DePauw Stories

DePauw graduates continued their remarkable success this year in securing Fulbright scholarships that will send them across the globe to teach English or conduct research.

Five 2019 graduates and two 2016 graduates won the coveted awards and will be heading to their assigned countries in late summer or fall. The tally of seven keeps DePauw among the top-producing liberal arts schools in the country for Fulbrights, a spot it has occupied for several years; this year, DePauw is tied for ninth among all liberal arts schools.

“The State Department of the United States, through both Democratic and Republican administrations, sees DePauw as a place to build good will between the United States and other countries,” says Ashley Puzzo, director of student awards and fellowships and an assistant philosophy professor. “That’s huge. That’s really a fantastic thing to be recognized as.”

Six of this year’s seven DePauw recipients will teach English to local students in European, Asian and South American countries; the seventh, Conner Gordon ’16, has won an even rarer honor. Only he and one other person, out of 88 applicants, won a scholarship to conduct research in Serbia.

Gordon, a political science major who was a Rector scholar and an honor scholar at DePauw, plans to undertake a photography project that will examine the politically and historically charged urban spaces of New Belgrade, the central business district of Belgrade.

“Much of New Belgrade was designed as a reflection of Yugoslav ideals in the mid-late 20th century,” Gordon says, “so now that Yugoslavia no longer exists, I'm interested in examining how communities navigate and utilize the urban spaces left behind.”