Junior Teresa Wright nominated for Beinecke Scholarship Program

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas has nominated a junior for the Beinecke Scholarship Program. Each year through the program, the Sperry Fund offers 20 scholarships to undergraduates who intend to pursue a research-focused or fine arts master’s or doctoral program in the arts, humanities or social sciences. Selected students receive $30,000 to be used for graduate study and $5,000 in their senior year. Award recipients will be announced in June.  

KU’s nominee is Teresa Wright, from Lawrence. She is the daughter of Stan Wright and Diosilda Collazos Wright and a graduate of Free State High School. Wright is majoring in visual art education and minoring in the history of art. She plans to pursue a master’s degree in fine arts and envisions a career that applies her knowledge and experience in both art and education to foster creative expression in diverse learners and contexts.

Wright is the co-president of the Visual Art Education Club, an ambassador for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and a member of the National Art Education Association. She is also on the Dean’s Honor Roll and is working toward a certificate in service learning. Last year, Wright taught English abroad in Seville, Spain, for the North American Language and Culture Assistants Program. This coming summer, she will intern at the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the Art and Leadership Program. Wright is a practicing artist who recently completed a mural inside Eudora Elementary School.

Only 135 colleges and universities across the country are invited to nominate one student for the scholarship each year. KU is the only participating institution in Kansas. At KU, the nomination process is coordinated by the Office of Fellowships. The next application cycle will begin in late fall 2024. Interested students should contact the office by email.

The Beinecke Scholarship Program was established in 1971 by the board of directors of the Sperry and Hutchinson Company to honor Edwin, Frederick and Walter Beinecke. The board created an endowment to provide substantial scholarships for the graduate education of young people of exceptional promise. Candidates should be U.S. citizens and college juniors who demonstrate superior standards of intellectual ability, scholastic achievement and personal promise during their undergraduate career.