Points of Pride

Goldwater Scholarship

Twelve IUP students are national Barry M. Goldwater Scholars, selected for their demonstrated excellence in science and mathematics. They’ve done groundbreaking work in everything from monitoring and recommending how to improve water quality in third-world countries to understanding how western medicine is integrated into the world of traditional healers. The Goldwater Scholarship funds a year of tuition for its recipients.

Fulbright Research Grant

We’ve had 16 Fulbright award winners since 1996. IUP students have traveled all over the globe as part of their Fulbright experience, teaching and doing research in their chosen countries, impacting people from all over the globe, and helping people throughout the world to feel a little more connected.

Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship

IUP students have won 20 Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships. Fewer than 400 students annually are chosen for these awards, which provide funding for a semester or year of study abroad. These students are selected because of the promise they show as emerging leaders in our increasingly global economy and interdependent world.

Freeman-ASIA Award

Students might come to us with an interest in Asia, or they might find their passion for Asian studies from faculty and interesting coursework. IUP students have won 10 Freeman-Asia study-abroad awards, which supports American undergraduates with demonstrated financial need who want to study overseas in East or Southeast Asia.

David L. Boren Scholarship

Three IUP students have been selected for the highly competitive National Security Education Program David L. Boren Scholarship. This scholarship provides funding for a year of study abroad, and recipients provide at least one year of work for the federal government after they complete their undergraduate or graduate studies.

Fund for Education Abroad

Mirian Lua, an IUP Cook Honors College nursing major, was the first recipient in the Pennsylvania State System to win a Fund for Education Abroad Scholarship. She used the award to participate in “The Road to Santiago: A Medieval Pilgrimage Across Northern Spain,” a 550-mile journey along the Camino de Santiago.

Biden Courage Award

Every day, we have students who stand up for one another, and for what they believe is right. Adrianna Branin, a political science and religious studies double major from Philadelphia, was honored with the 2019 Biden Courage Award, which celebrates student heroes who are working to stop sexual assault.

And it’s not just our students who achieve big dreams.

IUP professors have won more than 60 Fulbright scholarships since the program’s inception in 1946, the most of any university in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. IUP’s 2019 recipient, Dr. Josiah Townsend, connected four IUP students with his Fulbright to Honduras by inviting them to be presenters at an international biodiversity conference there.

IUP has graduated six Pulitzer Prize winners. Communications media alumna Melissa Tkach ’99 and journalism and public relations alumni Paula Reed Ward ’96, Susan Snyder ’85, Alysia Burton Steele ’97; Doug List ’78; and Madelyn Ross ’71 continue to be involved with IUP and its students.

IUP’s Chief Information Officer Bill Balint ’88 is the 2016 recipient of the Pittsburgh Technology Council’s Chief Technology Officer award.

Dr. Charles McCreary, associate professor of French, was honored with the Nancy, France, Gold Medal of the City for his work in the IUP-Nancy student exchange program.