McGlothlin Award Ceremony highlights RU students broadening their educational horizons internationally

The International Education Center feted nine Radford University students who will be studying abroad this fall as McGlothlin Travel Grant recipients.

The 2015 McGlothlin Travel Grant recipients, and their destinations, are:

• Lacy Meyer (Ireland)
   
  
• Caitlyn Annear (Peru)
   
  
• Samantha Mullins (Ireland)
   
  
• Samantha Kohlhaas (Ireland)
   
  
• Skyler Carrell (Peru)
   
  
• Olivia Biersack  (Ireland)
   
  
• Amanda Dixon (Spain)
   
  
• Devin Jones (Ireland)
   
  
• Victoria Crespo (Spain)

As keynote speaker, Provost Sam Minner talked about the power of the international education experience.

"These experiences can be liberating. They can change the ways you relate to the world and a shift takes place as you see the commonalities and the differences that are many and interesting," Minner said.

Dixon, a psychology and Spanish major from Stephens City, will be spending six weeks in Spain and earning nine credits this summer.

"The McGlothlin grant will be a huge help," said the senior. "Thanks to the grant, I am excited about a huge experience that will completely immerse me and help me become fluent."

"It will be my crowning achievement at RU," said Caitlyn Annear, a senior biology major who will trade her graduation cap and gown for jungle gear.  Annear will graduate on May 7 and then depart May 13 to the Amazonian highlands of Peru as part of the 13-person RARE team that will be working on a wide range of scientific research. Annear specifically will be looking into the effects of deforestation on the habitat of the scarlet macaw.

"These experiences are not holidays; they are discoveries," said Paul Currant, director of the International Education Center. "The only way to get experiences is by doing them."

Each of the 2015 McGlothlin Travel Grant recipients students will have $1,500 awards applied toward their individual foreign study experiences. Funding for the McGlothlin Travel Grant program is supported by the McGlothlin Endowment, created by a contribution of more than $1.5 million by alumna Sally Ann Cook McGlothlin's family for the advancement of international programming at RU.