Cathy Nelson, associate professor of Spanish, has been selected to serve on the National Screening Committee (NSC) for Fulbright Scholarship applications.
Nelson will evaluate applications for the Fulbright U.S. Student English Language Teaching Assistantships in Spain.
The Fulbright Scholarship is the flagship international education program sponsored by the U.S. government. Recipients research and/or teach abroad for one year.
Nelson has been a member of Nebraska Wesleyan’s Fulbright Committee since 2005 and served as the Fulbright program advisor last year.
“I find it energizing to work with students who have profound experiences inside and outside the classroom, and ambitious goals to impact their world,” she said.
Students at NWU have had great success winning Fulbright Scholarships. Forty-seven Fulbright Scholarships have been awarded to Nebraska Wesleyan students, 32 in the last decade. In recent years, NWU was named a top Fulbright producer in the country.
Some of that success can be credited to an aggressive NWU Fulbright Committee, which spends extensive time helping students with the application process, said Nelson.
“Being a member of the NSC will allow me to bring back to campus an understanding of what the application process looks like on the national level,” she said. “I am particularly interested in learning what impresses the reading committee, what makes an applicant stand out from a pile of 80 applications, and seeing the caliber and differing styles of essays.”
Nelson said she hopes to help make Nebraska Wesleyan students even more competitive after learning from and serving on the national committee.