RIPON, Wis. – Jenan Kharbush, a 2009 graduate of Ripon College, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate fellowship to pursue a Ph.D. in marine chemistry at the University of California – San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Competition for NSF graduate fellowships is stiff, as only about one in 10 applicants receives the award. The award provide support for three years of graduate study: $30,000 annual stipend, $10,500 annual tuition allowance (for the three years), funds for foreign travel, and access to the NSF’s supercomputing resources. It is awarded based on student's intellectual merit and potential to conduct (and contribute) meaningful research in science and engineering.

Ripon Chemistry Professor Masanori Iimura said, “The proposal she wrote and submitted for the NSF was the best I have read written by an undergraduate student.”

Rachel Resop ’08, who is now studying microbiology at UCLA, was one of the honorable mentions for the 2009 NSF graduate fellowship – “still a very big deal,” notes Iimura.

Kharbush is the daughter of Mr. Jamal O. Kharbush and Ms. Barbara J. Olson of Madison, Wis. Resop is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John C. Resop of Berlin, Wis.

About Ripon College
Ripon College is a four-year, private liberal-arts college with an average enrollment of 1,000 students located 70 miles NNW of Milwaukee, Wis. Founded in 1851, Ripon prepares students of diverse interests for lives of productive, socially responsible citizenship. Its liberal arts curriculum and residential campus create an intimate learning community in which students experience a richly personalized education. Ripon has consistently been recognized as a “best value” and “Best 368 College” by The Princeton Review, a “Best Buy in College Education” by Barron’s, a “Best Liberal-Arts College” by Washington Monthly, one of America's Best Colleges by Forbes, and is listed among the 160 best schools in the nation by Colleges of Distinction.

Jenan Kharbush