Wagoner Scholarships

Wagoner Scholarships

One Rice graduate student and three senior students will pursue their goals of studying abroad through Wagoner Foreign Studies Scholarships.

Sergio Ruiz, a graduate student at the Shepherd School of Music, Jay Hubert, a mechanical engineering major, Nikki Nime, a film major, and Lily Ray, a geology and geophysics major, each received $15,000 Wagoner scholarships.

Additionally, six students received $5,000 Wagoner scholarships. They are Jennifer Westerfield, Vishnu Kurella, Mary Franzosa, Hassan Irshad, Phil Mayor and Lauren Alexander.

Ruiz will use the scholarship to study abroad at the Enrique Granados Academy of Music in Barcelona, Spain. He will study with an accomplished pedagogue of pianist Granados and will use the knowledge he gains as the basis for his Rice doctoral thesis. Through the thesis, he hopes to provide scholars, artists, students and others the authentic performance practices of Granados.

Hong Kong will be the destination for Hubert, where he will enroll at Hong Kong Baptist University to study the Cantonese dialect as well as Chinese economics, history, geography and sociology. Hubert, who has a second major in Asian studies, stated in his proposal that he looks forward to pursuing his interest in Asia as much of his time at Rice is devoted to engineering courses.

Through her Wagoner scholarship, Nime will study video production in London and Florence, Italy. In Florence, she will study at the Lorenzo de ’Medici Art School, which houses one of the largest art studios in Europe, and in London she will study video production at the Intercontinental University. In her proposal, Nime stated, "I believe I am getting an incredible bargain when I trade my ‘senior year experience’ for an opportunity to study video production in Europe."

Ray will study in Mongolia and in Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan. In Mongolia, she will participate in the Culture and Development Program offered by the School for International Training, studying language, history, culture and development issues. Additionally, she hopes to continue her studies in Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan, former republics of the Soviet Union.

Rice established the Wagoner scholarships in 1997 through provisions made by James T. Wagoner ’29, who loved to travel.