2012 Mortar Board Barbara Cook Fellowship awarded to Kira Allmann

The 2006 Lafayette High School salutatorian has received a $5,000 national fellowship from the premier national honor society for college seniors.

Kira Allmann graduated from the Williamsburg high school in 2006, and is a 2010 graduate of the College of William and Mary where she earned a baccalaureate degree summa cum laude with a double major in government and linguistics.

Allmann was initiated into Mortar Board, the program which awarded the fellowship, in 2009 and served the chapter as its president. During her time leading the society, she spearheaded an annual philanthropic event to promote the Mortar Board National Project, Reading is Leading. Other activities Allmann was involved with included president of the political science honor society and initiating a successful bid to serve as host institution for the national organization's undergraduate research journal.

As an undergraduate, she collaborated with faculty on scholarly journal publications and conference presentations, including a chapter that will soon appear in a book about political parties. Allmann was also chosen as head teaching assistant in Arabic and worked as a substitute teacher in a local school district. Her interest in other cultures led her to study abroad in Scotland and Morocco, in addition to an internship in public affairs at the U.S. Mission to NATO in Brussels, Belgium.

Currently she is a graduate student in the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. She earned a master of philosophy degree in June and is pursuing a doctorate, specializing in mass media in the Middle East.

This year the Mortar Board National Foundation awarded nearly $40,000 in fellowships to 10 members. Recipients are chosen based on academic excellence, strong recommendation, scholarly promise and Mortar Board involvement. Since the program began in 1941 more than $650,000 has been awarded to assist members pursuing further study in graduate or professional school.

To learn more about Mortar Board, visit mortarboard.org.

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