will use their funds for enrichment trips to Greece and Italy respectively.

UNITED STATES FOREIGN SERVICE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Lina Al Taan Al Hariri ’24 was selected to participate in the United States Foreign Service Internship Program. This merit and needs-based allows students to spend two summers in an experiential-learning program designed to expose undergraduate students to U.S. diplomacy and the work of the Department of State.

U.S. CONGRESS – REPUBLIC OF KOREA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Gillian Hodge ’23 (International Students & Chinese; Honors Program, Chinese Flagship) was selected to participate in the U.S. Congress – Republic of Korea National Assembly Exchange Program administered by Meridian International Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit diplomacy center. This is a “unique program designed to broaden the perspectives of Korean and American young people on: the legislative process; the history of U.S. – Korean relations; and current economic, political, and security aspects of the bilateral relationship. The program also provides the U.S. and Korean participants with firsthand experience of each other’s people and culture, and creates opportunities for participants to form long-lasting personal contacts.”

NORTH AMERICAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL ASSISTANTS PROGRAM

Mollie Melnick ‘23 was selected by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport to participate in the NORTH AMERICAN LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL ASSISTANTS PROGRAM (aka Auxiliares de Conversación) which places US and Canadian young adults in English language classrooms in Spain for a year.

JAPANESE EXCHANGE AND TEACHING (JET) PROGRAM

Nethra Prasanna ‘22 was selected to serve as an English Teacher through the JET Program.

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION RESEARCH EXPERIENCE FOR UNDERGRADUATES

Each year URI students are recipients of NSF REUs to spend 8 to 10 weeks conducting STEM research on another campus with a mentored cohort of peers. Unfortunately, the program is highly decentralized so that there is no way to track total participation.

SWITZER FELLOWSHIP

Rafeed Hussein, a graduate student in marine affairs, has been named a 2023 Switzer Fellow. ONFAO added Rafeed by organizing a mock interview and putting him in contact with prior fellows.

FLAD LEGISLATIVE INTERNSHIP

Sophomore Amanda Queiroz was selected to participate in a legislative internship through the Luso-American Development Foundation (FLAD) for the summer of 2023 with Rhode Island Representative Joe Solomon.