About the Award 
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Meaningful, rigorous academic work is at the core of quality education abroad programming that requires critical thinking, analysis, and creativity. Pursuing academic endeavors abroad poses unique challenges and opportunities for students to development a richer understanding of other cultures and societies as well as themselves. 

The Forum on Education Abroad's Award for Academic Achievement Abroad recognizes thoughtful academic projects that students complete as part of their education abroad programs. Through the award, we aim to highlight the full range of academic excellence that can be achieved through education abroad experiences, in the fine arts and humanities, social sciences, and STEM disciplines.
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For education abroad professionals in The Forum’s network, this award underscores the important ways that education abroad impacts student learning and reminds us of some of the reasons why we do what we do.​

2024 Award Finalists

Congratulations to this year's finalists for the Award for Academic Achievement Abroad! Award recipients will be acknowledged during the virtual portion of The Forum’s Annual Conference.

Ella Chabre
Project Title: "Visual flower preferences of perfume foraging male Euglossa viridissima (Apidae: Euglossini) from orchids
in Monteverde, Costa Rica"
Discipline: STEM - Biological and biomedical sciences
Program/Location: UCEAP Costa Rica Tropical Biology and Conservation
Home Institution: University of California Santa Cruz

Benjamin Gicqueau
Project Title: "Volunteering for a Longevity Society: An Evaluation of Active-Aging in Taiwan"
Discipline: Social Sciences
Program/Location: National Taiwan University
Home Institution: University of California Berkeley

Madison Kennedy-Kequom
Project Title: "Indigenous Studies in Southeast Asia"
Discipline: Area, Ethnic, Cultural and Gender Studies
Program: Inter Mountain Peoples Education & Culture Association (IMPECT), Thailand and Cambodia
Home Institution: Michigan State University

Sarah Raman
Project Title: "Moi j'étudie la dislocation à gauche : Le cas de moi je dans le corpus GREMO"
Discipline: Foreign Languages and Literatures
Program: IFE's Strasbourg (France) Field Study and Internship Program
Home Institution: Carleton College​

Award Information

Criteria

1. Nominations are accepted from students who studied abroad via a current institutional member of The Forum. Eligibility can be established via a students home institution, host institution, or education abroad program provider organization. 
   *If you aren’t sure of your member status, view our Member Directory.
   
2. Nominated student must have been:
   
   1. an undergraduate student participating in an education abroad program at the time the academic work was conducted; and
      
   2. enrolled as an undergraduate student in the 6 months prior to the submission deadline (that is, not having graduated more than six months before the deadline).
3. The nominated project must be completed. It may be conducted in any academic discipline, and can include collaborative research projects conducted jointly and co-authored by students and faculty.
4. For the award, “academic project” is understood in its broadest possible sense: complex site-based research, papers considering a single topic, convening of education or cultural events, and projects realized in electronic or traditional artistic media.

SELECTION PROCESS

​All nominations received in their entirety prior to the deadline will be read and scored by two (2) faculty reviewers. Faculty reviewers are individuals with advanced training in the discipline in for which the student is nominated and have experience teaching in the subject area, working with undergraduate students on academic projects in the discipline, and familiarity with education abroad opportunities.
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Nominations are rated based on:

• level of scholarship,
• degree of innovation,
• leveraging of the resources distinctive to the program site,
• incorporation of knowledge of local culture and language in the project,
• faculty recommendation,
• and the nominee’s own description of how the experience transformed them.

​Faculty scores and comments are then evaluated by the members of the Award Selection Committee, who select the winners. Students identified as finalists may be invited to a phone or Zoom conversation to discuss their work with 1-2 members of The Forum’s Award Selection Committee prior to selecting a winner.
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Nomination instructions

Nominations must be submitted in English, even if the academic work was conducted and/or the project completed in another language.

A complete nomination includes the following:
Nomination Form: 
Student Statement: Students are encouraged to work closely with their faculty nominator and/or Forum Institutional Representative to ensure that these questions are being answered clearly and completely.

This statement should address the following:

• Briefly describe (one page or less) your education abroad program: Where? When? For how long? What kind of coursework or other experiential learning opportunities did it include? Be sure to explain how the project for which you are being nominating fit in to your overall education abroad experience.
• Describe your project, including: (approx. two pages, double-spaced);
  • the topic or goals,
  • the methodology or approach used,
  • results or outcomes of the project,
  • the project’s relevance to the applicable academic discipline(s) and/or the community,
  • explicit reference to approval or exempt status for Internal Review Board (IRB) or Animal Care Committee when project involves work with human participants or animals respectively.
• Describe how your education abroad experience and the time you spent on-site enhanced your learning experience, your personal experience, and your academic, personal, and/or professional goals (approx. one page, double-spaced)
• The nomination form also includes a space to add a link or upload a document the represents the project output, e.g., photos of artistic productions, links to online portfolios or videos, academic papers, posters, or presentations, etc. We encourage nominees to use this space to their advantage.

​Faculty Recommendation should be written by the faculty advisor who is most familiar with the student’s academic work.
In their letter, the faculty member should:

• Discuss the significance and quality of the nominated student’s project.
• Provide reasons for supporting the nominated student to receive the award.
• Place the student’s project within the context of other undergraduate work that the faculty member has known or supervised.
• Help reviewers understand how the nature of the nominated work is enhanced by the education abroad experience.

*All materials should be submitted in English, regardless of the language of the project or program.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I would like to nominate a student who participated in a program run by my organization. How can I encourage them to apply?
A: We recommend you spread the word about this opportunity to your students.

• Share this page on your office's social media accounts.
• Forward a Forum email about the opportunity to students on programs that include eligible projects and activities.
• Reach out to faculty who lead programs to have them help you reach the students who would be good candidates for the award.
• Offer to review submission materials or provide a letter of support to help the student complete their application on time.

Q: Why did you change the process so that students can now self-nominate?
A: Our goal is to reach as many students as possible to celebrate the wonderful educational opportunities that our community helps connect them to. We're trying this new approach to eliminate barriers to make it easier for students and international educators to nominate great projects. We hope our colleagues will still take an active role in encouraging students to complete their nominations!

Q: Can I nominate a project conducted on a graduate program?
A: No, this award is designed to recognize undergraduate students only.

Q: Can I self-nominate for a project I worked on as a part of a team?
A: Yes. We are happy to consider nominations of group projects and have given the award to groups in the past. Please prepare a single nomination form for the entire project team.

Q: Can I self-nominate for a project that I began while studying abroad but finished after I returned home?
A: Yes, we welcome nominations for completed projects that included work not conducted onsite provided that a significant portion of the work was done during the education abroad experience and/or that the project included the time spent on-site as an essential component of its completion.

Q: I already graduated. Can I still apply?
A: Perhaps. We accept nominations of graduated students as long as they did not graduate more than six (6) months before our nomination deadline. This means that students who graduated during North American Spring and Summer terms of the same year as the application deadline are eligible. The education abroad program for which they are being nominated has to have taken place at some time during their undergraduate academic career.

Q: I would like to nominate a student who completed their project (partially or completely) online because their program was altered by COVID-19. Are they eligible?
A: Yes. Just be sure that nomination materials reflect this clearly.

Additional questions can be directed to Amelia Dietrich, Senior Director for Research and Publications, [email protected].
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Learn About Past Award Winners

2023

 Congratulations to the Winners of the 2023 Award for Academic Achievement Abroad!

º«¹úÈý¼¶Æ¬congratulates these outstanding education abroad alumni and the dedicated international educators who made their education abroad experiences possible. The students presented their work at the Virtual Awards Ceremony during The Forum's Virtual Annual Conference on March 7, 2024. They were also recognized at the Awards Luncheon during the in-person portion of the Annual Conference in Boston, March 22, 2024.

Peter Palombi 
​UC-Berkeley
Project: "Effect of environmental factors on web-building patterns in the larvae of a new species of fungus gnat (Keroplatidae: Neoditomyia)"
​Program: UCEAP Tropical Biology and Conservation program, hosted by the Monteverde Institute (Monteverde, Costa Rica)
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​Oamfah Suwannapong, Adam Giordani, and Melissa Kelly
​Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)
Project: "Reducing Waste Through Innovation: Engaging the Melbourne Community via Plastic Bottle Cap Recycling"
Program: WPI Global Projects Program (Melbourne, Australia)

​>> C​lick here to read our news story about The Forum's 2023 Award Winners.
>> of the  2023 virtual awards ceremony .

2022

The Forum congratulates the recipient of the 2022 Award for Academic Achievement Abroad. Kiya presented her project and accepted her award at the virtual awards presentation of the hybrid 19th Annual Conference.

Student: Kiya Henderson
Nominating member: Pomona College
Program: Global Health and Human Rights Program, School for International Training (SIT) Kenya Study Abroad
Project: “A Retrospective Analysis of Maternal Mortality in Kisumu, Kenya from March 2021 to March 2022: The Effects of Proximal and Distal Factors on Maternal Outcomes.”
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2021 

The Forum congratulates the recipient of the 2021 Award for Academic Achievement Abroad. Emily will present her project at the virtual awards ceremony of the hybrid 18th Annual Conference, “Globally Interconnected: New Opportunities and the Challenge of Change.”
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Student: Emily Wilbourne
Nominating member: Elon University
Program: Semester exchange at Sungkyunkwan University and sponsored research in Seoul, South Korea
Project: “The Impact of Japanese Colonialism on the Religiosity of Korean Seungmu Dance”

2020

The Forum congratulates the recipients of the 2020 Award for Academic Achievement Abroad. Mya and Calder presented their projects at the 17th Annual Conference , held virtually, March 1-5, 2021

Student: Mya Singleton
Nominating member: University of Virginia
Program: IFE France: Strasbourg Field Study and Internship Program
Project: In Good Faith: The Absence of Informed Consent in the Retroactive Use of Biological Material in Pathological Research

Student: Calder Hollond
Nominating member: Pomona College
Program: SIT Argentina: Public Health in Urban Environments
Project: The perspectives and experiences of professionals in the field of assisted reproduction in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and Bahía Blanca in 2020

2019

The Forum congratulates the recipients of the 2019 Award for Academic Achievement Abroad. Siri and Taylor presented their projects at the 16th Annual Conference , held virtually, on April 23, 2020.
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from on .

Student: Siri Lee
Nominating member: University of Chicago
Program: Exchange program with Peking University, Beijing, China
Project: “ZÀO: A History of Chinese Discourse through Famine and Revolution”

Student: Taylor Garner
Nominating member: Elon University
Program: CIEE Liberal Arts Program in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Arabic language program at an-Najah University Arabic Institute in Nablus, Palestine
Project: “Women as Transmitters of Memory in Contexts of Violence and Struggle”

from on .

2018

The Forum congratulates the recipients of the 2018 Award for Academic Achievement Abroad. Naomi, Jared and Mackenzie presented their research projects at the 15th Annual Conference in Denver, March 29, 2019.

Student: Naomi Caldwell 
Nominating member: Middlebury College
Program: Middlebury-C.V. Starr School in Argentina
Project: “History and Evolution of Monuments: Buenos Aires”

from on .

Students: Jared Belsky and Mackenzie Nelsen
Nominating member: The Umbra Institute
Program: Food and Sustainability Studies Program
Project: “Cultivating Activism Through Terroir: An Anthropology of Sustainable Winemakers in Umbria, Italy”

from on .

2017

Congratulations to the recipients of the 2017 Award for Academic Achievement Abroad. Nathanael and Cassandra will present their research projects at the 14th Annual Conference in Boston, March 23, 2018.

Student: Nathanael Bartosch 
Nominating member: Eastern Kentucky University
Program: EKU Anthropology Custom Program: Primates in Analabe Gallery Forest, Northern Madagascar
Project: “Lemurs Living Near Farmers (Year 2): Behavioral Study of Endangered Primates”

Student: Cassandra Wanna
Nominating member: Middlebury College
Program: Middlebury-C.V. Starr School in Jordan
Project: “Life in Blue: Perspectives of Syrian Refugees in Azraq Camp”

2016

º«¹úÈý¼¶Æ¬congratulates the recipients of its 2016 Award for Academic Achievement Abroad.
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Student: Shanna Law, Juniata College
Nominating member: BCA Study Abroad
Program: BCA Dunedin
Project: “Geology, evaporative salt accumulation and geoecology at Springvale historic gold mine, Central Otago, New Zealand”

Student: Jeb Polstein, Bowdoin College
Nominating member: South India Term Abroad (SITA)
Program: South India Term Abroad
Project: “Agrarian Freedom in Madurai’s Urban Agriculture”

2015

The Forum is proud to announce the two winners of the 2015 Undergraduate Research Awards: Shavonne Stanek of Oberlin College and Pauline Day of Wellesley College. The students’ projects were judged by faculty from Forum member institutions, who found them to be the best examples of the highest quality academic achievements of undergraduates studying abroad.
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Student: Shavonne Stanek, Oberlin College
Nominating member: Oberlin College
Program: Tanzania-Zanzibar: Coastal Ecology and Natural Resource Management – School for International Training
Project: “The Pelagic Artisanal Fishing of Mangapwani, Northern Unguja”

Student: Pauline Day, Wellesley College
Nominating member: IFE – Institute for Field Education
Program: Paris Field Study and Internship Program
Project: “A Continual Evolution: The reform of France’s ‘Politique de la Ville’ as an urban peace-building mechanism in the suburbs of Paris”

2014

The Forum is proud to announce the two winners of the 2014 Undergraduate Research Awards: Wesley Hauser of Wabash College and Erin Emmons of the College of the Holy Cross, and Alex Temeña of Brown University. Wesley, Erin and Alexx presented their research at The Forum’s 11th Annual Conference in New Orleans on March 27, 2015.
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Students: Wesley Hauser of Wabash College
and Erin Emmons of the College of the Holy Cross
Nominating member: The School for Field Studies
Program: Rainforest Studies Program
Project:“Putting Lumholtz’s Tree-Kangaroo on the Map: Using Present Distribution
to Assess Habitat Requirements and Identify Areas for Further Surveys”

Student: Alexx Temeña of Brown University
Nominating member: Antioch Education Abroad
Program: Buddhist Studies in India
Project: “’Others Before Self:’ Buddhist Influences at Tibetan Children’s Village, Selakui”

2013

The Forum is proud to announce the two winners of the 2013 Undergraduate Research Awards: Madison Stevens of Franklin University Switzerland and Narintohn Luangrath of Boston College. Madison and Narintohn presented their research at The Forum’s 10th Annual Conference in San Diego on April 4, 2014.
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Student: Madison Stevens, Franklin University Switzerland
Nominating member: SIT Study Abroad
Program: Uganda: Post-Conflict Transformation, SIT Study Abroad, Gulu, Uganda
Project: “Lara Ngom ii Acoli: Identifying Root Causes and the Impact of Cultural Cataclysm on Land Conflict Resolution in Nwoya District, Northern Uganda”

Student: Narintohn Luangrath, Boston College
Nominating member: Boston College
Program: Dublin Internship Program, Boston College
Project: “Tearmainn na héireann: Direct Provision Housing, Child Asylum Seekers, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child”

2012

​Mary Jane Dempsey (pictured, left), a senior at The College of New Jersey, is a double-major in History and International Studies with a minor in Italian, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. While studying abroad in Bologna, Italy at the Spring Hill College Italy Center she conducted research in order to understand what laws have been constructed by the Italian government to regulate immigration and to study how they affect the lives of immigrants and their means of gaining citizenship. A particular focus of her research was to examine lives of the children of immigrants by conducting interviews with them.

Ellen Broen (pictured, right), a triple major in French, Music and International Studies at the University of Richmond, spent a semester in Paris at Université Vincennes-Saint-Denis (Paris VIII), through the Mission interuniversitaire de coordination des échanges franco-américains Paris-Ile de France (MICEFA), a consortium of most of the Universities of Paris. Her research focused on Giacomo Meyerbeer, a mid-19th century composer who was a mentor to famed German composer Richard Wagner, who Broen discovers through her archival research was the source of prejudice against Meyerbeer.

Mary Jane and Ellen presented their work in Chicago on April 5, 2013 at a plenary session during The Forum’s Ninth Annual Conference.

2011

On Friday, March 23, 2012 Award winners Richard Hong and Claire Jenson presented their research at a plenary luncheon at the Forum’s 8th Annual Conference in Denver.

Richard Hong spent a semester in Mexico, where he conducted field research in Tapachula, and commuted between the border towns of Ciudad Hidalgo in Mexico and Tecun Uman in Guatemala. His project used an ethnographic survey that he designed to interview undocumented Central American migrants. Claire Jenson’s project, conducted over the course of a year at the Center for University Programs Abroad (CUPA) in Paris, focused on the history of a medieval illuminated manuscript, searching for sources that revealed its ownership, deciphering its text, and analyzing its decorations.
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