Transylvania University advances four students to Fullbright semifinalls

Transylvania's Fullbright semifinalists are Samantha Easterling, McKenzie Gearheart, Erin Marek and Courtney Smith. 
Transylvania's Fullbright semifinalists are Samantha Easterling, McKenzie Gearheart, Erin Marek and Courtney Smith.  | Contributed photo

Transylvania University has advanced four students to the semifinals of the Fullbright U.S. Student Program for the upcoming academic year.

The highly competitive program offers students an opportunity to serve in English teaching assistant roles in their choice of more than 160 countries. Seventeen prior Transylvania students have been Fullbright winners.

This year's semifinalists from the university are Samantha Easterling, McKenzie Gearheart, Erin Marek and Courtney Smith. 

Marek is a semifinalist for Mongolia, and Easterling hopes to go to Macedonia, while Gearheart has her eye on India and Smith is the semifinalist for the Slovak Republic.

"My art history professor, Nancy Wolsk, and director of study abroad, Kathy Simon, put so much effort into helping me with my application, and I would have never made it this far without them," Marek said.

“We’re extremely proud of these students," Transylvania President Seamus Carey said. "They follow a long line of recent Transylvanians who have been awarded Fulbright grants. It’s evident they are putting in hard work and are receiving excellent preparation from their professors and staff advisers."