The Marshall Scholarship and a spot in the Fulbright Scholar Program may soon be filled by ACU students.

Brittany Partridge, senior political science major from Annandale, Minn., has applied and is a finalist for the Marshall Scholarship. She is currently in the interview process of the application.

“The draw for me to go there is to be able to study in Europe, which is where I would like to work eventually, and address policy and organized crime, in relation to human trafficking,” Partridge said.

According to their website, the Marshall Scholarship is available to students who are United States citizens and hold a degree from an accredited four-year college or university in the United States with a minimum GPA of 3.7.

Partridge is the first ACU student to apply for the Marshall Scholarship.

“A lot of students that win these are Ivy League students, and you don’t really see students coming from outside of that, so I think it speaks highly to the university and for students it is a phenomenal opportunity,” Partridge said, “I think there is a lot of qualified students at ACU, I just think they don’t know about it.”

Partridge, along with Marissa Marolf, senior biochemistry major from McKinney, have also both applied for the Fulbright Scholar Program.

According to their website, the Fulbright Program awards approximately 8,000 grants annually. Roughly 1,600 U.S. students, 4,000 foreign students, 1,200 U.S. scholars, and 900 visiting scholars receive awards, in addition to several hundred teachers and professionals. It is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government.

The scholarship programs are scheduled to begin next fall.

Marolf submitted her application to the Fulbright Program to work in Laos in Southeast Asia.

Marolf described the program as a “cultural exchange program”.

“I think the purpose of the Fulbright is to get young professionals and students more familiar with a particular region of the world, so in doing so, they serve as kind of an ambassador to get people more familiar in the U.S.,” Marolf said.

To learn more about the scholarships and how to apply, visit www.cies.org and www.marshallscholarship.org.