Athens, Ga. – Ashley Bartlett, a University of Georgia senior in the Honors Program, has won a 2011 Charles B. Rangel Graduate Fellowship. One of 15 selected nationally, Bartlett is the first UGA recipient of this award that recognizes outstanding students pursuing careers as U.S. Foreign Service diplomats.
Bartlett, who will graduate in May with bachelor’s degrees in international affairs and history, is from Longwood, Fla. and a graduate of Lake Mary High School.
“Ashley is clearly destined for a successful career in public service on an international level,” said David S. Williams, associate provost and director of UGA’s Honors Program. “As an undergraduate, she has taken advantage of numerous opportunities to conduct policy analysis and study abroad, all to glowing reports from those with whom she has worked.”
The Rangel Fellowship is administered through the Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program, a collaborative initiative between Howard University and the U.S. Department of State. The $90,000 fellowship is named after U.S. Congressman Charles B. Rangel in honor of his global leadership and longstanding commitment to promoting diversity in international relations.
As part of the scholarship, recipients also complete two summer internships, one in the U.S. Congress and one in a U.S. Embassy abroad. In exchange, participants work for up to three years as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer after earning a master’s degree in international affairs or a related field from a U.S. institution that is approved by the Rangel Program.
“I am absolutely ecstatic,” said Bartlett. “I have known that I wanted to join the Foreign Service since high school, and the Rangel is a path straight to my chosen career. I get to go straight into a top-notch international affairs graduate program, and be part of a group of scholars that are as committed to international affairs as I am.”
In preparation for her career, Bartlett has taken several study abroad trips. In summer 2008 through the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms program, she worked and lived with a family in Japan who owned a bed and breakfast. She then participated in the UGA at Oxford study abroad program in spring 2009. As a recipient of a UGA Honors International Scholarship, Bartlett studied Mandarin that summer at Zhejiang University of Technology in China.
Bartlett’s internship activities also have focused on her international affairs interests. She interned in the Department of State in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs through UGA’s Washington Semester Program last spring. She subsequently returned to Washington, D.C. as a Rangel Scholar at Howard University through the Summer Enrichment Program, the undergraduate component of the Rangel International Affairs Program.
Bartlett’s campus leadership includes serving as a teaching assistant for three years, leading the Honors Program’s introductory seminars for first-year students. She currently is the executive director for Volunteer UGA, a campus center for about 33 of UGA’s service-based student groups.
For more information on the Rangel Graduate Fellowship, see http://www.rangelprogram.org.
For more information on UGA’s Honors Program, see http://www.uga.edu/honors.