Stellar Year for Students Receiving Nationally Competitive Awards

​The nation’s competitive awards cycle in higher education comes to a close at the end of June. More than 250 U of A students received nationally competitive scholarships, fellowships, grants and internships during the 2021-22 academic year for a total of more than $2.1 million.

The Office of the Provost and the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards held their annual State and National Awards Reception in the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center earlier this spring. Students as well as their faculty and staff mentors received a booklet celebrating their accomplishments, including an online version that shows awards made after the celebration like the Fulbright U.S. Student Scholarships and the Morris K. and Stewart L. Udall Foundation Scholarships.

The spring event celebrated student and mentor successes with congratulatory remarks from Terry Martin, interim provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs, and Suzanne McCray, vice provost for enrollment and director of the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards. Kathy Sloan, interim vice provost for academic affairs, and T. K. S. Kumar, co-director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, were on hand to present individual awards to students and to their mentors.

Coleman Warren, Truman Scholarship (2021) and Rhodes Scholar (2022), spoke on behalf of the student recipients to thank the many who supported their efforts.

“This has been another exceptional year for student success at the national and international level.” Martin said. “Faculty and staff are an important part of this success, encouraging and mentoring these engaged, ambitious, service-minded students, and the results speak for themselves. These students are well on their way to continuing this exceptional work as they embrace challenging and exciting graduate programs and professional careers.”

These awards at the state, regional and national levels were earned on the basis of academic achievement, research, leadership and community engagement.

Students received a long list of individual awards, including well-known national and international scholarships like the Rhodes, Knight-Hennessy, Goldwater, Gilman, Fulbright and Critical Language scholarships, as well as the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship. There were also finalists for the Truman, Marshall and Gates-Cambridge scholarships. U of A students also competed successfully on a variety of academic team efforts and received competitive internships across the country.

A small cohort of faculty and staff members received the annual Office of Nationally Competitive Awards Gold Medal for their significant support of students as they applied for national and international opportunities. One department is also selected each year for its collective contribution to student research and competitive efforts. Faculty, staff and departments can only receive the Gold Medal once. A full list of past Gold Medal Award recipients is available on the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards web page.

“Each year, our office recognizes faculty and staff who tirelessly support students, competing at the highest possible levels for national scholarships and for competitive post-graduate study,” McCray said. “And each year, our selection committee has a very difficult time narrowing the list. These outstanding faculty and staff members represent the dedicated support that is happening across our campus.”

Office of Nationally Competitive Awards Gold Medals

2022 Faculty Gold Medals:

• James Coffman – Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design – landscape architecture
• Christian Goering – College of Education and Health Professions – curriculum and instruction
• Adriana Rossiter Hofer—Walton College of Business – Department of Supply Chain Management
• James Lampinen—Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences – Department of Psychological Science
• Ashlea Milburn—College of Engineering – Department of Industrial Engineering
• Lisa Wood—Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences – Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences

2022 Staff Gold Medals:

• Xochitl Delgado Solorzano –Honors College – equity and inclusion
• Katie Sabo—Graduate School and International Education – Office of Study Abroad and International Exchange

2022 Departmental Gold Medal:

• Department of Industrial Engineering, presented to Ed Pohl, professor and department head

Special recognition also goes to all the faculty and staff mentors recognized by students as key support, to the department and colleges, and to the Office of Nationally Competitive Awards staff including Hannah Carothers, graduate assistant; Jonathan Langley, associate director; and Emily Wright, associate director, as well as generous support from other offices, programs and academic colleges including the Office of the Provost, the Office of Study Abroad and International Exchange, the Graduate School and International Education, the Office of Undergraduate Research and the Honors College.

This story also appeared in the University of Arkansas News publication.