The Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowship Mentoring (URFM) invites faculty and staff to help identify students who show academic excellence, leadership, and community engagement—qualities sought by prestigious national awards such as Fulbright, Truman, Rhodes, Goldwater, and more. By submitting a Letter of Excellence, you can encourage outstanding students to pursue opportunities they may not realize are within reach.

Through the Letters of Excellence Program, nominated students are invited to an information session on competitive fellowships and the Spark Fellowship Development Program—a 7-week, non-credit experience that helps students clarify their goals, explore opportunities in research, service, leadership, and international study, and connect with funding and fellowship pathways.

Which students should faculty contact with a letter of excellence?

Different opportunities are looking for different types of students but there are some themes that run through most programs and awards:

• Academic excellence: This does not mean a certain GPA. While some awards have a cut-off, many do not. Fulbright is a notable example of a program that does not heavily rely on GPA. Students must show intellectual curiosity and a genuine desire to learn.
   
• Depth of engagement: Students should have extracurricular interests that show that they have diverse interests, self-motivation and initiative.  This does not mean a laundry list of student organization participation but rather a few meaningful experiences such as study abroad, research, community service etc. Activities such as sports, music and artistic endeavors not related to class can fall in this category.
   
• Leadership: Students who show an ability to influence and guide others or members of an organization, community or group to have a lasting impact or affect change.

Students identified by the Letters of Excellence program need not have exhibited all these qualities, especially those who are early in their academic career, but rather present potential in one or more of these categories.