The symposium involved presentations from academics and practitioners from across the country. Two of the Elon students also presented their �þ��� research.

“I learned truly how applicable outdoor education and experiential education can be incorporated into our lives,” said Calista Quirk ’26, who presented her research titled “Exploring Gender Boundaries in College and University Outdoor Education Programs Across North Carolina.” “I felt unbelievably empowered by how much research can impact a group of people. I truly learned how much of an impact I can have as a single person with a passion for what I do every day.”

Adam Arno ’26 presented research titled ‘Beyond Entertainment: Exploring Humor as a Response to Stress in Outdoor Education Programming.” Arno shared that the experience “gave me a first look into the potential for outdoor education research. It was a special opportunity to present my �þ��� research in front of top names in the field. It also was a chance to get my name out into the world as someone interested in pushing forward research in experiential education.”

While at the conference, students attended sessions and networked with faculty and �þ���s. Sessions challenged them to broaden their view of outdoor experiential education and consider how data and assessment can inform program practice.

Leah Brooker ’27 said that the conference “inspired me to continue asking questions about outdoor education practices, how they can impact others, and how their value can be integrated into a multitude of different disciplines. I learned that the field is multifaceted, ever-evolving, and making exciting advancements toward helping others recognize its importance. This experience motivated me to dive deeper into my �þ��� research.”

The largest exchange program in the country, awards approximately 2,200 grants annually in all fields of study. Recent graduates and graduate students undertake graduate study, advanced research, and English �þ��� worldwide. Founded in 1946, the Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and people of other countries.

Elon has been repeatedly recognized for the number of its alumni who participate in the Fulbright Program as teachers and researchers and has been named a top-producer of Fulbright students in six separate years. This year, The National and International Fellowships Office supported the largest cohort of Fulbright applicants in Elon’s history: 34 applicants.

Elon students and alumni interested in the Fulbright program or other nationally competitive fellowships are invited to contact the National and International Fellowships Office.

Those who received awards this year are:

Leah Schwarz ’24

A psychology and Spanish double major with a minor in Latin American studies, Leah Schwarz has been selected for a Fulbright grant to teach English in Spain. She is from Hudson, Ohio.

At Elon, Schwarz was an Elon College Fellow who spent two years researching Latinx student experiences in higher education. She also served as a student representative for the Latin American Studies Board, and as a Spanish tutor. She is a member of Sigma Iota Rho and Sigma Delta Pi honor societies.
“I applied to Spain because I studied abroad in Sevilla in Spring 2023 and instantly felt at home,” she said. “I loved the Spanish way of life, the relationships I made with locals and the emphasis on working to live, not living to work. I applied to Fulbright because, while abroad, I was a student English teacher at an elementary school and had so much fun working with the students. I loved the way the children were so excited to learn English and I was blown away with how much they knew.”

In the future, Schwarz plans to pursue a doctorate in psychology to become a clinical psychologist. Steve Braye and Leyla Savloff have been Schwarz’s most influential Elon mentors.

Nellie Garrison ’24

Nellie Garrison, an English Literature major with minors in Spanish and����dz����ܲԾ������پ��DzԲ�, has received a Fulbright grant to teach English in Spain. From Staunton, Virginia, Garrison was the director of diversity, equity and inclusion for her sorority, worked extensively with �þ��� Recreation and Wellness, and served as the co-president of Sigma Tau Delta, the national English Honor Society. She is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Garrison became inspired to pursue an English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) after her semester abroad in Spain. “I applied for Fulbright because of my passion for cross-cultural education that I developed while studying and �þ��� in Sevilla. My interest in instructing English as a second language first grew after working with adults at Alamance Community College during a TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) course my junior year. I look forward to working in Madrid for the chance to work with a diverse community of learners,” she says.

Teaching English through the Fulbright program is the first step in Garrison’s journey to a career as a dual-language educator and potential lawyer. Regardless of what she does, her aim is to “create welcoming environments where people from diverse backgrounds can learn and grow together”—a mission that will no doubt be strengthened through her time as an English Teaching Assistant.

Garrison’s most influential Elon mentors include April Post, Jennifer Eidum and Dinidu Karunanayake.

Britt Mobley ‘24

A strategic communications and outdoor leadership and education double major, Britt Mobley has received a Fulbright grant to teach English in the Czech Republic. He is from Raleigh, North Carolina.

At Elon, Mobley was an Odyssey Scholar and a Communications Fellow, served as the Student Government Association Student Body President and worked as the course director on the ELOA Challenge Course. Fulbright is a natural extension of his deep involvement, and he was drawn to the program in part for its definition of holistic student success. “Honestly, I applied out of spite,” he says. “I applied to challenge my own fears and doubt about being good enough and having the most pristine academic record.”

Mobley’s strong, holistic �þ��� career has prepared him well to serve as an ETA at the Business, Hospitality and Vocational School Tabor in Tabor, Czech Republic. After his Fulbright year, he plans to attend the University of North Carolina-Charlotte to earn his doctorate in organizational sciences.

Mobley’s Elon mentors include Evan Small and Israel Balderas, who have acted as cheerleaders and advocates “for [his] academic record and what [he is] truly capable of as a student, even though [his] transcript doesn’t fully portray that.”

Trevor Molin ’23

Trevor Molin, a political science major and member of the Class of 2023, has received a Fulbright grant to pursue a master’s degree in philosophy from Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada. Molin has spent the past year at the London School of Economics earning their first master’s degree in Gender Studies. During their time at Elon, Molin served on the Student Government Association, worked in the Gender and LGBTQIA+ Center as the inaugural Healthy Masculinities & Relationships student assistant, and coordinated and directed Elon Volunteers.

Molin was inspired to reapply for Fulbright after being named a semifinalist for a Fulbright grant to the United Kingdom last year. “In all honesty, after going through the process last round, part of my decision to apply this time was just from how useful the process itself was, especially as I was looking to apply to graduate programs anyway,” they explain. Embarking on the process a second time led Molin to Canada and Memorial University, where they are eager to engage with new scholars and explore the natural beauty of Newfoundland.

This degree from Memorial, paired with Molin’s first graduate degree from the London School of Economics, will no doubt pave the way for a promising academic career. “I hope to pursue a PhD in an interdisciplinary, theory-based program and hopefully go on to become a professor,” they say. “Who knows what will happen, but I know for certain I want to teach theory, we’ll see where that will take me though!”

Molin’s constellation of Elon mentors includes Jodean Schmiederer, Lauren Guilmette and Liza Taylor.

Eliana Olivier ’24

With majors in environmental and ecological sciences and Spanish and a minor in Latin American Studies, Eliana Olivier has received a Fulbright grant to teach English in Colombia. The Honors Fellow and is from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Pursuing an ETA in Colombia is a natural extension of Olivier’s Elon involvement. Internationally, she spent a semester abroad in the Dominican Republic. Back on campus, she served as an environmental justice intern with the Office of Sustainability. “I applied to the program in Colombia because I was excited about the opportunity to engage with a new culture and because of my interest in the Spanish language and Latin America, specifically,” she explains. “I also applied because of all of the ecological diversity of Colombia, and I thought it would be a great place to further pursue my environmental interests.”

Olivier’s Elon mentors include Kelly Harer and Ricardo Mendoza. “I have had so many incredible professors and mentors who have helped me to succeed and grow in the past four years,” she says. In the future, she plans to attend graduate school.

In addition to these students, five seniors and alumnae have been named alternates for various Fulbright grants. Alternates are still in the competition and have the chance to be promoted to finalists (recipients of the grant) up until the official start of the grant period. We will update this story as we continue to hear news of their progress.

Those who were selected as alternates are:

Heeba Chergui ’22

An alumna from the Class of 2022, Heeba Chergui has been selected as an alternate for a Fulbright grant to teach English in Albania for the second time. Earlier this year, Chergui was selected as one of Elon’s first Rangel Graduate Fellows.

At Elon, Chergui majored in international and global studies, minored in leadership studies and was a Leadership Fellow. She dedicated her academic and experiential pursuits to the study of the Middle East and North Africa and received the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship to study abroad in Amman, Jordan, where she interned with a peacebuilding nongovernment organization. These experiences were invaluable in helping her to receive , which will train and prepare her for a career in the Foreign Service through the State Department.

Her Elon mentors include Kevin Bourque, LD Russell, Sandy Marshall and Maritza Gulin.

Bethany Marzella ’24

Bethany Marzella, a member of the Class of 2024 with a major in international and global studies and six minors (peace and conflict studies, political science, interreligious studies, geography, Islamic studies, and Middle East studies) has been selected as an alternate for a Fulbright research grant to Oman. Marzella’s proposed project in Oman would be a continuation of her �þ��� research on sectarian conflict.

At Elon, Marzella was a Phi Beta Kappa Multifaith Scholar whose work focused on the Middle East. She spent a semester abroad in Amman, Jordan, which she cites as the most influential experience she had while an �þ���. In the future, she is eager to attend graduate school abroad in a field related to politics and international studies.

Marzella’s constellation of Elon mentors includes Sandy Marshall, Tom Kerr, Summeye Pakdil, Amy Allocco and Allegra Laing.

Sarah Mirrow ’24

An economics and applied mathematics double major and a French minor from the Class of 2024, Sarah Mirrow has been selected as an alternate for a Fulbright grant to pursue a master’s degree in economics from University College Dublin in Ireland. She is from Arlington, Virginia.

At Elon, Mirrow was an Honors Fellow and Lumen Scholar who pursued two years of rigorous research about how access to abortion clinics impacts female educational attainment. She chose to pursue a Fulbright grant in Ireland specifically because the country has experienced abortion legislation upheaval in the past 10 years that presents a unique research opportunity.

Mirrow’s ultimate goal is to pursue a doctorate in economics. Her most influential Elon mentors include Steve Bednar and Karen Yokley.

Claire D. Przybocki ’24

Claire D. Przybocki, a member of the Class of 2024, has been selected as an alternate for a Fulbright grant to teach English in Poland. At Elon, Przybocki was a double major in international and global studies and economics with minors in Islamic studies, interreligious studies, and leadership studies. She was also a Leadership Fellow, a Multifaith Scholar, a Maryland Public Service Scholar, and served as the vice president of Elon’s Arabic Language Organization.

Pryzbocki’s time as a Multifaith Scholar, where she spent two years researching refugee resettlement in Poland, plus her experience working with international nongovernment organizations, motivated her to apply for this grant to teach English in Poland. In the future, she plans to attend graduate school to prepare her for a career in migrant resettlement. Her constellation of Elon mentors includes Brian Pennington, Amy Allocco and Sandy Marshall.

Such a discovery was the basis for his Lumen Prize research, “Access is Not Enough: Supporting People of Diverse Backgrounds, Beliefs and Cultures in Outdoor Experiential Education (OEE).”

“Through my experiences there and the courses of my major, more and more, the exclusionary history of the outdoors is pretty clear,” Hyle said. “So often we see that access is equated with equity in the field and that’s not necessarily the case at all. My project focuses on how can we better support marginalized identities within the field of OEE.”

The Lumen Prize is Elon’s most prestigious award for �þ��� research and grants scholars a $20,000 scholarship to support a chosen research project, allowing them to work closely with a faculty mentor on that project for two years. Each year, 15 rising juniors are named Lumen Scholars and conduct research that often produces conference presentations and publications.

Hyle’s project is focused on interviewing outdoor experiential education leaders from college, for-profit and nonprofit programs to get information on what kind of social justice initiatives and training they have in place.

The Association for Experiential Education outlines six values guiding the field of experiential education and one of those is social justice. However, most outdoor learning programs lacked a detailed and dedicated plan to achieve that goal.

Hyle, along with his mentor, Associate Professor of Education Scott Morrison, interviewed 22 leaders in OEE to gauge how they felt about their organization’s mission toward social justice and whether they feel they support people from marginalized identities within their programming.

A majority of those interviewed felt that their organizations were working toward meeting those goals, but closer inspection showed that there are more gaps that need to be addressed.

“We saw there was a little more complex of a picture,” Hyle said. “A lot of the talk in the field was so focused on access. As a result, the conclusion and implications of my research talk more about why support and moving toward empowerment for marginalized identities in the field is important and hopefully identifies some steps and ways to move forward.”

OEE tends to limit who gets access based on several factors, but race, class and gender are the primary reasons. “It’s male-dominated, it’s white-dominated and it’s middle- and upper-class-dominated. If you’re from a group that’s not part of those dominant areas, then you don’t get to go,” Morrison said.

But granting access to these spaces is only part of the equation.

“Getting people to have an experience outside is one thing,” Morrison added. “But once they’re there, how do you know you’re effective at bringing people in who don’t normally have those experiences?”

The way to achieve this is through creating in-depth training for those in leadership positions to ensure they are creating as open and welcoming of an environment as possible. But more than that, there has to be due diligence in assessing and evaluating the performance of the training afterward.

“Most people don’t know what to do past that point, besides these ideas of doing these trainings. But the trainings that are happening, they’re not being evaluated,” Hyle said. “Making sure that we implement forms of assessment or evaluation to reflect on these trainings and build upon them is important.”

Hyle and Morrison are both white men, and 19 of the 22 people they interviewed were white. They are aware that many people within OEE are reluctant to get into such uncomfortable topics. The pair began their Lumen research in the middle of not just the COVID-19 pandemic, but the wake of social injustices in the United States such as the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.

During that time, most of the organizations they spoke with were also caught up in that moment.

“The deeper we dug, we realized that it was probably more superficial than a culture around justice in the organization,” Morrison said.  “I don’t want to frame that too negatively, but that’s one of the themes. We saw evidence of allyship … people that we talked to agreed to participate, so it’s a convenience sample, no doubt. But we didn’t hear a lot of examples of sustained training.”

Hyle said that “whiteness permeates OEE” which makes it difficult to integrate training in some ways. With the field uniquely situated to accommodate engaging and safe spaces, expanding is the way to fully integrate these practices.

“Expanding the field and unlearning that content is important for that integration of training. Once you get into that integration of training, you also need to get not just feedback from staff on training, but also feedback from participants on programming and see are they feeling supported.”

In the time spent on this research, Morrison has seen the many ways Hyle has grown – not just as a researcher, but as a person.

“I think it’s helped his racial identity development, I think that he grew a lot as an interviewer and he’s been a very organized and thorough researcher,” Morrison said. “I’m hoping that he’ll bring some of what he learned as a researcher into practice.”

Hyle graduated from Elon in May magna cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in adventure, health and physical education. Following graduation, the Burlington native will start as an apprentice teacher at a charter school in Henderson, North Carolina.

Eventually, Hyle hopes to acquire his master’s and doctorate degrees and continue as an educator with hopes to become a professor in experiential or outdoor education.

“I think it’s a very transformative field and I think it can be pushed to be more equitable,” Hyle said. “Doing this research project has further engrained me … in the betterment of the field. Hopefully, I can take this research and apply it from a programmatic standpoint so that way it’s impacting real change within organizations.”

Learn more about the Lumen Prize and its recipients here.

Lumen Scholars will work closely with their mentors during the next two years to pursue and complete their projects. Efforts traditionally include coursework, study abroad, research both on and off campus, internships locally and overseas, program development, and creative productions and performances.

The name for the Lumen Prize comes from Elon’s historic motto, “Numen Lumen,” which are Latin words meaning “spiritual light” and “intellectual light.” The words, which are found on the �þ��� seal, signify the highest purposes of an Elon education.

For the first time ever, one student has been named the recipient of The Daniel Cavarretta Award, an annual award gifted by senior Lumen Scholars to a rising junior or senior outside the Lumen program in support of their �þ��� research and scholarly development. The award is given in memory of Daniel Cavarretta ’19, who was a member of the Lumen Scholar Class of 2017. This year’s Cavarretta Award recipient is international business and finance double major Meghan Murray ’21, whose research is titled “Leadership and corporate responsibility: The role of spiritual intelligence.”

2020 Lumen Prize Winners

Hannah Allen

Psychology
Project title: “Cultural differences in positive psychology as moderators of the relation between positive parenting and child outcomes”
Mentor: Anne-Marie Iselin

Sarah Austin

Statistics
Environmental Studies
Project title: “El Mundo Está Ardiendo: Exploring the links between cattle ranching in the Amazon, forest fires, and children’s health”
Mentor: Mark Weaver

Hayley Clos

Chemistry
Project title: “Assessing the effects of climate change on the release of metals into agricultural products”
Mentor: Dan Wright

Ashlyn Crain

Biology
Project title: “Mitigating carbon emissions: Four strategies for sequestering atmospheric CO2 in trees”
Mentor: David Vandermast

Melissa Denish

Biochemistry
Project title: “Manipulating the molecular basis of Tay Sachs Disease using a neuronal cell model”
Mentors: Tonya Train, Kathy Matera

Trinity Dixon

Human Service Studies
Spanish
Project title: “The Reclamation: Stories from the margins and the LGBTQIA+ communities in El Salvador”
Mentor: Nina Namaste

Deena Elrefai

International and Global Studies
Public Health Studies
Project title: “The Latinx reproductive experience: Barriers and facilitators towards positive engagement”
Mentor: Stephanie Baker

Katherine Fulks

Dance Performance and Choreography
Arts Adminstration
Project title: “The politics of dancing: A study of ballet as a political tool”
Mentor: Jennifer Guy

Jacob Hyle

Adventure-Based Learning
Project title: “Access is not enough: Supporting people of diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and cultures in outdoor experiential education”
Mentor: Scott Morrison

Natalie Ivanov

Finance
Accounting
Project title: “An evaluation of the European Central Bank’s policies on living standards: The impact of negative rates on restricted capital flows and trade patterns”
Mentor: Vitaliy Strohush

Eukela Little

Psychology
Project title: “Strong, Black, and selfish: Re-framing the strong Black woman persona to include self-care through a mobile health intervention”
Mentor: Buffie Longmire-Avital

Amy Moore

Applied Mathematics
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Project title: “Measuring gerrymandering: Investigating the distributions of party ratios for districting techniques”
Mentor: Todd Lee

Cassidy Perry

Dance Performance and Choreography
Project title: “Creating an Optimal Performer: A Body Composition and Performance Analysis”
Mentors: Renay Aumiller, Titch Madzima

Carolyn Vaughan

Biochemistry
Project title: “NUT Carcinoma: Investigating drug synergy and the molecular mechanism of drug resistance”
Mentor: Victoria Moore

Kristina Woodis

Biology
Project title: “Investigating the link between the gut microbiome and epilepsy in zebrafish”
Mentor: Jennifer Uno