Some of SMU's best and brightest receive national honors

During the 2009-10 academic year, SMU students who excelled in their areas of study received some of the nation's most prestigious fellowships and awards, helping them gain valuable experience and do important research in pursuit of their careers. They include:

Fulbright Fellowship	Sunshine Prior ('06) is a step closer to her goal of becoming a mental health counselor and advocate for the deaf: She has received a prestigious Fulbright fellowship to study and conduct research abroad. Beginning in March 2011, she will work toward a Master of Science at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Read more.
Goldwater Award	SMU sophomore Jessica Maxey is the winner of a 2010 Goldwater Award, the nation's premier undergraduate scholarship awarded in the fields of mathematics, science and engineering. Two other SMU students received honorable mention in the prestigious competition. Read more.
National Journalism Center Internship	Senior Rachel Duke has been selected to serve a summer internship with the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C. She is one of 38 students chosen nationwide for the 12-week program, which includes writing seminars, lectures, and work at a media outlet. Duke is assigned to The Washington Times. Read more.
Presidential Fellow	Junior Charles McCaslin has been named a student Presidential Fellow to the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress in Washington, D.C. The history and political science major in Dedman College is one of 85 students from across the country invited to the center's weekend conferences on leadership and governance in Fall 2010 and Spring 2011. Read more.
State Dept. Internship	Leela Harpur, a junior majoring in corporate communications and public affairs in Meadows School of the Arts and Spanish with a minor in Italian in Dedman College, has been selected by the U.S. Department of State to serve as a 2010 summer intern in the Consular Section of the American Embassy in Rome. Read more.
SURF Fellowships	Brooke Wright, Katherine Deland, Sarah Husseini and Jasia Mahdi will obtain valuable experience this summer to help them meet their goals as recipients of Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) at UT Southwestern Medical Center's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Read more.
Liszt-Garrison International Piano Competition	Liudmila Georgievskaya, who is studying for the Artist Certificate in piano at SMU's Meadows School of the Arts, won first prize in the 2009 Liszt-Garrison Festival and International Piano Competition for a performance of Liszt’s Second Concerto and Ginastera’s Danzas Argentinas. Read more.
Model UN	SMU won two outstanding delegate awards at the World Model U.N. 2010 Conference in Taipei, Taiwan. Students from more than 40 countries debated and discussed world issues facing the U.N. system. Read more.
SAS Data Mining Shootout	SMU’s Data Mining Team was the top data mining team in the nation in the 2009 SAS Data Mining Shootout co-sponsored by SAS, Dow, and Central Michigan University Research Corporation. The three students on the team are Michael Fulmer, Jingjing Ye and Steven Gregory. Read more.
Frederick H. Teahan Award	SMU's chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) won three Frederick H. Teahan Awards at the PRSSA National Conference. SMU received top honors for Outstanding Chapter Development, Outstanding PRSA/PRSSA Chapter Relationship, and Outstanding Chapter Faculty Advisor. Read more.
Center for Innovation in College Media	Students in the Division of Journalism, Meadows School of the Arts, received a 2009 Best of Show commendation from the Center for Innovation in College Media. The news segment "Students Reflect on Chaotic Inauguration Day," originally broadcast by The Daily Mustang on Jan. 21, 2009, was named Best Breaking News Package. Read more.
Center for Anthropology Writing Competition	Twelve SMU undergraduate students dominated the pool of winners in a writing competition sponsored by the Center for a Public Anthropology. The winning SMU students are Kathe Lee, Hillary Talbot, Kendall Moore, Emily Ciuba, Rebekah Boyer, Natalie Chao, Michael Canaris, Grace Ann Whiteside, Bethany Suba, Den Cralle, Hartley Mellick, and Charlene Dondlinger. Read more.