Three students from ACU — Lindsie Lawson, Mackenzie Sanderson and Kyle Yarbrough — received Fulbright awards for academic year 2018-2019. “We are very proud of our Fulbright recipients and thrilled for this institutional honor. I think the Fulbright program is a great fit for students at ACU due to its service orientation and global mission,” said Dr. Jason Morris, dean of the Honors College and director of the Office of Major Scholarships at ACU. “Our hope is to continue to encourage more of our students to consider applying for this prestigious national award.”
ACU has a long tradition of persons being awarded Fulbrights, dating back to the 1950s with fields of study representing journalism, recreation, music, management, English, physics, education and political science. Fifteen scholars teaching or studying at ACU have been recipients of 17 Fulbright fellowships during their academic careers, and three times there have been multiple honorees in the same year.
All three of ACU’s 2018-19 recipients were awarded grants to teach English in other countries. Lawson, a Spanish and global studies graduate from The Colony, is teaching in Malaysia. Sanderson, a political science and global studies graduate from El Paso, is teaching in Germany. Yarbrough, an accounting and financial management graduate from San Angelo, is teaching in Kyrgyzstan.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program operates in over 140 countries throughout the world. More than 1,900 U.S. students, artists and young professionals in more than 100 different fields of study are offered Fulbright Program grants to study, teach English, and conduct research abroad each year. The program is funded by an annual appropriation from Congress to the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and is supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education.
The Fulbright Program also awards grants to U.S. scholars, teachers and faculty to conduct research and teach overseas. In addition, some 4,000 foreign Fulbright students and scholars come to the United States annually to study, lecture, conduct research and teach foreign languages.