Student receives University of Chicago fellowship

Wayne Riggs, Ph.D., adviser and assistant professor of history at Flagler College, reported to Historic City News that Nicole Howlett has been awarded a fellowship into the Egyptology program at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

Howlett, who maintains a 4.0 GPA, is a senior at Flagler College and a history major; with a minor in environmental studies. The award includes full tuition and a $21,000-a-year stipend for living expenses for five years.

“I was accepted into the Near Eastern Languages and Civilization Department, which is one of the foremost schools for studying ancient history,” said Howlett. “This is perhaps the most important and even the most exciting thing to happen to me. I cannot express just how flattered I am that Chicago would consider me worthy of study there.”

“Nicole is a brilliant person with a very gracious personality,” Dr. Riggs said. “We’re all very excited about her acceptance. She is an outstanding student, both academically and personally.”

Howlett said that she has always been interested in studying Egypt and ancient history, and questions why many believe the world began with Greece and Rome.

“I do a lot of personal research on my own,” she said. “In studying Egypt I am not only studying the beginnings of the modern world, but my own beginnings. Egypt is one of the oldest civilizations, an example of what we were when we were just beginning to think on a grand scale. The western world likes to believe it began with Greece and Rome, but the beginnings can be traced back even farther, to the first civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Those twin cultures laid the foundation of our modern world, even if we cannot clearly see their underpinnings.”

Photo credits: © 2011 Historic City News contributed photograph by Flagler College