The semifinalists for this year's Fulbright U.S. Student Program have been announced, and we're pleased to report that sixteen BYU students were on the list—the highest number of Fulbright semifinalists the university has ever had in a single year.
"In the last five years, BYU has made a concerted effort to grow the presence of the Fulbright program on campus," says James Mayo, scholarships coordinator at the Kennedy Center. "Because of this, we've seen the number of students applying, as well as the number of students becoming semifinalists, grow with each passing year. Being nominated as a semifinalist indicates that a student is one of the top applicants for the country they're applying to, and the large number of BYU students who've become semifinalists this year is an excellent indication of the caliber of students that we have here."
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program "expands perspectives through academic and professional advancement and cross-cultural dialogue." It facilitates student exchanges with countries around the world, giving recently graduated college seniors the chance to go abroad to study, do research, or teach English for one academic year.
The sixteen semifinalists are listed below, along with the country and award type for which they applied:
- Christian Barker, Australia, Study/Research
- Berlin Barnett, Kyrgyzstan, English Teaching Assistant
- Andrew Bonney, Turkey, Study/Research
- Blake Bullock, Germany, English Teaching Assistant
- Sydney Christley, South Korea, Study/Research
- Peter Demars, Portugal, Study/Research
- Mark Ensign, Taiwan, Study/Research
- Melinda Garrard, Philippines, Study/Research
- Curtis Hoffmann, Thailand, Study/Research
- Emma Israelsen, South Korea, English Teaching Assistant
- Kaitlin Lyman, Taiwan, Study/Research
- Waverly Maughan, South Korea, English Teaching Assistant
- Samuel McKinnon, Brazil, Study/Research
- Daniel Raleigh, Kenya, English Teaching Assistant
- Kayla Stephensen, Peru, Study/Research
- Alexandra Swain, Spain, English Teaching Assistant
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program reviews thousands of applications each year and selects semifinalists. Final decisions about which students receive awards are made by the Fulbright commissions in the country to which the student applied. Because of this, final decisions are not all announced at the same time; they will come in at various points over the next few months.
Want to hear more about the experiences of previous Fulbright recipients from BYU? Check out these articles. And if you're a BYU student interested in learning how to apply for a Fulbright, click here.