Fulbright Leader

GAMBIER, Ohio (December 10, 2004) The results are in: Kenyon is a top producer of winners of the J. William Fulbright Fellowship in 2004-05. Winners of Fulbright grants spend a year abroad to undertake self-designed programs that foster global outreach and international understanding.

Three members of Kenyon's Class of 2004 were among this year's winners of the prestigious awards, which were officially announced this fall by Secretary of State Colin Powell. Kenyon appeared on a list of national liberal arts colleges designated top producers in the Chronicle of Higher Education on October 22, 2004.

Kenyon ranks exceptionally high in the percentage of its Fulbright applicants who were awarded grants. The three winners were selected from a pool of six Kenyon applicants. Among top-producing baccalaureate institutions nationwide, only two other colleges achieved a success rate of fifty percent or higher in 2004.

The total number of Kenyon students winning Fulbright grants is the third highest among all colleges and universities in Ohio and is tied for the sixteenth spot among institutions in the Midwest.

For the 2004-05 academic year, Mara Bernstein, Jesse Lasky, and Kerry Shannon, all members of the Class of 2004, were awarded grants to undertake a variety of international research projects. Mara Bernstein is currently in Ireland, where she is researching the impact of tourism on the community of Achill Island. Lasky is spending the year in Panama, where he is studying the effects that housing, ranching, and other agricultural activities have on the bird communities of that nation's seasonally dry forests. Shannon is currently using her Fulbright to study the sustainable development of water resources in Thailand.

The premier scholarship program funded by the U.S. government, the Fulbright fellowship program encourages cultural diplomacy through the exchange of people, knowledge, and skills.