The Prestigious Awards Program held a meeting this past Wednesday, Nov. 12, with the intent of providing students with information about achieving scholarships to study abroad.

The program contains all the necessary information and faculty assistance in obtaining a national or international scholarships, research programs, and graduate programs that are national and internationally competitive. The scholarships are outside of Mercyhurst University are not provided by the school.

The speaker at the event, Verna Ehret, Ph.D., currently serves as the Director of Mercyhurst’s Prestigious Awards Program.

Ehret focused on the award programs available for juniors and seniors, as those were the only two academic levels that made it to the meeting.

In order to be able to apply for the scholarships students need a minimum GPA of 3.8.

“Now is the best time to apply,” said Ehret. “Most of the major awards, scholarships students will be applying for are post-graduation.”

According to Ehret, the deadline for applications is at the beginning of the fall semester. She advises students to begin working on them as early as possible.

The scholarships that were discussed included: Goldwater, Truman, Rhodes, Fulbright, Marshall, Ralph, Davies-Jackson, and George J. Mitchell Scholarship.

The scholarships Ehret focused on the most throughout the presentation were the Goldwater and the Fulbright scholarships.

Goldwater aims to help students in the natural sciences and may also apply to Public Health majors.

“This scholarship is aimed at students that spend most of their time in the lab,” said Ehret. “It focuses on undergraduate research. It may be difficult for Mercyhurst students, because we do not have the type of lab experiences for students that Goldwater is looking for.”

Fulbright English Teaching Assistantships has been the most active sponsor of Mercyhurst student’s scholarships and it is well-known nationwide. It is offered only to American Citizens.

“This scholarship looks very good on your resume,” Ehret said.

Unfortunately the application deadline for the Fulbright scholarship has already passed, but it could be available next year.

The listed scholarships, as Ehret put it, “are the tip of the iceberg.”

For more information you can visit the official Mercyhurst website and under the Academics section find Prestigious Awards link. You can also talk to Ehret during her office hours in 204 Preston Hall. The next meeting will be held in early February.