The Fulbright Student Scholarship is an international academic exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government for students pursuing graduate study, conducting research or teaching English abroad. This year, four Honors College students from Oregon State have been offered Fulbright scholarships for the 2024-25 academic year: Emma Baughman of Portland, Mohnish Judge of Lake Oswego, Aubreyanna Olsen of Salem and Camden Schmidt of Cheyenne, Wyoming. A fifth OSU applicant, Brittni Wisner of Palmer, Alaska, has been chosen as an alternate.
Emma Baughman is a fourth-year honors student graduating in the summer with a degree in environmental science and a minor in chemistry. Her honors thesis, “Utilizing Isotopic Variation of Pb in Pacific Northwest Lichen to Identify Regional Sources of Origin,” aims to identify the sources of lead in natural environments. Her work was supervised by Dr. Alyssa Shiel, an associate professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences specializing in lead pollution and environmental geochemistry.
Baughman describes how her passion for research was born from reading Shiel’s papers, which she says, “helped me get on the path of environmental geochemistry, bridging my interests in chemistry and environmental science.” The most “exhilarating” part of her research with Shiel, Baughman says, was “discovering how human activity is reflected in nature through an interconnected narrative.” While analyzing isotope tests of lead-infused samples collected near the Oregon Coast, Baughman and Shiel found that the pollution source could be traced back across the Pacific Ocean. “That was when I first saw a little bit of a story,” she recalls.
Baughman credits the Honors College for offering classes across a wide range of subjects. She enjoyed taking colloquia on topics she “had passion for,” which “gave a taste of different perspectives.” She cites the colloquium Animals in Religion as a course she especially enjoyed.
During her Fulbright, Baughman will conduct research at the Bolin Centre for Climate Research at Stockholm University in Sweden. Her project will analyze storm patterns in the Eastern North Atlantic to determine the link between storm intensity and climate change.
For those considering applying to the Fulbright program, Baughman advises addressing the questions they feel most passionate about and taking the time to clearly express these interests in their application.
Mohnish Judge, a third-year student in the Honors College, is graduating this spring with a degree in economics and a minor in religious studies. Upon learning of his Fulbright offer, he shares, “I was very surprised! My first thought was ‘Who am I going to tell first?’ But after the initial surprise, I was really grateful.”
His resolve to pursue research abroad was cemented by a four-month journey to Nepal, led by religious studies Associate Professor Geoffrey Barstow. Judge cherishes the insightful dialogues he shared with the locals while gathering data for his thesis, which explores how changes in Tibetan honorifics reflect and reinforce change in social attitudes. He thanks his advisor, Dr. Adam Schwartz, who is an Associate Professor of Language, Culture & Society in the College of Liberal Arts for supporting him throughout his thesis. He cites this experience as motivating him to apply for the Fulbright program.
Judge encourages students interested in applying to the Fulbright program to reach out to the Office of National and Global Scholarships Advising. Acknowledging their supportive role in his application journey, he says, “LeAnn Adam and Rebecca Otto were wonderful with guiding me throughout the process.”
After receiving his diploma, Judge will travel to India to work on his Fulbright research project analyzing the media’s influence within Tibetan diaspora communities.
Aubreyanna Olsen, a graduating honors student with degrees in Spanish and international studies and a minor in education, is posed to embark on a 10-month Fulbright journey in Colombia. There, she looks forward to “teaching English, meeting new people and improving my Spanish.” As a teaching assistant in Colombia, her goal is to bolster the conversational confidence of young adult learners. After her time in Colombia, she intends to “earn a master’s degree in education with an endorsement in world languages from the University of Oregon and then begin a career as a high school Spanish teacher.”
On being offered the Fulbright scholarship, Olsen felt “excited about the life-changing experience that lies ahead of me and proud of myself for all of the hard work that I had put into my application paying off.”
Her honors thesis examines how racial and linguistic identities informed the experiences of U.S. American-Latinx students studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain. Reflecting on the thesis process, she acknowledges it as “a great opportunity, in which I have grown as a researcher and prepared for my future career path as a Spanish teacher.
“I owe a special thanks to my thesis advisor, Adam Schwartz. He has helped me to create a thesis that I am incredibly proud of, has modeled the type of Spanish educator I aspire to become and is all-around an incredible mentor that I greatly admire and have learned a lot from.”
Camden Schmidt graduated from OSU in 2023 with an Honors Bachelor of Science in environmental economics and policy, along with minors in global development and peace studies. With his Fulbright placement, he plans to spend the next academic year in Poland as an English teaching assistant, preparing for a career in law and social welfare with the goal of becoming a public defender.
His honors thesis, “The Crude Reality: Effects of Oil Booms on Households in Shale-Oil States,” investigates how fluctuations in oil prices impact communities that rely on extraction for their local economies. “Given that oil prices tend to fluctuate greatly, I wanted to investigate how that impacted microeconomic facets like employment rate, occupation, salary, marriage rates and a handful of other outcomes.”
Schmidt’s introduction to international experiences began during a gap year before his undergraduate studies when he participated in a Rotary Youth Exchange in Poland. “I had a great experience; feeling the challenge of being somewhere totally new excited me, and I was eager to make lasting, international friendships.” He applied to the Fulbright program because it “really fit with what I was looking for and was most compatible with my future.”
Upon receiving an offer of the Fulbright, he recounts “reading the decision letter, I was first in disbelief – I read it two or three times before it really hit me. Above all, I felt relieved and grateful.”
Schmidt credits his time in the Honors College with helping him prepare for his future goals. “I want to become a public defender, and the time I spent working at the HC in a student-facing position led me to understanding I want to work with the public.” He adds that honors colloquia “gave me insight into what issues, some that I had never heard of before, really matter to me.”
He strongly recommends that everyone seek out an international opportunity. “Being a sheltered kid from Wyoming, my first time abroad taught me a lot about what’s out there, good or bad. I learned a lot about how I wanted my life to look.”
For those considering applying for the Fulbright program, the 2025-2026 Fulbright competition opened on April 2, 2024. Interested OSU students should note the campus deadline of August 12, 2024, with campus interviews scheduled for September 2024. For more information and to start your application, visit beav.es/p3b.
Congratulations to all the recipients!
By Shion Britten, student writer.
CATEGORIES: All Stories Alumni and Friends HC Student Spotlights Homestories News Students Uncategorized