Nicole Johnson, who graduated with honors in May 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in social work, was awarded the 2024 Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellowship, the first student from NMSU to win the prestigious fellowship. The fellowship will allow her to fulfill her dream of studying foreign affairs, and perhaps one day become a U.S. ambassador.
The fellowship, which is funded by the U.S. Department of State and administered by Howard University, will support Johnson through a two-year master’s degree in an area related to the Foreign Service. It also provides extensive professional development opportunities, including internships, mentors and skills training. Johnson was selected out of 1,267 candidates from across the nation.
Johnson was born in El Paso and raised in Las Cruces, where she graduated from Mayfield High School She is a citizen of the Comanche Nation.
She earned an associate’s in criminal justice and an associate’s of arts, both meritorious, from Doña Ana Community College in 2021. Johnson is minoring in government, public law and American government and politics. She was a distinguished El Puente de Encuentros Fellow for 2022-2023, and has studied abroad in Munich, Germany, and in Amman, Jordan.
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