Fellowships Hall of Fame

Fulbright UK Summer Institutes

From the Fulbright website: "The Fulbright UK Summer Institutes are three to four week programes for US undergraduate students, who have no or very little travel experience outside North America. Participants can explore the culture, heritage and history of the UK while experiencing higher education at a UK university."

The Fulbright UK Summer Institutes are some of the most competitive fellowships available to U.S. students. You can read more about Joey on the Fulbright UK Summer Institute website as well as the UNF Newroom's article.  

Boren Awards

From the Boren website: "David L. Boren is the principal author of the legislation that created the National Security Education Program and the Boren Awards, the scholarships and fellowships that bear his name. In arguing in the U.S. Senate for passage of NSEP, Boren expressed his view that the U.S. needed a large increase in experts in the languages and cultures of nations which were underrepresented in the number of U.S. students studying there. With changes in the world, Boren felt that the U.S. would work more and more through partnerships with other countries whose needs and perspectives needed to be more fully understood."

Boren Awards offer students up to $25,0000 to participate in language and cultural immersion in U.S. designated critical languages such as Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, and Swahili.

Trenton Blanchard-Japan (2025)

Critical Languages

From the Critical Languages Scholarship website: "The Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program partners with universities and nonprofits around the globe to provide cohorts of U.S. students an opportunity to study the language and culture in a country/location where the target language is commonly spoken. The CLS Program, through its CLS Spark initiative, provides beginner-level virtual instruction for Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian for competitively selected U.S. undergraduate students whose home campuses do not offer these languages. CLS scholars are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship and apply their critical language skills in their future careers.

The U.S. Department of State sponsors and oversees the CLS Program, including CLS Spark, as part of a larger U.S. government effort to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering foreign languages that are critical to our national security, economic prosperity, and engagement with the world. CLS provides opportunities to a wide range of students from across the entire United States at every level of language learning. American Councils for International Education administers the CLS Program."

• Chadlyn Webb-Japanese (Alternate)

Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs)

• Ella Luedeke-University of North Carolina Charlotte & University of Texas Arlington
  • Currently, Ella is working on a summarization of knowledge on weird machines and their applications as well as developing a cybersecurity tool for undergraduate education at the University of North Carolina Charlotte. In addition to UNCC, Ella also completed a virtual 8-week REU with the University of Texas Arlington and was accepted to a REU at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. 
• Reagan Elia-Airforce Research Lab at Edwards AFB, California
  • Reagan accepted a position at the Air Force Research Lab at Edwards AFB in California and was also offered a polymer chemistry REU at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her research with AFRL focuses on synthesizing and characterizing polymers for aerospace applications. Under the guidance of her mentor, she is diving deep into polymer and organic chemistry and learning characterization techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, pycnometry, photo rheology, and dynamic molecular analysis. Reagan has greatly enjoyed being able to grow her technical chemical skills and participate in cutting edge research through the AFRL Scholars Program. 
• Daniela Zavala-University of Central Florida
  • Daniela (pictured left) is completing research on topical quantum materials (TQMs) for potential energy-related applications in Dr. Madhab Neupane's lab at the University of Central Florida.Topological quantum materials are a new class of exotic materials which show the potential to present alter magnetism, which could revolutionize technology. Daniela's work includes learning how to grow a thin film of one such TQM, Manganese Telluride (MnTe). You can read more about this REU and Dr. Nepuane's research on UCF's website.
• Valentina Bonilla Villalobos-Chalmers Astrophysics and Space Sciences Summer (CASSUM) Program
  • Valentina is working on a project focused on star formation across the galaxy using Gaia and SDSS data at the CASSUM program in Chalmers, Sweden. She is tracing the star formation history of different regions in the Milky Way, dating back ~30 Million Years, by identifying OBA stars and young stellar objects and studying their kinematics. 
• Abigail Crossman-University of Utah
  • Abigail was accepted to a chemistry REU at the University of Utah. Although the REU was, unfortunately cancelled due to NSF funding changes, Abigail is still conducting research this summer with UNF's Dr. Willis Jones in his analytical chemistry lab through the UNF SURF Program. The SURF program supports UNF students as they research with a faculty mentor during the summer. Since Dr. Jones is partnering with a colleague in an analytical chemistry lab at Wake Forest University, Abigail also recieved the opportunity to research at Wake Forest this summer. 

Phi Kappa Phi Study Abroad Scholarship

• Luke McCall
• Jetty Leudeke

Benjamin A Gillman Study Abroad Scholarship

• Allison Ashby
• Thu Ky Nguyen
• Jamie Douglas