24 Apr 2017 UCA alum awarded grant

The University of Central Arkansas recently announced that Madison Sewell has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant for an English Teaching Assistantship for the 2017-2018 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

Sewell is one of more than 1,900 U.S. citizens who will teach, conduct research and provide expertise abroad for the 2017-2018 academic year through the Fulbright program. Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected on the basis of academic and professional achievement as well as record of service and demonstrated leadership in their respective fields.

Sewell, a Texarkana, Texas, native, graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s in health sciences and a minor in Honors Interdisciplinary Studies. As a Fulbright awardee, Sewell will serve as an English Teaching Assistant in the Czech Republic.

“I am very excited to serve as a representative of my country and of UCA as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant,” Sewell said. “I hope that I can eventually be the type of educator who challenges students, who helps them find ways to reach their ultimate goals, who is a voice in their heads that tells them they can when other voices may tell them that they cannot, and who is everything that other educators were for me.”

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is administered at UCA through the Schedler Honors College under the direction of Dr. Allison Wallace, associate professor.

“Being named a Fulbright Finalist is a great honor for Madison Sewell and our university, as well as a testament to our faculty,” said UCA President Houston Davis. “Not only are we providing excellent classroom experiences, but we are helping students find more ways to apply their classroom knowledge and fulfill their passions.”

Conway native Laura Craig, Fort Smith native Maleka Momand and Sewell were each selected as semi-finalists in the 2017-2018 Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant competition. Craig was selected as an alternate and will only receive an award to study at the University of Sussex, England, if a Fulbright Finalist surrenders the grant.

Momand was not selected as a Fulbright Finalist to teach in Bulgaria as an English Teaching Assistant.

“Madison Sewell, Laura Craig and Maleka Momand have competed this year for the prestigious Fulbright Award, and I am very proud of these Schedler Honors College scholars. With the award of a Fulbright, Madison will be able to teach English in the Czech Republic, providing an important public service as well as advancing her emerging career in teaching,” said Dr. Rick Scott, Honors College dean. “Dr. Allison Wallace and her faculty colleagues do a great job preparing UCA’s applicants, and I appreciate Allison’s dedication to our students.”

For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit http://eca.state.gov/fulbright.