“I plan to attend law school and find a career path in international diplomacy, so this program will be a great fit for my interests and academic goals,” Thelen says.
Anna Dresnack is a study abroad manager in the Center for International Education at UW-Eau Claire and an alumna of the UKSI through her alma mater. She helps facilitate the Fulbright program for campus and is excited to add this unique UK experience to the many ways that Blugolds obtain immersive international education experiences.
“The Fulbright UKSI award looks for students with a strong sense of self, a desire to learn from and with others, and a wish to improve the world,” Dresnack says. “In assisting Taylor with her application process, those qualities came through clearly. I am sure this experience will have significant impact on her future, as it had for me.”
A door opened through Mark Stephen Cosby Honors College
Thelen says she didn’t know about the various Fulbright opportunities when she began her first year at UW-Eau Claire last fall but was grateful that the Mark Stephen Cosby Honors College presented the chance to learn more and apply.
“I applied for the Fulbright through the Honors 100 seminar class — a course requirement they called ‘Apply for Something,’” Thelen says. “The whole point is to encourage us to push ourselves and apply for something we don’t really think we can get. Shocklingly enough, I got it!”
Dr. Heather Fielding, director of the Cosby Honors College, could not be more pleased that the “Apply for Something” exercise has brought such a rewarding outcome for Thelen.
“Our goal is to help students dream big,” Fielding says. “They develop college-level resumes and application essays or cover letters, and we support them in identifying scholarships, fellowships, summer programs, internships and other awards to apply for. “
Feilding says it is thrilling to see a first-year student apply for something this prestigious and receive it.
“Taylor came in her first year ready to take advantage of opportunities. I'm excited to see what she will be doing by the time she's a junior, much less after graduation,” Fielding says.
Supported to reach her goals
Thelen says that one of the reasons she selected UW-Eau Claire was the high level of undergraduate research the campus supports, and she believes that her ability to spotlight first-year student research was a key to her Fulbright success.
“Within two months of starting my first semester, I had a robust research project well underway, one that I was told would help my Fulbright application stand out,” she says.
Thelen sees her 2025-26 research as a bridge between her interests of law and marketing, one that examines the role of demographics in jury decision-making.
“Currently, I’m conducting a literature review that examines papers written about consumer decisions that are similar to the types of decisions jurors have to make, and how demographics and psychographics influence those types of consumer decisions,” Thelen says, explaining that she hopes to ultimately apply her marketing knowledge to the legal field.
Dr. Sean Weidman, assistant director of the Cosby Honors College, helped Thelen fine-tune her lengthy application, support that a grateful Thelen says was ongoing “pretty much from September to February.”
Weidman says only 15 of the 175 honors students “got” the thing they applied for, and that he is not at all surprised that Thelen was one of them.
“Taylor is courageous, humble, diligent, resilient and unabashedly herself. She's spent a lot of time dreaming about her professional goal of a future in international diplomacy, and since I met her last fall, everything she does is oriented toward achieving that aim,” Weidman says of Thelen, one of the 30 UKSI recipients out of 650 applicants.
Weidman shared a quote from Thelen’s application materials, one that he feels likely garnered the attention of the selection committee and demonstrated her commitment to the seminar topics:
“The program’s focus on The Troubles and subsequent Good Friday Agreement excites me, as someone motivated by peacekeeping, compromise, and the ethical, political, and global factors that impact international relations. To learn about Northern Ireland’s journey from conflict to cohesion and how it informed resolutions between other nations would be invaluable for my leadership development and career aspirations. I live an hour and a half from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where similar tensions are building in America, while politicians villainize a minority of the public they’re meant to serve. Learning how Irish leaders handled, governed, and sought compromise during The Troubles, and how scholars and politicians historicize those moments now, will teach me how to one day employ similar practices among parties in dire need of compromise,” Thelen’s application reads.
Weidman, who is very familiar with fellowship opportunities like the Fulbright seminar programs, says it’s difficult to overstate the rarity of this kind of award going to a first-year student.
“Taylor is highly deserving of this prestigious opportunity, and she’s likely to be among the youngest in the seminar,” he says.
Thelen says that the three weeks of coursework will be “pretty intense,” but that weekends will offer time for excursions throughout the city and region surrounding Belfast, learning opportunities she is excited for.
“I hope to see as much of the city as I can — I don’t want to waste a minute. I’m looking forward to getting the most from this experience as possible,” she says.
