By Ian Wesselhoff 

S ix students from Georgia College & State University have been named semifinalists for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, a prestigious nationwide scholarship that sends recent graduates to spend a year abroad to study, teach English or conduct independent research. 

This year’s figure is the highest number of Fulbright semifinalists that GCSU has had since before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Five of GCSU’s semifinalists – J.D. Caulley, Tommy Creekmore, Riley Curtis, Paola Martinez and Hunter Pierce – are seniors pursuing the English Teaching Award in their country of choice. The sixth, December 2025 graduate Connor Sivley, is in contention for the Open Study/Research Award and hopes to conduct biology research in Spain. The semifinalists were among 17 applicants from GCSU and represent three of the university’s four academic colleges. 

Riley Curtis, a marketing major and Spanish minor, has been to Spain twice before – she studied abroad in Cuenca through the GCSU Spain program as a rising sophomore, and last summer, she was an intern for a language learning school in Seville. Her passion for learning about other cultures, plus the prospect of coming back to Spain for even longer, influenced her decision to apply to teach English there. 

“I feel like I changed and gained so many new perspectives from being over there for only a month, and I can’t imagine how much I’m going to grow and change being there for nine months,” Curtis said. “I think teaching would be an amazing opportunity to continue to mentor kids while also learning about their beautiful culture and language.” 

To reach this point in the process, the students’ applications went through the National Screening Committee, made up of university faculty members from across the U.S., and have been forwarded to their selected host countries for a final decision. Fulbright received over 10,500 applications this year, and applicants are expected to learn of their results between late March and early May. 

Curtis spent months working on her application, which requires candidates to outline what they intend to do while overseas. Her creative curriculum plans include incorporating music into the classroom and an English language podcast project, both inspired by her own experiences in Spain. She says Georgia College helped her build a resumé worthy of competing for the scholarship. 

“There’s so much community here and so many opportunities that give us these resources to stand out on something like Fulbright. Georgia College has truly given me the best college experience,” Curtis said. “We do have students and teachers that are pouring into us to be able to accomplish things like this.” 

Tommy Creekmore also had experience studying abroad before applying for Fulbright, through GCSU’s Intercultural Leadership Program in France. While prior international travel is not necessary for the Fulbright scholarship, Creekmore, an English literature and global studies double major, says his time overseas made him want to see even more of the world. 

Creekmore’s primary research interest is Renaissance-era literature, especially Shakespeare, and how those works are adapted in other countries. Prague was one of the first places to put Shakespeare to stage outside of England, and he applied for the Czech Republic program to explore those connections further. 

“There are a lot of ties with Shakespeare in Czech literary heritage, and his texts have influenced a lot of very famous Czech writers, so I really wanted to use that as an opportunity to also look into how Shakespeare and other authors like him have influenced writers in central and Eastern Europe,” Creekmore said. 

As co-founder and former president of GCSU’s Film Club, Creekmore is also interested in Czech New Wave films and has gained some familiarity with the culture already. He is president of the Shakespearean Circle, president of the Gamma Chi chapter of the National Residence Hall Honorary, a student ambassador, leadership consultant for the Leadership Academy, honors peer mentor for incoming honors students, and works as a community advisor in Bell Hall. 

Creekmore plans to attend grad school for literature and hopes to someday teach Shakespeare at a university, so he says the opportunity to work in a classroom with students would be good practice. 

Host countries typically accept about half of the semifinalists forwarded to them, and to National Scholarships Office Coordinator Anna Whiteside, making it to this stage is an accomplishment in itself. 

“It’s a big, exciting thing that I think says really good things about Georgia College and where our students are headed,” Whiteside said. “Host countries see these [Fulbright students] as being the best and the brightest young Americans, and they really want to form good relationships with them.”

Header Images: Fulbright semifinalist Tommy Creekmore (back row, second from right) participated in the 2024 Intercultural Leadership Program. Semifinalist Riley Curtis had studied abroad and interned in Spain. Photos submitted by Creekmore and Curtis, respectively.