Baran Fellowship

Call to Students

General Information

Thanks to a generous donation by Ohio Wesleyan University alumni Jan W. Baran '70 and his wife Kathryn Baran, the "Jan W. Baran and Kathryn K. Baran Endowed Fund for the Encouragement of Post Graduate Fellowships" is available for students (freshmen, sophomores, or juniors) who have plans to go onto graduate school and will apply for nationally competitive fellowships such as the Rhodes, Marshall, Mitchell, and Fulbright.

Having benefited from strong mentorship at Ohio Wesleyan University, Jan W. Baran wanted to create a fund to help support and encourage students to engage in educational experiences that will better prepare them for education at the next level after they graduate from Ohio Wesleyan University. Such experiences can be, but are not limited to, a travel learning opportunity or individualized research or study connecting theory to practice that would add to the student's Ohio Wesleyan education and strengthen a student's candidacy for post-graduate fellowships.

Eligibility

• Must be a freshman, sophomore, junior at the time of application. (Please note: Seniors can apply if the student is a senior by rank, but is not graduating, and will be returning to campus after receipt of the Baran Fellowship).
• Must be an Honors student or student with an excellent academic record (usually GPA of 3.7 or higher) who has a high probability of success in a post-graduate fellowship competition.
• Must make a good faith commitment to apply for post-graduate fellowships during the student's senior year.
• Because Natural Science students have similar opportunities through the Summer Science Research Program, the Baran Fellowship is only available to students outside the Natural Sciences. Humanities, Fine Arts, and Social Science students are welcome to apply. (Please note: if you have an inter-disciplinary project that engages the Natural Sciences with Humanities, Social Sciences, and/or Fine Arts, such an application will be considered)

Application Process/Guidelines

Statement of Purpose

Write a 3-5 page essay of how you would use the Baran Fellowship, and how this fulfills the objectives of the Fellowship.

A successful statement of purpose will address the following questions:

1. What are your graduate study plans?
2. What postgraduate fellowships do you think you would apply for in your senior year?
3. How will the experience you seek to fund through a Baran Fellowship make you a stronger candidate for a post-graduate fellowship?
4. When you return to campus, how will you share your experience with the Honors program or OWU Community?

Budget

(separate page)

1. Cost of program or educational experience.
2. What other sources of funding are you applying for?
3. How will you pay for the experience if the Baran Fellowship cannot support it 100%?

Letter of Reference

From one faculty member who can talk about your work as a student.

GPA

Please note your GPA (general) and GPA in your major if you have declared a major.

Please submit applications by email to Franchesca Nestor. Fall Round deadline is December 3, 2024 at 11:59 p.m.

Baran Fellows 

2023-2024

• Fall 2023
  • Grace Frye '25 (Social Justice)
    Study abroad in Nepal.
  • Dana Kolesar '25 (History and English: Literature Concentration)
    "Shakespeare: A Life in Theatre" Travel-Learning Course
  • Marvella Kurniawan '25 (Nutrition and Psychology)
    "Food Politics and Policy" Travel-Learning Course
  • Alexie Otworth '24 (English)
    "East Asian Politics" Travel-Learning Course
• Spring 2024
  • Savannah Brantley '25 (English: Creative Writing Concentration)
    Attending the Iowa Summer Writing Festival
  • Jennifer Garner '25 (Spanish, Pre-Medicine, and Biochemistry))
    Study abroad in Spain
  • Timothy Page '25 (Politics & Government)
    Research into multiracial people's attitudes on foreign policy and nationalism
  • Callie Staley '25 (Theatre and Sociology & Anthropology)
    Research in the U.K. and Germany to complete a thesis project for the Palmer Global Scholars Program

2022-2023

• Fall 2022
  • Saharla Loyan '25 (Pre-Law and Philosophy)
    Study abroad in Rome, Italy and Kyoto, Japan.
  • Willow Bryn Rosser '26 (Psychology, Pre-Medicine, and Studio Art)
    "Health Communication: Black Women & Feminisms" Travel-Learning Course
• Spring 2023
  • Blake Johnson '24 (Politics & Government with a concentration in Public Diplomacy)
    Study abroad in Geneva, Switzerland
    
  • Ireland Nowak '24 (Pre-Professional Zoology, Pre-Professional Medicine, and Biochemistry)
    Independent research project comparing the gut microbiome of purebred French bulldogs from home-dwelling and mill-bred environments.
    
  • Karli Walsh '24 (Philosophy and Politics & Government)
    Attending the Colorado Summer Seminar in Philosophy.
    

2022

• Charis Blake '24 (Comparative Literature and Psychology)
  Study abroad in Scotland at the University of St. Andrews.
• Faith Deschamps '24 (Black World Studies and Women's & Gender Studies)
  Research project about Black immigrant identity cultivation.
• Lily Hambric '24 (Zoology)
  Overseas study through IES Abroad program, focusing on environmental science and conservation issues.
• Teresa Martin '23 (Politics & Government)
  Widening the demographic of the William S. Fox and James D. Williams survey of college students to provide more diverse racial identities, education backgrounds, ages, incomes, and more.
• Cole Peterson '23 (History)
  Research project about British and Russian expansion into Central Asia during the 19th century.

2021

• Haris Ali '22 (Quantitative Economics)
  Summer internship at LiveIntent Inc. in New York City.
• Anna Fender '22 (Comparative Literature, Women's and Gender Studies, and Social Justice)
  OWU Honors Program research project involving hosting four social justice-focused intentional conversation dinners.
• Cera Linnell '24 (East Asian Studies and Spanish)
  Study of Chinese in the summer at Indiana University's Chinese Summer Language Program and in the fall through the Chinese Language Institute.
• Sam Miller '23 (History and Religion)
  Study of Persian at Indiana University's Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

2020

• Max Beard '22 (Economics)
  Summer research at Stanford University, focusing on business modernization in Mexico.
• Lily Callander '22 (English)
  Study abroad in Ireland to study Irish literature and politics.
• Hanna Cao '22
• Bella Hintzman '23 (Theatre and History)
  Summer study at the Theatrical Education and Summer Training Program of the American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco
• Meg Edwards '22 (International Studies and Spanish)
  Data and Policy Summer Scholars Program at the University of Chicago
• Kyle Wilgus '22 (International Studies and Economics)
  Wesleyan in Washington, U.S. Department of State Internship/ Office of Weapons and Mass Destruction Terrorism

2019

• Amanda Hays '20 (History & Pre-Law)
  Participating in an internship program at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia and taking some Russian language courses to become as close to fluent in Russian as possible.
• Margaret Kriebel '21 (Comparative Literature and East Asian Studies)
  Studying abroad at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan for the 2019-2020 academic year and improving Japanese language skills outside of the classroom and viewing literature through a different cultural perspective.
  
• Capri Pappas '20 (Medieval Studies & Art History)
  Independent research under the supervision of a professor at the University of Chicago to develop the reading comprehension skills necessary for academic research and searching for a challenging graduate program specific to her interests.
• Hannah Treadway '21 (Spanish and Music)
  Linguistics research in bilingual processing and production under the supervision of Dr. Paola Dussias in the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese at Pennsylvania State University to make her a stronger contender for doctoral programs in Spanish linguistics and internationally competitive fellowships that would allow her to explore how the theme of bilingualism is treated globally.
  

2018

• Austin Moore '19 (Economics & Politics and Government)
  Independent research under the supervision of Dr. Eddie S. Glaude (Princeton University) on the psychological impact of slavery and the religious differences within the African American community today.

2017

• Yanira Stuart '19 (East Asian Studies)
  Attending Indiana University to pursue a Masters in East Asian Studies (Korean).
• Johanna Adrian Burr '19 (Spanish)
  Studying Spanish in OWU's Salamanca Program and Independent research on the cultural exchange of Muslim culture from Morocco to Spain.

2016

• Julianne Zala '17 (Comparative Literature)
  Arabic language study at the University of Texas, Austin, Summer 2016. Admitted to a Master's Degree Program, Comparative Literature, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

2015

• Memme Onwudiwe '15 (International Studies and French)
  Summer Research Fellow at Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI). Admitted to Harvard Law School
• Macie Maisel '16 (Spanish)
  Intern at the Museum of the Americas, Puerto Rico