Springtime is recognition season in higher education, and once again Denison University students have received a record number of national and international fellowships, grants and scholarships. Fifteen students have received good news from prestigious sources like Fulbright, Goldwater and Gilman, and several other students have been named as finalists.

The college recognized the students’ achievements during its Academic Awards Convocation on April 24, when Swasey Chapel was full-to-capacity with students, faculty, staff, parents and the Board of Trustees.

The application process for these highly competitive awards is lengthy and multi-faceted. Students receive an enormous amount of support from the faculty and staff, says Kent Maynard, professor of anthropology and director of Denison’s Honor Program. “If ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ then it takes a university to help a student apply for a fellowship,” he says.

This year’s awardees will pursue an amazing array of projects in locations around the world:

Megan Ansbro, a senior from Conneaut, Ohio, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to work with a research team at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. Ansbro, a biology major and chemistry minor, will investigate chromatin assembly pathways to advance understanding of chromosome biology.

Elyse Akhbari, a senior from Centerville, Ohio, received a Fulbright Scholarship. Akhbari, a religion and political science double major, with spend a year as an English teaching assistant in Malaysia.

Beza Ayalew, a senior from Cambridge, Mass., was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. Ayalew, a sociology/anthropology major, will further her studies in a one-year certificate program, titled “Diploma in Global Health” at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.

Malvika Cherian, a sophomore from Dublin, Ohio, was awarded a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Study and Internship Program grant. Cherian will study at a German university of applied sciences for a semester, and follow that with a six-month internship.

Liz Cummings, a senior from Perrysburg, Ohio, will serve as a French Government Teaching Assistant as a result of her Fulbright application. Cummings, a French and psychology double major, will teach English in Nantes, France.

Betsy Fisher, a junior from Toledo, Ohio, was awarded a Benjamin Gilman Scholarship. Fisher is currently studying Arabic in Amman, Jordan.

Jenna Kelly, a junior from Buffalo Grove, Ill., was awarded a scholarship from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. Kelly has done research in visual perception and the organization of the visual system.

Dana Meyer, a senior from Napoleon, Ohio, received a grant from the Davis Projects for Peace. Meyer, a Spanish major and biology minor, will work with a nongovernmental organization to conduct health and hygiene workshops in Bolivia.

Sadie Orlowski, a senior from Charlotte, N.C., was awarded a Pädagogischer Austauschdienst Teaching Assistantship through Fulbright. Orlowski, a German major, will teach English in Germany for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Evan Pugh, a first-year student from Roseville, Minn., received a Critical Language Scholarship. Pugh will study Arabic at the Tangier American Legation Museum in Morocco this summer.

Caitlin Schroering, a senior from Corvallis, Ore., was named to the USA Today’s 2009 All-USA College Academic Third Team. Schroering is an environmental studies and political science double major.

Alana Slezak, a senior from Westmont, Ill., received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) to South Africa for 2009-2010.

Jesslyn Starnes, a sophomore from Dunlap, Ill., received a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) RISE Award. Starnes will spend part of her summer in Freiburg, Germany studying the evolution of the Tibetan Plateau.

Lingyi Sun, a first-year student from Shanghai, China, was accepted to attend the Clinton Global Initiatives University held in Austin, Texas this past February.

Ameena Ali (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Carly Newman (Akron, Ohio), both seniors who submitted Fulbright applications that were not funded, were awarded French Government Teaching Assistantships and will spend next year in France teaching English.

Several Denison students were finalists or received honorable mention for awards.

Samuel Behrend, a senior from Raleigh, N.C., received Honorable Mention status from the National Science Foundation.

Erin Gorsich ’08 received Honorable Mention status from the National Science Foundation. Gorsich is studying Environmental Science at Oregon State University.

Krittika Lalwaney, a senior from Cincinnati, Ohio, was a Fulbright Scholarship finalist.

Michael McCormick, a junior from Granville, Ohio, was named Honorable Mention for the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.

Hannah Miller, a junior from Kinsman, Ohio, was a finalist for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship.

Carly Newman, a senior from Akron, Ohio, was a Fulbright Scholarship finalist.

Laurel Symes ’07 received Honorable Mention status from the National Science Foundation. Symes is studying evolutionary biology at Dartmouth College.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

For press inquiries:

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