The Fulbright program offers grant awards to some of the world’s most talented students and young professionals to conduct research, study, and lecture in academic and professional fields in partnership with more than 140 countries. A presidentially appointed board of 12 administers around 8,000 scholarships annually. Recipients have gone on to become heads of state, judges, ambassadors, cabinet ministers, CEOs, and university presidents, as well as leading journalists, artists, scientists, and teachers. They include 62 Nobel laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 78 MacArthur fellows, and thousands of leaders across the private, public, and non-profit sectors.
MBU art and art history department chair, Dr. Jim Sconyers, served as Hobbs’ primary academic advisor and said the program would be hard-pressed to find a more deserving candidate.
“Giselle’s studies at Mary Baldwin consistently reflected a superior level of accomplishment — in the department, across the university, and even globally,” he said. “She is the most driven student I’ve worked with during my 17 years of teaching. Her vision and determination are remarkable; the complexity of her objectives are evidence of her tenacity and fearlessness.”
Hobbs left high school early and enrolled at MBU in 2013 through its Program for the Exceptionally Gifted, which enables girls as young as 13 to attend college full-time. She capitalized on its emphasis on creating personalized, hands-on learning tracks, and completed three thesis projects; the famed three-year fundamental course in painting and drawing at the Angel Academy of Arts in Florence, Italy; fluency certificates in French, German, and Italian from the University of Virginia; and spent an academic year studying and drawing medicinal plants at the American School of Asuncion in Paraguay. She won numerous awards and honors before graduating at age 19, including the art department’s distinction in major, first place at the annual senior Capstone Festival, and a Russell Scholar Award, one of the university’s top academic honors.