Three UNCG students — Kirby Cook, Riannon Clarke and Boja Kragulj — have been awarded Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarships to study abroad, the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced recently.

Cook, a May 2011 graduate who majored in classical studies, will use her Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship grant to return to Korea. After completing a six-week orientation program in intensive Korean language and culture study and English as a second language techniques, she will teach 20 hours a week at a Korean high school and work on a project related to youth fitness as it impacts the development of Korean girls.

A Korean adoptee, Cook previously studied in the country in 2009 when she participated in a semester exchange to Yonsei University. In addition to being a member of the Lloyd International Honors College, Cook held multiple student leadership roles on campus, recently completing a term as president of the Asian Student Association. Cook is from Concord and was advised at UNCG by Dr. Susan Shelmerdine in the Department of Classical Studies.

Clarke, a May 2010 graduate who majored in German and minored in religious studies, will spend the next year in Klagenfurt, Austria, teaching English 13 hours a week in local schools using her Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship. Clarke, a roller derby enthusiast from Raleigh, was advised at UNCG by Dr. Greg Grieve in the Department of Religious Studies and Dr. Susanne Rinner from the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

Kragulj, a doctoral student in the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, is an accomplished, classically trained clarinet performer whose research on the Turkish clarinet positions her as a bridge between Eastern and Western musical and cultural traditions. She’ll use her Fulbright full academic grant to spend a year in Istanbul, Turkey, focused on research and performance of the Turkish clarinet. She’ll study under the guidance of Serkan Cagri of the Notist School, one of only three clarinetists in Turkey with a graduate degree in Turkish clarinet performance.

Kragulj is a graduate of Southern Illinois University and was a student at the Eastman School of Music. Her faculty advisor at UNCG is Dr. Kelly Burke, head of the Department of Music Performance in the School of Music, Theatre and Dance.

The Fulbright Program, established in 1946, is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. More than 1,500 U.S. citizens will travel abroad for the 2010-11 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

Over the past 13 years, 17 UNCG students have received Fulbright awards. The latest Fulbright recipients round out a monumental year for prestigious student awards at the university. Tom Liles, a May 2011 graduate, was awarded a Critical Language Scholarship, a competitive award sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, to study Russian. This year UNCG also celebrated its first ever Luce Scholarship award winner, Zimuzor Ugochukwu, and its first ever Gates Cambridge Scholar, Margaret Carpenter.  Liles, Carpenter and Ugochukwu were all members of Lloyd International Honors College.

Contact Lanita Withers Goins at ldgoins@uncg.edu or 336-334-3890.

Related Posts via Categories

• Interior architecture students design new exhibit for Greensboro Children’s Museum
• Project introduces HS musicians to chamber music
• Author of ‘The Memory Keeper’s Daughter’ visits UNCG Jan. 19
• UNCG celebrates computer science education Dec. 3
• UNCG to Present ‘Nutcracker’ Dec. 3, Holiday Choral Concert Dec. 4 and Luminaires Dec. 6
• UNCG Earns ‘Military Friendly School’ Designation
• Grant helps UNCG support unique learners
• McElveen-Hunter to UNCG grads: We keep what we give away
• UNCG student going to Greece for Noyce summer science education program
• UNCG graduate receives Fulbright Award to study in Azerbaijan for 2012-13