The Beatrice Demers Foreign Language Fellows fund has awarded 17 University of Rhode Island students grants that will allow them to travel overseas to study foreign languages.
Demers, a former professor at URI, spent her life teaching foreign languages. She began her teaching career at Pawtucket schools before coming to URI, where she taught for more than 30 years. After her death, she established her namesake fund by leaving $4 million to the Rhode Island Foundation.
The recipients of this year’s grants will receive $238,545 to study in Chile, China, France, Germany, Japan and Jordan. The grants will pay for tuition, fees, travel, housing and living expenses.
Micah Kittel, a fourth-year student in the five-year International Engineering program, is one of the recipients of the Demers scholarship. He will be studying in Chile for the next year. Kittel, who is minoring in ocean engineering and Spanish, said that without the grant money, he would not be able to study abroad.
The Demers fund is also open to all Rhode Island residents, not just students. Non-resident students are also eligible.
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