SMU students receive prestigious scholarships and awards
SMU students have won prestigious national fellowships and awards this year.
DALLAS (SMU) – SMU students have been awarded prestigious national fellowships and awards during the 2015-16 academic year, including Fulbright Grants and a fellowship to the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress.
SMU's Office of National Fellowships helps students and faculty to apply for external, nationally competitive fellowships, scholarships and awards. Learn more at Student Scholarships and Fellowships.
Fulbright Research Scholar Erin Piñon
SMU art history graduate Erin Piñon has accepted a Fulbright research grant to study in Armenia for the 2016-2017 academic year. She plans to study 16th and 17th century illustrated manuscripts as well as books printed with metal type before the year 1500, all of which were penned, painted, printed and bound in the region of Van (historic Armenia, present-day Turkey).
Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Hena Rafiq
SMU graduating senior Hena Rafiq has received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Award to work for nine months in Kosovo’s capitol city of Pristina. The Irving, Texas, native also hopes to volunteer for the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) while living in the recovering war-torn region.
Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Daniela Santana
Daniela Santana, a graduate student at the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, has received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award to teach next year at an elementary school in northern Spain. A native of San Dimas, California, she is a fourth-grade bilingual literacy teacher in Fort Worth. She says she applied for the Fulbright to learn about education outside the United States.
Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Nate White
Senior Nate White has received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award to teach next year in Spain. He is graduating this spring with a Bachelor’s degree in economics, as well as a minor in Spanish, from Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. He also is earning a Bachelor’s degree in education from Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development.
Goldwater Scholar Joseph DiPane
A biological sciences and history major, Joseph Di Pane has conducted several research projects as an SMU student. He analyzed the effect of proteins BAMBI and DBC1 on neurodegeneration, the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons. With the help of the Goldwater Scholarship Di Pane will continue his research to better understand the molecular basis of neurodegeneration.
Goldwater Scholar Patricia Nance
A chemistry and mathematics major, Patricia Nance is doing research on the synthesis of antibacterial inorganic polymers. She has presented her research at SMU Research Day and the recent American Chemical Society Meeting in Miniature at Texas Woman's University. She is a recipient of SMU's Harold Jeskey, Lazenby and BRITE scholarships, as well as the Chemistry Department's POLYED Organic Chemistry Award for outstanding performance in organic chemistry.
NSF Graduate Research Fellow Nicole Michelle Hartman
Nicole Michelle Hartman conducts particle physics research with Associate Physics Professor Stephen Sekula. She has done summer research at CERN with Columbia University as part of the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates program. She will graduate from SMU with majors in physics and mathematics, and a minor in electrical engineering.
NSF Graduate Research Fellow Margaret Sala
Margaret Sala, doctoral student in clinical psychology, has been awarded a three-year Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. She researches how post-exercise affective states differ between exercisers and non-exercisers. Her other awards include an American Psychological Association’s Junior Scientist Fellowship.
Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress Fellow Ryan Cross
SMU sophomore Ryan Cross has been named a Presidential Fellow to the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress in Washington, D.C. A member of the Tower Scholars program, he is majoring in political science and international studies. He also has been selected for an internship at the Library of Congress as part of the Junior Fellows Summer Internship Program.
Three SMU students - Sadie Donnelly, Emely Villeda-Principe and Syed Rizvi - will study in Asia and the Middle East this summer after winning Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships.