UF undergraduate chosen for fellowship with Department of State

June 22, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A University of Florida undergraduate has been named a Pickering Fellow for the 2011-2012 year by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation for the U. S. Department of State.

Neil Gundavda, a rising senior from Jacksonville, is majoring in political science and history with a minor in European studies. He is a native Gujarati speaker and will travel to Tanzania this fall to increase his proficiency in Swahili. Gundavda has served as a Student Government senator at UF, and was named an Anderson Scholar with Highest Distinction during the recent academic year.

The 20 Pickering Fellows, named in honors of Career Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, will receive financial support toward tuition and other expenses during their senior year and first year of graduate study. They commit to three years of service as a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. Department of State, contingent on passing the Foreign Service examinations.

The Foreign Service includes a corps of working professionals who support the president of the United States and the secretary of the U.S. Department of State in pursuit of the goals and objectives of American foreign policy. They are “front-line” personnel who can be sent anywhere in the world, at any time, in service to the diplomatic needs of the United States.