Madison Sewell
The University of Central Arkansas has announced that Madison Sewell has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant for an English Teaching Assistantship for the 2017-18 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
Sewell is one of more than 1,900 U.S. citizens who will teach, conduct research and provide expertise abroad for the 2017-2018 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. 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.
Sewell, a Texarkana, Texas native, graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s in health sciences and a minor in Honors Interdisciplinary Studies. As a Fulbright awardee, Sewell will serve as an English Teaching Assistant in the Czech Republic.
“I am very excited to serve as a representative of my country and of UCA as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant,” Sewell said. “I hope that I can eventually be the type of educator who challenges students, who helps them find ways to reach their ultimate goals, who is a voice in their heads that tells them they can when other voices may tell them that they cannot, and who is everything that other educators were for me.”
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is administered at UCA through the Schedler Honors College under the direction of Dr. Allison Wallace, associate professor.
“Being named a Fulbright Finalist is a great honor for Madison Sewell and our university, as well as a testament to our faculty,” said UCA President Houston Davis. “Not only are we providing excellent classroom experiences, but we are helping students find more ways to apply their classroom knowledge and fulfill their passions.”
Conway native Laura Craig, Fort Smith native Maleka Momand and Sewell were each selected as semi-finalists in the 2017-2018 Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant competition. Craig was selected as an alternate and will only receive an award to study at the University of Sussex, England if a Fulbright Finalist surrenders the grant. Momand was not selected as a Fulbright Finalist to teach in Bulgaria as an English Teaching Assistant.
“Madison Sewell, Laura Craig and Maleka Momand have competed this year for the prestigious Fulbright Award, and I am very proud of these Schedler Honors College scholars. With the award of a Fulbright, Madison will be able to teach English in the Czech Republic, providing an important public service as well as advancing her emerging career in teaching,” said Dr. Rick Scott, Honors College dean. “Dr. Allison Wallace and her faculty colleagues do a great job preparing UCA’s applicants, and I appreciate Allison’s dedication to our students.”
Established in 1982, the Norbert O. Schedler Honors College at UCA is one of the most full-featured in the nation and has served as inspiration for numerous start-up honors programs and a growing number of honors colleges. The emphasis of the Schedler Honors College is on developing citizen-scholars, capable of authoring their own lives and leading social change that benefits the community. Schedler Honors scholars are student leaders who value education and are motivated to work at it and who expect to author a life that makes a difference in the world. The Schedler Honors College currently enrolls 300 students with an average high school GPA over 4.0 and an average ACT of 29. Nearly 1,600 Schedler Honors College alumni work in professional and technical fields across the globe. The Honors College is named for its founder, Dr. Norbert O. Schedler.
Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 370,000 participants—chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential — with the opportunity to exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns. Over 1,900 U.S. students, artists and young professionals in more than 100 different fields of study are offered Fulbright Program grants to study, teach English, and conduct research annually. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program operates in over 140 countries throughout the world. Lists of Fulbright recipients are available at www.fulbrightonline.org/us.
The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the United States Congress to the Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support.
In the United States, the Institute of International Education administers and coordinates the activities relevant to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program on behalf of the Department of State, including conducting an annual competition for the scholarships.The Fulbright Program also awards grants to U.S. scholars, teachers and faculty to conduct research and teach overseas. In addition, some 4,000 new foreign Fulbright students and scholars come to the United States annually to study for graduate degrees, conduct research and teach foreign languages.
For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit http://eca.state.gov/fulbright.
