It’s Award Season: Grants & Fellowships of Note

Whitties earn a wide array of opportunities to study and serve in the U.S. and abroad

With the guidance of the Fellowships and Grants team in the Career and Community Engagement Center, Whitman College students and alumni are awarded many grants, fellowships and scholarships each year to continue their education and service beyond our campus.

In the last 15 years, more than 500 Whitman students have earned prestigious fellowships and grants. This year was no different, with over a dozen successful applicants who excelled in the areas of academic achievement, leadership and community engagement/service.

Below we highlight the students and alumni who were fellowship or grant recipients in the 2023–2024 academic year.

Research

James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace generates strategic ideas and independent analysis to help countries and institutions take on the most difficult global problems and advance peace. Its James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program offers approximately 15 one-year fellowships to uniquely qualified graduating seniors and individuals who have graduated during the past academic year. Junior fellows work as research assistants to Carnegie’s senior scholars.

Sueli Gwiazdowski ’24 (Carnegie Nuclear Policy Program)

Research Experiences for Undergraduates

Research Experiences for Undergraduates are competitive summer research programs for undergraduate students interested in STEM-focused fields. These programs are sponsored by the National Science Foundation and various universities and laboratories in the United States. Each student is associated with a specific research project and works closely with the faculty and other researchers.

Henry Anderson ’27 (Ecohydrology of Tropical Montane Forests Program, Texas A&M University, Costa Rica)
Marleigh Anderson ’24 (Data+ Summer Research Experience, Rhodes Information Initiative, Duke University)
Emily De La Cruz Hofer ’26 (Blinks Marine Biology Program, University of Washington)
Noelle Mattingley ’25 (Center for Neurotechnology Program, University of Washington)
Sebastian Wiedenhoeft ’27 (Socially Relevant Computing and Analytics Program, North Carolina State University)

Research Internships in Science and Engineering (RISE)

Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) German Academic Exchange Service is the world’s largest funding organization for the international exchange of students and researchers. Since it was founded in 1925, around 2.9 million scholars in Germany and abroad have received DAAD funding. DAAD supports RISE Germany, which allows undergraduate students to complete summer research internships at top German universities and research institutions, and RISE Professional, which offers summer research internships at companies and nonuniversity research institutions with strong connections to industry.

Grace Remmert ’25 (RISE Germany)
Ben Wendlandt ’24 (RISE Professional)

Service & Public Policy

Newman Civic Fellowship

The Newman Civic Fellowship is a yearlong program that recognizes and supports student problem solvers at Campus Compact member institutions. Fellows are nominated by their president or chancellor based on their potential for public leadership and their work with communities. Throughout the fellowship year, Campus Compact provides students with opportunities to nurture their assets and help them develop strategies for social change—creating a network of connected and engaged student leaders who can support one another in making positive change.

Adam Simon ’26

Projects for Peace Award

Projects for Peace is a global program that partners with educational institutions to identify and support young peacebuilders. Each year, 125 or more student learners are granted $10,000 each to develop innovative, community-centered and scalable responses to the world’s most pressing issues. Recipients implement a Project for Peace typically between May and August.

Maryanne Ndung’u ’26 (Jua Financial Empowerment Initiative, Kenya)

Public Policy & International Affairs

The Public Policy & International Affairs Program is hosted at top graduate policy schools in the country. These rigorous summer programs prepare students for advanced education and success in the field of public service.

Meron Semere ’25 (Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania)
Kate Moe '25 (Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan)

Study

Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship program was created to encourage outstanding sophomores and juniors to pursue careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering and to foster excellence in those fields. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious national scholarships in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics.

Eliza Daigle ’25 (Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology major)
Kaleo Toguchi-Tani ’25 (Physics-Astronomy major)

Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program

The U.S. Department of State’s Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program provides students of limited financial means opportunities to study or intern abroad, enabling them to gain proficiency in diverse languages and skills that are critical to our national security and economic prosperity and encourages them to conduct STEM-related research.

Joseph Shepard DeGraw ’25 (Tropical Island Biodiversity Studies, Panama)
Agustin Ramirez ’25 (Film Studies, Czech Republic)
Ashtin Gray Sampson ’25 (Tokyo Arts and Sciences, Japan)

Critical Language Scholarship

The Critical Language Scholarship Program provides opportunities for American college and university students to study languages and cultures essential to America’s engagement with the world. Each summer, American undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities spend eight to 10 weeks learning one of 13 languages at an intensive study abroad institute. The program is designed to promote rapid language gains and essential intercultural fluency in regions that are critical to U.S. national security and economic prosperity.

Elle Palmer ’25 (Arabic, Oman)

Teaching

Fulbright U.S. Student Program

Fulbright grants support individually designed study/research projects, arts projects (all disciplines) or English teaching assistantships, almost always in a single country. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program facilitates cultural exchange, allowing each grantee to gain an appreciation of others’ viewpoints, beliefs, practices and ideas. To date, over 100 Whitman students and alumni have received a Fulbright Award.

Jade Strapart ’23 (English Teaching Assistant Award, Germany)

Princeton in Latin America

The Princeton in Latin America program places highly qualified recent college graduates in yearlong service fellowships with nonprofit, public service, humanitarian, and government organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Katherine Swisher ’20 (Dream Project, Dominican Republic)

Explore Opportunities

For more information about fellowship and grant opportunities and how the application process works, contact Jess Hernandez, Director for Fellowships and Grants, or Jenny Stratton, Administrative Assistant for Fellowships and Grants.