Three Clemson graduates receive Fulbright grants

Published: June 12, 2012

Brett Mills and Clemson President Jim Barker image by: Clemson University

CLEMSON — Three recent Clemson University graduates have received Fulbright grants to conduct research or teaching abroad. 

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and was created to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those in other countries.

The recipients are:

• Elizabeth “Brett” Mills of Athens, Ga., who received a grant for an English teaching assistantship in Germany. Mills received her bachelor’s degree in history in May. Mills has studied abroad in both Germany and Austria, where she performed archival research on the rise of monarchism in the era between the two world wars. She was editor-in-chief of Clemson’s student newspaper, The Tiger, and she worked as an academic tutor for student-athletes. She also tutored local middle school students in math and served as a Young Life leader for local youth groups.
• Tom Kudlacz of Meriden, Conn., who received a grant to conduct research in Poland. Kudlacz graduated from Clemson in May 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy with a minor in history. He spent much of his undergraduate career studying Polish history and philosophy; he coordinated an independent study course on the social and political philosophy of Enlightenment Poland compared to other major western European philosophers. He will spend his time in Poland at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where he will research the Polish social and political conception of freedom in the 19th century and what meaning it still holds in today's Poland, which has come to be considered a model for democratic change. Kudlacz will be Clemson’s first Fulbright research grantee to travel to Poland.
• Lauren Hock of Naperville, Ill., who received a grant for an English teaching assistantship in Ecuador. Hock graduated in May with a degree in psychology. Hock spent a summer in Costa Rica learning Spanish and has tutored English as a Second Language courses in both the U.S. and Honduras. She was a Clemson National Scholar, a member of Undergraduate Student Government and Clemson’s chamber choir and a cappella groups. Her senior thesis for the Calhoun Honors College explored attitudes toward obesity and health behavior modification. During her time in Ecuador, she will spend time volunteering at a medical clinic to prepare for her future plans to attend medical school.

One Clemson graduate was selected as a Fulbright alternate.

• Lauren Harroff of Concord, N.C., who graduated in May with a degree in biosystems engineering, planned to conduct research in Uganda. A member of Clemson's National Scholar Program, Harroff earned many accolades for her research, which is centered around the adaptation and application of sustainable biofuels, particularly in international settings. She volunteered with the Pendleton Place Children's Center, participated in peer mentoring with the Calhoun Honors College and worked with Engineers Without Borders.

One Clemson student was a finalist for the Fulbright/Cambridge Scholarship, which is awarded to just one student to pursue a Ph.D. in any discipline.

• Ryan Need of Cornelius, N.C., proposed to conduct research at the University of Cambridge. Need earned his bachelor’s in ceramic and materials engineering in December 2011. During his time at Clemson, Need researched finding suitable conductors of alternative energy, such as the development of photovoltaic (solar) cells. He also carried out research at Washington State University, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and at the prestigious Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he eventually earned a position as a graduate research assistant before being admitted to a Ph.D. program at the University of California Santa Barbara.

Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided approximately 310,000 participants — chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential — with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

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