Seven OU Students & Alumni Receive 2020-2021 Fulbright Grants

Seven University of Oklahoma students and alumni have been awarded Fulbright grants to learn and teach abroad in the 2020-2021 academic year.

They are among more than 1,900 U.S. students, artists and early career professionals who were offered Fulbright Program grants to study, teach English and conduct research in over 140 countries throughout the world. Fulbright grant recipients are selected on the basis of academic excellence and achievement, as well as their leadership potential in their respective fields.

Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 380,000 participants — chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential — with the opportunity to exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation by the US Congress to the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations in foreign countries and in the United States also provide direct and indirect support. In the United States, the Institute of International Education supports the implementation of the Fulbright US Student Program on behalf of the US Department of State, including conducting an annual competition for the scholarships.

“We are incredibly proud of our Fulbright award recipients, who have worked hard throughout their academic careers to earn this prestigious honor,” said OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. “Their selection is a testament to our culture of nurturing academic excellence and student success. We know these high achievers will represent the very best of OU during their time abroad.”

Read on for more about these outstanding OU students and alumni and their plans for their upcoming Fulbright year!

Name: Hannah Day

Hometown: Wichita, Kansas

Degree: Graduated in May 2020 with a bachelor’s in physics and mathematics

Destination: Paris, France

Fulbright plans: Hannah will spend her Fulbright year completing a master’s degree in theoretical physics through the École Normale Supérieure International Centre for Fundamental Physics.

Name: Britt Leake

Hometown: Wichita, Kansas

Degree: Graduated in May 2020 with a master's in international studies; earned his bachelor’s from OU in international studies, French and Arabic with a Spanish minor

Destination: New Dehli, India

Fulbright plans: Britt will spend his Fulbright year conducting archival research at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, through affiliation with the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University, for a project on India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

Name: Benjamin Levenson

Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio

Degree: Graduated in May 2020 with a bachelor's in international security studies, German and history

Destination: Germany (city TBA)

Fulbright plans: Benjamin will spend his Fulbright year as an English teaching assistant.

Name: Lily Lohrey

Hometown: Tulsa, Oklahoma

Degree: Graduated in May 2020 with a master’s in international studies; earned her bachelor’s from OU in international studies and Russian

Destination: Moldova (city TBA)

Fulbright plans: Lily will spend her Fulbright year as an English teaching assistant.

Name: Brit Maguire

Hometown: Kansas City, Missouri

Degree: Graduated in December 2019 with dual bachelor’s degrees in environmental sustainability and German

Destination: Germany (city TBA)

Fulbright plans: Brit will spend her Fulbright year as an English teaching assistant.

Name: Davis Mitchell

Hometown: Broken Arrow, Oklahoma

Degree: Graduated in December 2019 with a bachelor’s in international business and finance with minors in Spanish and international studies

Destination: Mexico City, Mexico

Fulbright plans: Davis will spend his Fulbright year completing an internship and taking graduate courses at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.

Name: Thomas Young

Hometown: Edmond, Oklahoma

Degree: Completing a master’s in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) with an expected graduation in summer 2020

Destination: Germany (city TBA)

Fulbright plans: Thomas will spend his Fulbright year as an English teaching assistant.

In addition to the seven finalists, two OU students were named as alternates: Elizabeth Besozzi (research in Costa Rica) and Taylor Jipp (teaching English in Hungary). Alternates may be offered an award if additional funding becomes available.

We're incredibly proud of these students, and we wish them the best of luck on their journeys this fall! We know they all have bright futures ahead. Interested in applying for the Fulbright program in the future? Visit http://eca.state.gov/fulbright for more information, and follow @oucis on Facebook or Twitter to learn about upcoming Fulbright information sessions and workshops hosted by the College of International Studies.