Clark’s family attends Bethany Covenant Church in Bedford, New Hampshire, and he is a graduating senior at North Park University.
A Spanish and business double major, Clark will work at a bi-national business or nongovernment agency in Mexico City or Monterrey. He is one of only 10 outstanding students from across the country chosen by the Fulbright Commission to work in a bi-national company.
Granted by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and the United States Department of State, the award also is sponsored by the Fulbright Garcia-Robles Commission in Mexico.
“I believe my experience as a Fulbright grantee will provide me with the impetus to contribute to the connectedness of the international business community,” says Clark.
The Garcia-Robles Commission will assign him to a specific company within the next few weeks. During the past two years the Commission has placed grantees in companies such as Proctor & Gamble, Rothschild Bank, and Scotiabank, among others.
In addition, Clark will be able to take two graduate courses each semester in Spanish, business, finance, international trade, and comparative law.
Clark is the third North Park-affiliated individual to receive a Fulbright Award in the last two consecutive years. Last year, 2007 graduate Rebecca Miller was a grantee. She is the daughter of Eleanor and Michael Miller, who attend Grace Covenant Church in Clay, New York. To read a previous Covenant News Service story about her accomplishment, click here.
Also this year, professor of Spanish Linda Parkyn received a Fulbright Specialists Award, reserved for faculty and professionals. Parkyn will spend several weeks in Honduras teaching applied linguistics this spring
She was Clark’s mentor throughout the application process and traveled to Mexico in 2003 as a Fulbright grantee.
“Riley is uniquely qualified to use his knowledge of Spanish as well as his business acumen to become a bilingual business leader,” she says, noting that the award will give Clark an opportunity to “put a human face” on the intercultural relationships between the United States and its neighbors in Mexico.
