News Releases

O'Connell Becomes Alma's 16th Fulbright Scholar

Alma College senior Maureen O’Connell of Jackson, Wis., has been awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to teach English in Colombia and work with displaced refugees.

O’Connell becomes Alma’s 16th Fulbright Scholar since 2003. A graduate of Nicolet High School in Glendale, Wis., O’Connell is the daughter of Joseph and Patricia O’Connell.

“I was in shock and really excited when I received my acceptance letter,” says O’Connell. “I was able to study in Spain for six months last year, and that was such an exciting experience. Now I get to go to Colombia for 10 months.”

 

Maureen O'Connell

O’Connell, an art and Spanish major at Alma College, has studied Spanish since kindergarten. She plans to leave for Colombia in July to teach English to Colombians, most likely at the university level at a yet-to-be-determined location.

In addition to teaching, she plans to work with displaced Colombians through a program titled “Art for Refugees in Transition,” which engages children and adults in refugee communities in visual, performing and creative arts drawn from their own cultures.

Student applications for the Fulbright Scholarship are reviewed and approved by the National Screening Committee of the Institute of International Education, the coordinating body for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. The applications are forwarded to the Fulbright commissions in the projects' countries, which select recipients from all candidates applying in those countries. The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board makes the final selections.

The U.S. Student Program is funded by the U.S. Department of State to give recent undergraduate and graduate students, as well as young professionals a chance for an international experience and personal development.

Alma’s Nationally Competitive Scholarship Committee helps finalists search for appropriate postgraduate scholarships, then reviews the proposals and applications. Alma’s committee identifies and nurtures exceptional candidates for nationally competitive scholarships, grants and awards.

-mjs-


 

Posted: Wed, April 7th, 2010 at 8:27AM

 

For five consecutive years, the Corporation for National and Community Service has named Alma College to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for engaging students, faculty and staff in meaningful service. More than 85 percent of Alma's 2011 graduating class participated in academic service learning during their time at Alma College.

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Graduate Profile

Brandon Edward Miller

Brandon Edward Miller
Graduation: 1997
Major: Political Science

How many people can say they’ve sat as an intern at CNN’s international desk? Or worked as a press aide to Ambassador Madeleine K. Albright at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations? Or served in the Peace Corps for four years in Ethiopia and Madagascar, worked at World Bank in its anti-corruption unit, studied at Harvard and served as a law clerk for a federal judge?

Brandon Edward Miller can.

“My Alma experience was definitely the launching board for getting a kid from Hemlock High School all the way to Harvard Law School,” he says. “The liberal arts education and the opportunity to work so closely with faculty members is a unique experience that is hard to replicate.”

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