Elizabethtown College seniors are prestigious Fulbright scholars

ELIZABETHTOWN, PA (05/02/2014)(readMedia)-- Two Elizabethtown College seniors recently were named Fulbright U.S. Student Award winners for 2014-2015 as English teaching assistants.

These prominent awards are a testament of the student work and the dedication and support received from Elizabethtown College faculty and staff members.

Tyler Kunkle, of Ephrata, Pa., who is completing a double major in German and international business, travels to Germany for the next academic year. Kunkle is involved in Student Senate at Elizabethtown and Called to Lead. He is treasurer of Alpha Lambda Delta and Hillel, the Elizabethtown College Jewish student group.

Shanna Kirgan, of Clarksburg, N.J., with a major in English secondary education and a minor in creative writing will be in Turkey. Among other activities, Kirgan is a writing tutor and a multi-year Scholarship and Creative Arts Day presenter at Elizabethtown. She is part of the Elizabethtown College Honors Program and Called to Lead.

Tyler Kunkle, of Ephrata, Pa., who is completing a double major in German and international business, travels to Germany for the next academic year. Kunkle is involved in Student Senate at Elizabethtown, and the College's Honors Program. He is treasurer of Alpha Lambda Delta and Hillel, the Elizabethtown College Jewish student group.

Shanna Kirgan, of Clarksburg, N.J., with a double major in English secondary education and creative writing, will be in Turkey. Among other activities, Kirgan is a writing tutor and a multi-year Scholarship and Creative Arts Day presenter at Elizabethtown. She is part of the Elizabethtown College Honors Program.

"Fulbright grant recipients are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields," noted Joel Janisewski, assistant director of Prestigious Scholarships at Elizabethtown. "Shanna and Tyler both demonstrate these characteristics."

Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has been dedicated to supporting mutual understanding between the United States and other countries. In 1925 after J. William Fulbright graduated from college, he left Arkansas to continue his studies at Oxford University. During his travel across Europe he learned about lives of those he met along the way. Twenty years after graduation from law school and service as a university president, Fulbright became a junior senator. In this position he introduced legislation to use funds from surplus war materials for an international educational exchange program. In 1946 President Harry Truman signed legislation to support the Fulbright Program, an international scholarship.

Today, through the State Department, the Fulbright Program reaches out to 150 countries around the world with the goal of mutual understanding between the award recipient and the community in which they serve. They become cultural ambassadors who educate others about their home country while taking information about their host country back to their home.

Past Elizabethtown College Fulbright recipients are, in 2013, Jillian Casey, political science, to the United Kingdom, and Julia Ward, also political science, to Namibia, and Amy Milligan, religious studies to Germany in 2004.

Elizabethtown College, located in historic Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a private coed institution offering more than four dozen liberal arts, fine and performing arts, science and engineering, business, communications and education degrees. Learn more: http://www.etown.edu/about/

Media Contact:

Elizabeth Harvey

Communications Manager

Marketing and Communications

Elizabethtown College

harveye@etown.edu

717-361-6412 (o)

717-371-2631 (c)

Map and Directions