Scholarship Award Winners

Illinois Students Continue to Shine.

Illinois students continue to shine.

Illinois students continue to shine. A record tying 16 Illini earned Fulbright grants (30% of our pool) and another 6 students were named Fulbright alternates. All 3 of our Boren applicants won Boren Scholarships, and in the Udall Scholarship competition, we had both a recipient and an honorable mention. This years award recipients also included a Goldwater, Schwarzman, and Truman Scholar. An Illinois applicant was named a Rhodes finalist, and 4 students were awarded Critical Language Scholarships. Further, a robust 24 students (80% of our applicants) received Gilman Scholarships.

2021 saw a record number of University of Illinois students applying for various awards, and the recipient numbers mirrored that: a Knight-Hennessy Scholar (76 of 8,000), Rhodes Scholar, Beinecke Scholar (16 from 135 nominating institutions), five Critical Language Scholars, and a Boren Scholar. Ten of our eleven Gilman applicants earned a scholarship, and we also had a student named a Udall Honorable Mention. Moreover, for the first time since 2005, all four of our nominated students received Goldwater Scholarships. In the Fulbright competition, 37 of our record 69 applicants were named finalists; among them three were named alternates and nine offered grants in a year that nationally saw a drastic decrease in the number of Fulbright awards available.

Once again, Illinois scholarship applicants showed a high level of success in various competitions. For the first time ever, two of our four nominees were named Udall Scholars in the same year. They are among the 37 awardees in the environmental category, from among the 359 young environmentalists nationally nominated. In the Boren Scholarship competition, 4 of our 8 applicants received the award, and 2 others were named alternates. In the student Fulbright competition nearly 40% of our 52 Fulbright applicants were either offered a grant or named an alternate, with 15 offered awards and 5 alternates. Also on the national stage, 2 Illinois students were named Goldwater Scholars. Finally, an Illinois candidate was named one of 145 Schwarzman Scholars from an international pool of 4,700 applicants. It's great to be an Illini!