Luther student named Fulbright Scholar

Luther College 2014 graduate Ashley Heffernen has been named a Fulbright Scholar for the 2015-16 academic year.

The highly competitive Fulbright foreign scholarship award provides funds for a year's educational experience abroad, including travel, health insurance and a monthly stipend to cover living expenses.

The Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship program, an element of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, fosters mutual understanding between the people of the United States and those of other countries by providing a native English speaker in their schools.

Heffernen, from Cedar Rapids, graduated from Luther in December 2014 after earning a bachelor's degree in Spanish and a minor in music. She will serve the Fulbright program as an English teaching assistant in Mexico.

"I plan to uphold Fulbright's mission by living my own mission: treat other humans as humans. Listen with the intention to understand, help willingly and gratefully. Learn always, teach always. Live empathically. And don't waste a single day," Heffernen said.

Fulbright scholars have been awarded 53 Nobel Prizes, 80 Pulitzer Prizes, and 28 have been named MacArthur Foundation Fellows. Fulbright alumni have become heads of state, ambassadors, heads of corporations, artists, university presidents, journalists, professors and teachers.