This year, three ISU students were chosen to receive a Fulbright Grant, a prestigious award given to students to conduct research abroad in a wide range of academic and professional fields.

Pamela Schipull, senior in community health education, is only the second undergraduate at Iowa State to receive a Fulbright Grant.

The other grants went to Anthony Shane Ridgeway, graduate student in mechanical engineering, and Robert Cogdill, graduate student in agricultural and biosystems engineering. Ridgeway and Cogdill were unavailable for comment.

Recipients of the grant won round-trip transportation and language orientation classes to study abroad or conduct an independent research project.

The grants are awarded to students at a wide range of levels who hold at least a B.A., said Carolyn Payne, program coordinator for the graduate college.

Schipull will graduate in May with a B.A. and B.S. She will be doing an independent research project at the International Rice Research Institute.

“This gives me the opportunity to spend time in the Philippines, where I will get to work with researchers from around the world,” said Schipull, who plans to attend graduate school after her trip.

“Basically, all of my expenses are paid to go to the Philippines and study. I will be looking at how iron and zinc bio-fortified rice will affect the human population.”

The International Rice Research Institute, a United Nations-based research institute, will be testing the rice over the next two to three years.

“This award is very prestigious. Only about 800 are awarded each year,” Payne said. And, an undergraduate receiving the grant is very unusual, she added.

“Professionally, this is a very well-recognized award,” Schipull said. “Iowa State has laid the foundation and put me in a position to become competitive.”

Application for the grant is a three-stage process, Payne said.

“I applied [for the grant] knowing how competitive it was, and I’m awestruck,” Schipull said. “I began e-mailing people in the first part of July to make initial contacts.”

Schipull said the hardest part of the application process is making contacts overseas.

“I studied in China two summers ago and really enjoyed that experience,” she said. “This gives me the chance to go overseas again and do something interesting.”