SALISBURY, MD—Salisbury University has been named among the nation’s top producers of Fulbright Students by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for the third year in a row. The Fulbright is the country’s flagship international exchange program. Top-producing campuses were highlighted in The Chronicle of Higher Education. From SU, the Fulbright recipients for the 2019-20 academic year were recent graduates David Basom B.A. ’19; Noah Cline B.A. ’19; Lauren DeLong B.S. ’19; Danesha Owens-Harrell B.S.W. ’15, M.S.W. 18; and Rachel Rolle B.S. ’18.
“Developing a global perspective is a pillar of an SU education,” said Dr. Karen Olmstead, provost and senior vice president of academic affairs. “Fulbright awards provide unique and powerful learning experiences for our students. We are proud to be among the nation’s top producers of students selected for this prestigious honor for the third consecutive year.”
Basom, a history/secondary education major from Hurlock, MD, earned an English Teaching Assistantship at the Sri Vidhyalakshmi Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Chennangkuppam in the southern part of India. Rolle, a finance major from Arnold, MD, also earned an English Teaching Assistantship, to South Korea, where she was born and later studied on a Global Korea Scholarship during her senior year at SU. Owens-Harrell, a native of southeast Washington, D.C., was the first Fulbrighter from SU’s new College of Health and Human Services. Through her English Teaching Assistantship, she is working with teens and young adults, and studied social programs in the Netherlands.
Through her Fulbright research award, DeLong, an Honors College biology major from Laurel, MD, is learning bioinformatics skills to solve biological problems related to cancer genetics at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Algorithms and Scientific Computing. Previously, she completed a research internship at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and also was offered a DAAD Graduate Study Award. Cline, of Franklin, IN, is a senior conflict analysis and dispute resolution major and was a member of SU’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program. Through his Fulbright study award, he is pursuing a master’s in Asia-Pacific studies at National Chengchi University in Taiwan.
“The commitment of our students is truly amazing,” said Dr. Kristen Walton, director of SU’s Nationally Competitive Fellowships Office, which provides mentorship and support to applicants. “SU is among the top 10 master’s-level institutions nationally for its number of Fulbright students, and we continue to be the only master’s-level campus in the University System of Maryland spotlighted in The Chronicle.”
SU has had 15 Fulbright Students since its first in 2012. Fifteen SU students are Fulbright semifinalists for 2020-21. More than 50 SU students have won national and international fellowships, scholarships and awards in the past seven years. SU also has a long history of faculty, administrator and alumni Fulbrighters, and has twice been among the nation’s top producers of those awards.
Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 390,000 participants with the opportunity to exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns. Some 1,900 U.S. students are offered Fulbrights annually. The program operates in over 140 countries.
SU students or alumni who are interested in applying for any fellowships may contact Walton at kpwalton@salisbury.edu for assistance. For more information visit www.salisbury.edu/nationalfellowships.
