Honors College Student Michelle Zapiain

MIAMI (April 18, 2007)- Honors College senior Michelle Zapiain has been awarded the prestigious Pamela Harriman Foreign Service Fellowship. The Awards are offered annually to three outstanding undergraduates from across the nation.  Each student will be given the opportunity to spend a summer in a professional position with the United States Department of State. The competition is highly selective; only three fellowships are awarded each year, one is reserved for a student of the College of William and Mary, and the other two are available for undergraduates from universities from around the nation. Ms. Zapiain is the first recipient of the award from a Florida university. She will be working in the Office of the Secretary of State during the summer.

Ms. Zapiain was born in Houston, Texas, and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She was the recipient of a National Hispanic Scholar Award and of a Florida International University (FIU) Presidential Scholarship. She has been an Honors College student throughout her four years at FIU, where she proved to be an excellent scholar. During her senior year she prepared an undergraduate honors thesis on the Iranian nuclear program.

Ms. Zapiain is also a finalist for the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship. The selection process for this award is also very competitive. The purpose of the program is to attract outstanding students who enroll in two-year master's degree programs in public policy, international affairs, public administration, or academic fields such as business, economics, political science, sociology, or foreign languages, who represent all ethnic, racial and social backgrounds and who have an interest in pursuing a Foreign Service career in the U.S. Department of State.

For immediate release

CONTACT:    Juan Carlos Espinosa, The Honors College
(305-348 -4100), espinosj@fiu.edu