Oh, The Places They're Going.

UGA student scholars are capturing competitive international scholarships as they prepare to make a global impact.

Ashni Patel was a junior at the University of Georgia a few weeks into her dream internship when she found herself a few yards from Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. It was a five-hour Congressional hearing on Capitol Hill, and Patel was taking notes for her bosses at the State Department.

Perhaps it sounds boring to the average 20-something, but Patel, an international affairs and economics major graduating this May, was “geeking out.”

“Just being in the room with some very important people and hearing them talk about what’s going on in the world, you learn so much,” she says.

Patel, named a Schwarzman Scholar in December, will have to get used to brushing elbows with people at the top of the field. The highly competitive Schwarzman Scholars program is sending her and 149 other students from 43 countries to Beijing, China, this fall to earn a one-year master’s degree at Tsinghua University. It’s a dream come true for Patel, who aspires to a career that takes her across the globe.

Patel isn’t the lone Bulldog earning scholarships and fellowships for international education.

This place has made me who I am, and I want to be someone who gives back to it.
Ashni Patel, 2024 Schwarzman Scholar

In the 2023-2024 academic year only, UGA has celebrated the accomplishments of a Rhodes Scholar, two Goldwater Scholars, and 11 Boren Scholars, in addition to Patel’s Schwarzman. The university was also named a Top Producer of Fulbright Scholars in 2023-2024 with 11 offers—the sixth time in 12 years that UGA students earned the institution that honor. And UGA had the second highest number of Boren Scholars this year.

These accomplishments recognize the hard work of Georgia students, with majors ranging from mathematics and astrophysics to those studying journalism, social sciences, international affairs and various foreign languages. They also showcase the opportunities the University of Georgia provides to scholars—opportunities that enable them to pursue and immerse themselves in their passions.

Some scholars like Patel, who studied in UGA’s Washington Semester Program in the nation’s capital, and Rhodes Scholar Mariah Cady find study away opportunities. Cady learned about receiving her prestigious scholarship while studying in UGA’s Russian Flagship Program in Kazakhstan.

Students like Sara Logsdon, a Goldwater Scholar, also engage in research with UGA faculty members. Logsdon, who is interested in cryptography, investigated a theory of the topological polymer shapes with Jason Cantarella, a professor of mathematics.

The University of Georgia has been a top 3 producer of Rhodes Scholars among public institutions in the last 30 years. And in 2024, UGA had the second highest number of Boren Scholars.

At UGA, research opportunities are available to all students. The Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities connects students to faculty-mentored research as early as their first years, regardless of major or GPA.

And there are countless other opportunities on and off campus. Patel, for example, credits being a UGA Visitors Center tour guide for honing her conversational skills that helped her nail her Schwarzman Scholarship panel interview. And some of her professors have turned into life-changing mentors.

So even though Patel is soon off to Beijing and after that—well, who knows where—she doubts she’ll ever be gone from Athens, Georgia, too long.

“I’ll never stop coming back here to UGA no matter how far I go because this place has given me so much,” she says. “This place has made me who I am, and I want to be someone who gives back to it.”