Clare Jones, of New Orleans, LA, has received a 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Student Grant in Creative Writing to New Zealand and Polynesia where she will research and write a book of poetry titled “Neotype” that weaves together themes of botany, ornithology, and geology of the area.

The following six University of Iowa students have been awarded a U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) to study critical needs languages during the summer of 2015: Laura Wang, Stephanie Rue, Destinee Gwee, Elaine Mou, Mandy Conrad, and Brittany Callahan.

Jeffrey Ding, a University of Iowa junior from Iowa City, Iowa, has been getting a lot of good news lately. Ding, a Presidential Scholar and member of the UI Honors Program, was attending a panel discussion about graduate study in the United Kingdom on Friday, April 10, in the Blank Honors Center when the Q & A session abruptly turned from the potential of the Rhodes Scholarship to the reality of the Truman Scholarship.

Douglas Baker, a senior majoring in piano and Japanese at the University of Iowa, has received a 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Student Award to further pursue his research abroad in a project titled, “The Japanese Style in Taijiro Goh’s Piano Music.” In this project, Douglas will gain access to unpublished compositions in archives held in Japan, where he plans to explore the methods Taijiro Goh used in order to express a Japanese style in his compositions. Goh was notably recognized as the composer of Japan’s first violin concerto in 1935.