Nine international relations undergraduate students receive major awards

The Maxwell School‘s undergraduate international relations program has announced that eight 2012 graduates and one 2011 graduate have received major awards, including six Fulbrights to teach English abroad.

Leah Kelsch Moushey, a 2012 graduate, has received the prestigious Boren Graduate Fellowship Award, a scholarship sponsored by the National Security Education Program to help students who wish to work in the federal national security arena to acquire foreign language and international skills. She will study Portuguese at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlant in Maputo, Mozambique, during the 2012-2013 academic year. Moushey is also the 2012 recipient of the Harlan Cleveland Award for Excellence in International Policy Issues for academic achievement and involvement in the areas that former Maxwell Dean Cleveland’s career represented.

Jonathan C. Nwosu, a 2012 graduate, was awarded the Julian R. Friedman Award for Internationalism, named for a former Maxwell political science professor and given annually to a graduating senior for outstanding academic achievement, community involvement and a commitment to the spirit of internationalism. Nwosu’s topic concentration is international security and diplomacy in the Middle East. He is a Ronald McNair Scholar, a Winston-Fisher Seminar Scholar and a Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellow. His research project for the Renée Crown University Honors program examines Turkey’s emergence as a regional power and a U.S. strategic partner. Nwosu also has won a Fulbright fellowship to Korea, where he will teach English.

Yiwei Wu, a 2012 graduate, earned the Goodwin Cooke Award for Leadership in International Relations, which honors the career of Ambassador and Professor-of-Practice Goodwin Cooke, former director of undergraduate studies in international relations. Wu’s concentration is international political economy in Asia. She was a member of the Syracuse University-Maxwell School delegation to the 2011 and 2012 National Model United Nations conferences, volunteered with the Say Yes to Education program, worked as a resident advisor, served as an advertising representative for the Daily Orange and received the SU 44 Stars of Excellence Award for Public Advocacy for her work as managing editor of The Outcrowd magazine.

Robert D. Solonick, a 2012 graduate, won the International Relations Scholar of the Year Award for academic excellence in international relations. The award honors Professor G. Matthew Bonham, former director of the international relations program. Solonick combined his major in international relations with majors in Spanish language, literature and culture as well as history. His geographic area of concentration is Latin America and the Caribbean, with a topic concentration of international security and diplomacy. He was a member of the student finance board, a treasurer for the SU Volunteer Organization, a representative and cabinet member in the student government association and a research assistant. Solonick will attend the Maxwell School’s MPA/MAIR program in Fall 2012.

In total, six international relations majors won Fulbright Scholarships. They include Stephen A. Barton, Wesley M. Milillo, Nwosu, Teresa Soldner, Solonick, and Rachel E. Young, who will teach English in Russia, Malaysia, Korea, Jordan, China and Korea, respectively. With the exception of Soldner, who earned her IR degree in 2011, all are 2012 graduates of the program.