Scholarship winners outside Lippitt Hall
URI students are distinguishing themselves, winning academic awards that will further their studies here and abroad.
Among this year’s scholarship winners are, front row, from left, Keara Cole ’20 and Derek Murphy ’20, Boren Scholars; Gina Miranda ’20, Gilman Scholar; Arianna Sawyer ’21 and Molly Beluk ’20, Demers Foreign Language Fellows; and Zachary Smith ’19, Boren Scholar; and, back row, from left, Jason Valdes ’21, Demers Foreign Language Fellow; and Samuel Foer ’20, a Truman finalist who also has been selected for the Hertog Foundation Political Studies Program.
Six University of Rhode Island students—four undergraduates and two graduate students—have won Boren Awards to study foreign languages abroad—four in China and one each in Jordan and Taiwan. The David L. Boren Award is one of the most prestigious study abroad awards offered to American college students. Twenty-two URI students have received Boren Awards since 2011.
Sixteen students received grants totaling $220,000 to study abroad through the beneficence of a former professor, Beatrice S. Demers, and the Beatrice S. Demers Foreign Language Fellows Fund. These undergraduate students will be awarded grants to cover the cost of tuition, fees, travel, housing, and living expenses while they study in Argentina, China, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Japan, Taiwan, and Jordan.
This year, URI students collectively earned more than half a million dollars in academic awards. “And, remember, those are only the money amounts,” said Kathleen Maher, assistant director for the URI Office of National Fellowships and Academic Opportunities, who advises and assists undergraduates in applying for national and international scholarships and fellowships.
“These awards are huge door openers and transformative in ways that cannot be monetized.”