— Submitted photo. McKenna Mitchell, Webster City native and UNI alum, was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award, allowing her to teach in Spain for the 2023-2024 academic year.

CEDAR FALLS — According to a Wednesday news release, University of Northern Iowa alum McKenna Mitchell has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award for an English Teaching Assistantship to Spain for the 2023-2024 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

“As a future Spanish teacher, I think it’s going to give me so much more insight to give my students, especially if things in the textbooks are places I’ve been to or things I’ve seen or I’ve heard from people who have done these things,” said Mitchell, a Webster City native who earned her degree in 2022 in Spanish teaching and TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) education.

Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected in an open, merit-based competition that considers leadership potential, academic and/or professional achievement and record of service.

Their careers are enriched by joining a network of thousands of accomplished Fulbright alumni, many of whom are leaders in their fields.

Notable Fulbright alumni include 62 Nobel Prize laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize recipients, 78 MacArthur Fellows and 41 who have served as a head of state or government. Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 400,000 participants from more than 160 countries the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas, and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.

Last year, 828 people applied to the program to be English teaching assistants in Spain but only 184 were awarded positions.

The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program and is supported by the people of the United States and partner countries around the world.

The Fulbright Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the program.

More than 2,000 U.S. students, artists and early career professionals from all backgrounds and in more than 100 different fields of study receive Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards annually to study, teach English and conduct research overseas. Additionally, more than 800 U.S. scholars — faculty, artists and professionals — from all backgrounds teach or conduct research overseas through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program annually.

In the United States, the Institute of International Education supports the implementation of the Fulbright U.S. Student and U.S. Scholar Programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of State, including conducting an annual competition for the scholarships.

For further information about the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State, please visit the Fulbright Program’s website or contact the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Press Office at ECA-Press@state.gov.