GS Students Awarded Fellowships and Scholarships to Study Overseas this Summer

“GS students bring something special to the programs represented by these fellowships. Their participation means you get more than intelligent and high-achieving participants—you also get commitment, courage, and maturity,” said Glenn Novarr, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs.

The Presidential Global Fellowship, funded by a seed grant from Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger, was established in 2014. Open to rising sophomores, the award covers Columbia global program fees for students to study at or near one of Columbia’s Global Centers. This year the fellowship was awarded to GS students Noam Alon, Nina Bechmann, Matthew Hess, and Nathaniel Shoemate.

“The program’s unique focus on international education will allow me to build a foundation of Arabic, in an Arabic culture, which I plan on transferring to my focus on development within Sub-Saharan African communities. Our core of GS students understand very clearly the value of extracurricular learning experiences like the Presidential Global Fellowship,” Shoemate said.

Four of the six Beesen Global Scholarship winners this year were GS students. The winners—Mary Reilly, Erin Giventer, Michael Wedd, and Michael Falkenstein—will receive $5,000 to study in Paris this summer. Only one Beesen Global Research Fellowship is awarded annually to a GS, CC, SEAS or Barnard student to fund a summer research experience in France. This year’s recipient is Franklin Forbes, who is studying architecture at Columbia, and will research the remodeling of a building in the Seine-Saint-Denis region of Paris. 

“The subject of my fellowship deals with the influx of the Syrian expat community into the European Union, and how to find sustainable and community-orientated housing through the lens of architecture and urban planning,” Forbes said.

Of the five undergraduate students from Columbia University to receive the Critical Language Scholarship, two are from GS. Justin Wiggins will travel to Dushanbe, Tajikistan to study Persian, while Cody Wiles will travel to Meknes, Morocco, to study Arabic. The Critical Language Scholarship Program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. 

Cody Wiles, who worked as a combat marksmanship coach in the Marine Corps prior to enrolling at GS, sees this as an opportunity to further his international educational experience. 

“I studied Arabic at Columbia’s Global Center in Amman, Jordan after my first semester at GS, and the Critical Language Scholarship will give me the opportunity to further improve my Arabic, this time in Morocco,” Wiles said.

“GS students bring a wide array of incredible life stories to their applications. The more GS students that apply, the more diverse the study abroad cohorts become, benefiting every student who attends whether from GS, CC, or SEAS,” said Sara Ede, Assistant Dean of Students.