Mines Student Earns Prestigious International Fellowship Honoring U.S. War Heroes Abroad

This Memorial Day, South Dakota Mines student Nathan Strickland will be observing the holiday in a unique way.

It won’t be from home – he’ll be standing among the graves of fallen American service members in France, honoring their legacy as part of a prestigious international fellowship.

Strickland, a biomedical engineering major from Newcastle, Wyo., was one of six students nationwide selected for the 2025 American Battle Monuments Commission’s (ABMC) International Fellowship. He is spending two weeks overseas for a mission orientation and deployment to the Suresnes American Cemetery outside of Paris.

“We congratulate our newest fellows and look forward to welcoming them as part of our ABMC team over Memorial Day,” said ABMC Acting Secretary Robert Dalessandro. “Reaching out to the younger generation is an essential part of our mission and there is really no better way for them to understand that mission than to get hands-on experience at our sites.”

ABMC operates and maintains 26 cemeteries and 31 federal memorials, monuments, and commemorative plaques in 17 countries around the world, including the United States.

Strickland applied for the fellowship after seeing it advertised through The Daniels Scholarship Program, of which he was a 2024 recipient. The Daniels Scholarship Program by the Daniels Fund seeks to assist aspirational and driven students who show promise for leadership, a strong sense of moral character and a dedication to community service. The fund was started by Bill Daniels, a cable news pioneer and fighter pilot during World War II and the Korean War.

“Most of my family are veterans and from a young age, I have been taught the honorable sacrifice those who serve make every day,” Strickland said. “I knew once I saw the opportunity, it would be a chance like no other to work alongside those with valuable perspectives and great insight into the preservation and memorialization of valor.”

He will be in France until May 29 focused primarily on the Memorial Day ceremony at Suresnes American Cemetery. Originally a World War I cemetery, the Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial now shelters the remains of U.S. dead of both World Wars, the only cemetery in Europe to have the distinction.

The 7.5-acre cemetery contains the remains of 1,559 Americans who died in World War I and 24 unknown dead of World War II.

Strickland described the fellowship as an incredible experience that has allowed him to take on a wide range of responsibilities, from administrative work and record keeping to maintaining the cemetery grounds. “We have had the opportunity to meet with high-ranking government workers, including leaders, scientists, supervisors, security, laborers, and engineers,” he said. “I have had the opportunity to explore multiple work settings and find new prospective life paths.”

In addition to his time at the Suresnes American Cemetery, Strickland has also spent time at the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) headquarters in Paris and the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial. The memorial honors the American volunteer pilots who flew under French command during World War I before the United States officially entered the war.

Although the entire fellowship has been impactful, Strickland is especially looking forward to participating in the Memorial Day ceremony at Suresnes. “We have spent days learning the history, researching and composing life stories of WWI casualties and tending to cemetery grounds for the ceremony,” Strickland said. “It will be wonderful to celebrate with not only American visitors, but the locals who will participate in the memorialization of these heroes.”