N.C. A&T’s Gilmore Named 2020-21 Fulbright Program Grant Finalist

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (March 27, 2020) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University Student Government Association President Allison Gilmore has been selected as a 2020-21 Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant finalist.

Gilmore, of St. Louis, is a senior studying journalism and mass communication whose grant application was for one of up to four Combined Community-English Teaching Assistantships in Austria. This grant will allow her to work as a teaching assistant for English at a secondary school, pursue a project at a community organization and take university courses on a part-time basis.

“I worked really hard on this and I’m proud of myself for this accomplishment,” said Gilmore. “What I’m looking forward to the most is traveling while living in Europe and falling deeper into my passions for civil service and diplomacy.”

Gilmore, who worked with Angela Rye as a public policy intern and with U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., through the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, plans to attend graduate school to study international affairs and eventually work for the State Department.

Gilmore is N.C. A&T’s sixth Fulbright Program grant recipient and the first to participate in a combined grant. She was endorsed by the university last in October after completing the campus application process through NCAT Extraordinary Opportunities (NCAT EO) last August.

A University Honors Program (UHP) student, Gilmore was first recruited to seek a 2019 Truman Scholarship. She has remained active in UHP since then by serving as an ambassador, mentor and participant in New Student Orientation sessions.

“Allison has a demonstrated interest in and commitment to learning from and empowering marginalized communities on local and global scales,” said Margaret I. Kanipes, Ph.D., North Carolina A&T Honors Program director.

Gilmore joined YoVanna Solomon ’18 and Jaylynn Ellington ’18 as N.C. A&T’s semifinalists in this year’s Fulbright Program grant cycle. Gilmore and Solomon are official institutional semifinalists, while Ellington is an at-large semifinalist.

“We are immensely proud of Allison, YoVanna and Jaylynn,” said Kanipes. “This is just another outstanding example of the commitment and dedication of our Aggies to achieve excellence.”

Solomon, of Wilmington, North Carolina, graduated with a degree in international studies and was an exchange student in Uruguay. She also worked with Row New York to create a social and emotional learning curriculum to be integrated into coaching and rowing culture offered to youth. Having taught English and volunteered with various youth development nonprofits, she is being considered for the English Teaching Assistantship grant in Brazil.

Ellington, of Salisbury, North Carolina, graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in political science with a certification in Global Health Awareness. She went on to complete Yale University’s Foundations of Bioethics course, receive certifications in global human rights from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and international women's rights and health from Stanford University, and served as an AT&T Inc. legal scholar in 2018. Her semifinalist status last year for a Master of Global Health at National Taiwan University resulted in her receiving full funding from the university, where she is completing the degree while being considered for a Study/Research grant in Barbados.

Led by the United States government in partnership with more than 160 countries worldwide, the Fulbright Program, established by Congress in 1946, offers international educational and cultural exchange programs for passionate and accomplished students, scholars, artists, teachers and professionals of all backgrounds to study, teach or pursue important research and professional projects.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the largest U.S. exchange program offering opportunities for students and young professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and primary and secondary school teaching worldwide. The program awards about 2,000 grants annually in all fields of study and operates in more than 140 countries worldwide. Candidates must submit a Statement of Grant Purpose defining activities to take place during one academic year in a participating country outside the United States.