The Global and International Studies Program continually attracts some of the highest-achieving students in the School of Liberal Arts. This past year, they once again secured scholarships to support their studies and won the school’s most notable awards for academic achievement. Many of our majors finance their study abroad requirement with International Experience grants from IU’s Office of International Affairs. Both Jisenia Ocelotl and Sofia Rubia are using that award to study abroad in Spain. Madison Gueber financed her summer-long internship in Chile with several of the study abroad scholarships offered by Liberal Arts. Congratulations also go to Oriana Fuenmayor, who is the 2023 recipient of three competitive grants totaling more than $20,000 from our school: the Mary F. Crisler Scholarship, Loretta Lundsford Scholarship, and the Rebecca E. Pitts Scholarship. The latter is awarded to outstanding Liberal Arts majors intending to pursue graduate studies. Like a number of recent Global Studies majors, she will enter law school upon completing her undergraduate studies. Oriana, a double major, also won this year’s Academic Achievement Award from our Political Science department. Finally, she joins fellow GIS student Ava Ward as one of only four Liberal Arts majors to be named an IUPUI Top 100 student, an honor bestowed each year by the university’s Office of Alumni Relations.

The highest honor awarded by our School of Liberal Arts went to Olivia Ellenwood. She is the third GIS major to earn the school’s Faculty Medal of Distinction in recent years. This award honors her academic performance, multi-disciplinary excellence, and extracurricular engagement. Olivia is one of two graduating seniors to complete a dual degree in both Global Studies and IUPUI’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA). The other dual degree major is Halee Griffey. Halee was a 2022 Top 100 student. Our Global and International Studies Program proudly announces that she and Olivia are this year’s co-winners of the Academic Achievement Award. This coming year, Olivia will reside in Galicia, Spain and teach English as part of the Spanish government’s North American Language and Cultural Assistants Program. Olivia is already pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Affairs while working in her new role as the Climate Resiliency and Sustainability Officer in West Lafayette, IN. Congratulations to all our program’s award winners for their outstanding achievements and honors in 2023.