Student awards

Traditional, non-traditional, or just plain exceptional, UMass Boston students excel not only in their areas of study, but among their peers and in their communities as well as communities around the world.

Four Honors students have won Fulbright Fellowships: two in 2000 and two in 2002. One became a Marshall Scholar. Two were Rhodes semi-finalists, and two were Marshall finalists in the last three years.

In a word, UMass Boston students excel. Here are a few examples:

• Ben Day, a 2002 summa cum laude graduate and social activist, was awarded the John F. Kennedy award, a finalist for the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships, and one of only 20 students--out of 525 applicants--to win a Fulbright fellowship for travel and study in the United Kingdom.

• Captivated by "green" research 2003 graduate Arundhati Undurti, researched anti-cancer compound synthesis and became the co-inventor of an environmentally benign method for "perming" hair. A recipient of the Chemistry Department's Seldon Award and the Honors Program's Spaethling Award, she went on to pursue graduate study in a highly selective PhD/MD program at Case Western University.

• 2002 graduate Michael Plante was one of only ten undergraduate students across the country who visited Japan on a Fulbright fellowship. Boasting a GPA of 3.97, Plante also received the Rick Pitino Presidential Medal Scholarship, and the Robert H. Spaethling Prize for Distinction in the Honors Program.

• "Non-traditional" 2002 graduate Audrey Pitts used her fluency in self-taught Russian to interpret for immigrants in her community. Pitts applied to the College of Community and Public Service only after seeing her father lose a job because he lacked a degree. Boasting a 4.0 GPA, Pitts went on to study ancient languages, literature, and religion in antiquity at Harvard Divinity School on a full scholarship.

• Class of 2000 graduate Alexander Penna, whose interests lay in politics, history, and international affairs, spent a year as a Fulbright grant winner in Oslo, Norway, studying Norwegian immigration policy and its relation to politics

• Colin Ward, Fulbright grant winner and JFK Scholarship winner, studied in England on a Fulbright grant, focusing on how non-native speakers are influenced by the culture and the material they are given to read as they begin to learn English. He graduated in May, 2000.