May 2, 2009
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Three North Carolina student-athletes have been announced as the recipients of prestigious academic honors. Marion Boulicault, a rising senior on the women's fencing team, has been selected for a 2009 Udall Scholarship. Hannah Thurman, a rising junior on the women's fencing team, and Maclane Wilkison, a rising senior on the men's tennis team, have been selected as 2009 Phillips Ambassadors.
Boulicault, from London, England, was one of 80 Udall Scholars chosen from a pool of 515 nominees from 233 colleges and universities across the nation. Scholars are selected for their commitment to careers in the environment and also must demonstrate leadership potential and academic achievement.
Boulicault's honor brings the number of Udall Scholarships awarded to Carolina students to 13 since the awards began in 1996. The award will cover tuition, books, room and board up to $5,000 for Boulicault's senior year. She hopes to go on to earn a master's degree in environmental management and a law degree.
An environmental science major, she studied abroad in Vietnam this spring. Boulicault is attending UNC as a Morehead-Cain Scholar and will spend this summer collecting data in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. She is a three-year member of the women's foil squad and has been named to the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll in each year at UNC.
To view the official release on Boulicault's Udall Scholarship from UNC News Services, click here.
Thurman, from Raleigh (Enloe H.S.), and Wilkison, from Charlotte (Charlotte Latin), were among 22 UNC students selected for summer and fall 2009 study abroad in Asia as part of the Phillips Ambassadors program. Phillips Ambassadors are chosen based on academic achievements, as well as commitment to activities, service and leadership in the classroom and community.
Thurman will study Mandarin in China at the Beijing Institute of Education. A journalism major, she is a two-year member of the women's foil squad and received the Most Improved award as a freshman.
Wilkison will spend the summer in Hong Kong, attending the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he will take Global Business Management and Government and Politics of China and begin work on his senior thesis on the subject of international trade. A two-year letterwinner for the Tar Heels, he has been named to the ACC Academic Honor Roll, as has Thurman.
For more information on the Phillips Ambassadors program, click here.
