Welcome to the December 2020 Round Up of the Fulbright REVIEW Blog

Wow, what a year 2020 has been, right!? Yes, I know that is quite the understatement, but I can’t help but be equal parts grateful, relieved and in awe that we’ve nearly made it to 2021.

I hope the new year will bring you and yours good health above all else, as well as prosperity and joy.

I hope your holiday season will be BRIGHT and filled with cheer. 

And I hope you know how very much we appreciate each and every one of you who make up our Fulbright College Family!

This December Fulbright REVIEW edition highlights some of these amazing students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and community members who make our Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences such a special place. Read on for the inside scoop!

First, we’re excited to announce that together we raised more than $28,000 to help students facing unforeseen pandemic-related financial challenges on #GivingTuesday. Thank you so much!

Then, as our series on gratitude continues, meet Romie Hernández Morgan, Joshua Harpell and April Vincent, who thanks to three scholarships and the donors who created them, are each one step closer to making their education and career dreams come true.

Next, please join me in congratulating two students and one recent alumna who were selected as finalists for the Marshall and Rhodes scholarships – these awards are the best-known and most competitive scholarships for graduate study in the world! 

The student success stories continue with a look at the fantastic 2020-21 recipients of our college’s Jessamy Eve Samuels Memorial Scholarship, and a cool collaboration between an English student and an art student that resulted in an illustrated Lovecraftian horror, fantasy and science fiction magazine.

On the research front, learn how a geosciences team found that holes that carry surface meltwater could influence the stability of the Greenland ice sheet, and get the details on the second round of fascinating research projects selected to receive funding from the University of Arkansas Humanities Center!

Afterward, see how this couple is supporting education programs and foster students, and meet an amazing alumnus who has connected more than a thousand U of A students to international experiences in Belize, Vietnam, Cameroon, South Africa, Malawi, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Mozambique and Mexico!

And, be sure to check out KUAF 91.3’s Year in Review for 2020 and the forthcoming YOUofA: An Anthology of UARK Student Voices created by our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council.

Additionally, if you’d like to learn more about all the phenomenal people, initiatives, projects and activities that make up Fulbright College, please visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. Our handle is @uarkfulbright on all three.

To make a year-end gift in support of one of these amazing projects, or to create your own, please contact Betsy Bushmiaer on our development team at 479-575-3712 or fulbright@uark.edu.

And, as always, we’ll keep providing you with more new stories at fulbrightreview.uark.edu. We hope you’ll stay tuned.

In the meantime, please keep in touch, take care and be well!

Sincerely,

Todd Shields
Dean, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences