Alumna, student each receive Fulbright US program recognition
Monday, May 2, 2022
MANHATTAN — The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is recognizing a Kansas State University recent graduate and a current student: Annie Cortes, a 2021 graduate in elementary education, Pittsburg, and Kayla Craigmile, senior in Spanish, anthropology and international studies, Shawnee.
Cortes is a Fulbright finalist and has been offered a Fulbright grant to serve as an English teaching assistant in Taiwan. Craigmile was selected as a Fulbright alternate to attend the University College of London's Institute of Education master's program in applied linguistics.
The Fulbright programs create international educational exchange opportunities to increase mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and the people of other countries. Fulbright grant recipients receive round-trip transportation, tuition when applicable and a monthly living stipend for one academic year abroad. Alternates could be named as recipients at any time while the current award period is open.
"Fulbright is open to many different academic disciplines and many different kinds of proposals, but they are always looking for individuals who will help them meet that mission of increasing mutual understanding," said Jim Hohenbary, director of the K-State Office of Nationally Competitive Scholarships. "In addition to being great students, Annie and Kayla are both fundamentally interested in building bridges through language learning, and I am sure that this resonated with Fulbright reviewers."
Cortes will spend the 2022-2023 academic year as an English teaching assistant in Taiwan, a country she first visited through a study abroad experience in the summer of 2018. When she attended K-State, she was involved in Circle K International and served as vice president from 2019-2020 and as Kansas district secretary from 2020-2021. She also was president of the Asian American Student Union for 2020-2021, social chair for the Smurthwaite Scholarship and Leadership House for 2018-2019, and a member of Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity. She received the Tomorrow's Teacher Award from the College of Education in 2017.
She graduated summa cum laude from K-State in 2021 with an emphasis in English as a second language and a minor in Japanese. Since graduation, she has been working as an English as a second language paraprofessional in the Pittsburg school district.
Cortes is the daughter of Bienvenido and Paige Cortes and a graduate of Pittsburg High School.
Craigmile is an undergraduate research assistant in the modern languages department under Andrea Faber, assistant professor, and is exploring grammatical gender concordance in native and heritage Spanish speakers. She is in the process of finishing and publishing her honors thesis, "A Holistic Analysis of Humor’s Effect on Second Language Acquisition," which investigates the role of humor in second language acquisition in the context of second language classrooms and homestays in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Craigmile is involved in multiple student organizations at K-State. She has served as the financial chair of International Buddies and as the Wildcats Forever chair for the Student Alumni Board. She was on the service committee for Mortar Board Senior Honor Society and is a member of the Asian American Student Union, Anthropology Club and Kappa Delta sorority. She is involved in the University Honors Program and is a Snyder Leadership Legacy Fellow. She has received the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, the Joey Lee Garmon Scholarship for Social Justice, the Doug Benson Scholarship and the Dr. Pat Bosco Graduate Student Scholarship.
Craigmile is the daughter of Scott and Tammie Green and a graduate of Shawnee Mission Northwest High School.
K-State students interested in the next application cycle for the Fulbright U.S. Student grant should contact Jim Hohenbary at jimlth@k-state.edu for more information. Students are encouraged to begin planning their application well ahead of the Aug. 15 campus deadline.
