July 03, 2007
Bowling
Green, Ky. - Three Western Kentucky University Honors students have received prestigious national scholarships for the fall 2007 semester.
Ashley Belcher of Owensboro and Angie Piper of Poole have received Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships while Derek R. Gaboriault of Bardstown has received a Freeman-ASIA Award.
“The awards enable these students to spend a full semester studying in the host country and will forever change these students. Additionally, upon their return to campus these students share their experiences and enrich the educational experience all students at WKU,” said Dr. Craig Cobane, director of the WKU Honors College.
Belcher, a Spanish major, will spend the fall semester in Spain. Piper, a psychology major, will study in China.
Gaboriault, a theatre major, will travel to Vietnam this fall and has spent most of this summer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying Vietnamese at the Southeast Asian Summer Study Institute.
“WKU students continue to demonstrate their ability to compete successfully with students across the nation,” Dr. Cobane said. “With the creation of the Honors College and the increased visibility of these awards on campus, more WKU students will realize that they too should be applying for these and other prestigious opportunities. The future is looking increasing bright for students at WKU.”
In the past year, five of the nine Gilman awards for Kentucky schools have gone to WKU students. The other WKU recipients for the spring 2007 semester were Senida Husic of Bowling Green, who studied in the United Arab Emirates; Brandon Johnson of Bowling Green, who studied in China; and Christy Kibodeaux of Greensburg, who studied in Japan. The Gilman Scholarship is a nationally competitive award sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education (IIE).
Gaboriault is the second WKU student to receive a Freeman-ASIA award in the past year. Kibodeaux received a Freeman-ASIA award for the spring semester. The Institute of International Education (IIE) administers the Freeman-ASIA Awards to give more American undergraduate students the means to study in East and Southeast Asia.
Two WKU students also received prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships. Mark Sandefur of Calhoun and Joseph Chavarria-Smith of Elkton were two of 317 students chosen nationally for the 2007-08 scholarships.
Reagan Gilley was recognized with an Honorable Mention. The Goldwater is considered one of the most prestigious scholarships for undergraduate science, mathematics and engineering students. In the 2007-08 round of the Goldwater competitions, Kentucky schools were awarded three Goldwaters and two Honorable Mentions.
Paul M. Love Jr. of Bowling Green received three prestigious scholarships in the past year – a 2006 U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship for Tunisia, a 2007-08 Fulbright to study in Egypt and a second U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship to study in Yemen this summer.
Neil Varble of Bowling Green was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship, co-sponsored by the Austrian Ministry of Education, to teach in Austria.
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Craig Cobane at (270) 745-2081.
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