Editor鈥檚 note: This story was updated on June 22, 2023.
The has once again awarded a large number of teaching, study, and research grants to a diverse group of adventuresome 线上赌场 students and alumni.
鈥淲e鈥檙e thrilled to see 线上赌场鈥檚 exceptional liberal arts education represented in such a wide range of assignments and countries鈥攆rom teaching in Uruguay and Belgium to STEM research in Germany and creative writing in South Korea,鈥 says , assistant dean of faculty for fellowship advising.
鈥溝呱隙某 actively encourages critical engagement across disciplines, languages, and cultures, preparing our applicants for an incredible variety of experiences through the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Our recipients take what they鈥檝e learned on campus and lend their talents to an increasingly global society.鈥
Administered by the State Department鈥檚 the Fulbright Program is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other nations through international educational exchanges in more than 155 countries.
Sixteen students and alumni have accepted Fulbright awards for 2023-24, and a 17th was offered one but declined.
2023-24 Fulbright Awards
Fatema Begum 鈥22
New York, N.Y.
Open Study/Research, Germany
鈥淚 was born in Bangladesh,鈥 says Begum. 鈥淲hen I was younger, I would see starving Bangladeshi women going from home to home asking for a bundle of rice, as they carried malnourished babies on their backs. That early exposure to the link between poverty and poor health is why I care so much about reducing the global burden of disease.鈥
A premed student who majored in biology, Begum spent a postgraduate summer at Germany鈥檚 Max Planck Institute exploring how antidepressants modify human behavior.
鈥淚 was so fortunate to be able to listen to Ukrainian refugees tell stories of resistance and fighting for freedom,鈥 she says. After finishing up an Intramural Research Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health, she鈥檒l spend four months working at the World Health Organization on regional suicide prevention initiatives in Latin America before her Fulbright fellowship takes her back to the Max Planck Institute. 鈥淚 am really hoping to learn more about intergenerational trauma,鈥 she says.
Ultimately, Begum plans to enroll in medical school.
鈥淗aving access to education has made me a mentor and a fierce advocate for lifelong learning, and I am so thankful for the professors who mentored me in the German and biology departments,鈥 she says.
Aditi Gupta 鈥23
Saratoga, Calif.
English Teaching Assistantship, Czech Republic
For Gupta, a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar with a major in anthropology modified with history, living and working in the Czech Republic will tap varied interests and abilities. Her parents emigrated from India to attend graduate school in the U.S. Her mother has a degree in teaching English as a second language, which is also what Gupta will be doing next year.
鈥淚鈥檓 hoping to combine my anthropology and premed interests and my greater interest in global health and health communications by teaching English at a nursing college,鈥 she says.
A 2022 Newman Civic Fellow, Gupta has worked closely with the to make menstrual products available to women who can鈥檛 afford them. 鈥淚 also do some global health research with CARE, the international nonprofit. Both experiences gave me a more grounded understanding of what it means to work with members of a community whose lived experience is different from mine,鈥 says Gupta.
Maryam 鈥淢ia鈥 Iqbal 鈥21
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
English Teaching Assistantship, Romania
Iqbal majored in neuroscience and intends to go to medical school. But first, she says, she wants to immerse herself in the culture and language of her mother, who is Romanian.
鈥淢y father is Pakistani, and growing up in south Florida, most of my relatives nearby were from my dad鈥檚 side,鈥 says Iqbal, who is known as 鈥淢ia,鈥 the nickname her Romanian aunt gave her. 鈥淢y dad served the country in a war zone with the United States Department of Defense for over a decade. So while my dad was away, my maternal grandmother basically raised me while my mom went to school and worked. During this time, I always spoke Romanian in the house until I was about seven.鈥
But she鈥檚 lost some of that fluency, and hopes to regain it next year. 鈥淎s a physician, I hope to specifically work with immigrants and refugees, so it鈥檚 important to understand what makes English difficult for non-native speakers and be mindful of where and how miscommunication can occur,鈥 she says.
Iqbal also has plans to bridge both sides of her heritage outside of her obligations under the Fulbright program.
鈥淚 taught myself to do henna tattoos when I was about 13, and this is something I carry from my Pakistani side,鈥 she says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 my way of connecting with others and sharing a part of my culture at the same time. So that鈥檚 something I would definitely hope to be doing in Romania as well.鈥
Kaj Johnson 鈥22
Minneapolis, Minn.
Teaching Assistant, USTA Program, Fulbright Austria
Since graduating with a double major in cognitive science and music (singing bass with the 线上赌场 Aires), Johnson has been working as a technology consultant in New York City.
鈥淚鈥檝e enjoyed my time in the workforce, but really miss the feeling of being immersed in German,鈥 he says. 鈥淎t 线上赌场, I felt such a rush from being enveloped in a new language for a few hours a week.鈥
Next year, he鈥檒l teach English as part of the U.S. Teaching Assistantships at Austrian Secondary Schools fellowship program, a partnership between Fulbright Austria and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science, and Research.
At 线上赌场, Johnson volunteered with START, an arts education program run by the Hopkins Center for the Arts. 鈥淎s someone interested in education as a career, I鈥檒l be excited to continue this work across linguistic and cultural differences,鈥 he says.
And he had a more personal reason to apply for this assistantship.
鈥淢y grandfather spoke German as a first language, and although he lost fluency before my mother was born, the German language was omnipresent in my childhood. We sang German Lutheran songs during every family reunion. He passed away this past May, and I can鈥檛 think of a better way to honor his life than learning the same High German dialect that he spoke in his Bavarian family.鈥
Brody Karton 鈥23
Arlington, Va.
English Teaching Assistantship, Uruguay
When Karton and his older brother were just 11 and 13 years old, they launched a summer day camp for neighborhood kids. 鈥淥ver the years, we鈥檝e had more and more diverse groups of campers,鈥 he says. 鈥淥ur mission is to continue to provide opportunities for diverse peer groups to interact, and to combat socioeconomic inequality by providing scholarships to low-income families.鈥
Karton chose to spend his Fulbright year in Uruguay to improve his Spanish while continuing to sharpen his skills as an educator. 鈥淯ruguay has options to work in elementary schools and middle schools and high schools, as well as universities and teaching training centers. That really appealed to me,鈥 he says.
With a major in economics, modified by environmental studies, and a minor in Spanish, Karton spent a term studying in Argentina and has been an undergraduate adviser and captain of the basketball club team.
Following his Latin American adventure, Karton and his brother plan to start a more comprehensive summer program for young people who need to keep mentally and physically active when school is out of session.
鈥淭o be able to better serve the communities around us鈥攖hat鈥檚 how I see the Fulbright piece fitting into my future,鈥 he says.
Betty Kim 鈥20
Diamond Bar, Calif.
Open Study/Research, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
As a creative writing major with a minor in music, Kim wrote for The 线上赌场 and for , an online magazine addressing issues common to students of color, and was also a member of the . After graduation, she became a Digital Library Fellow at the 线上赌场 Library and later worked at the 线上赌场 Library Book Arts Workshop, creating a book of her own鈥攁 graphic novel鈥攊n partial fulfillment of a master鈥檚 degree she鈥檒l receive this month from the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction.
Born in South Korea and raised in Southern California, Kim says the novel tells a story based on her own hometown, where she grew up in an 鈥渆nclave of Asian Americans. Only a few of the signs were in English, and it was a really unique experience, and I am really grateful for it,鈥 she says.
Kim is also grateful that the Fulbright will take her to South Korea, where her parents were born and raised. 鈥淎t Underwood College at Yonsei University in Seoul, I鈥檒l write another graphic novel, about an ethnomusicologist who travels through Korea. The character is kind of like me but takes a different trajectory.鈥
Anders Knospe 鈥23
Charlottesville, Va.
University of St. Andrews Study Award, Scotland
What is conceptual engineering? Hint: it鈥檚 not about designing or building things. It鈥檚 an intellectual pursuit that involves redesigning ways of thinking, and it鈥檚 what drew Knospe, a philosophy and computer science major, to the University of St. Andrews, which he says is a center of academic work in this field.
Historically, philosophy has asked what Knospe calls the big 鈥渋s鈥 questions, such as 鈥淲hat is justice?鈥 or 鈥淲hat is beauty?鈥
Conceptual engineering shifts the focus to concepts, he says, translating 鈥渋s鈥 questions into 鈥渙ught鈥 questions. 鈥淪o how ought we to think about beauty,鈥 he asks. 鈥淗ow ought we to think about justice, gender, race?鈥
As he pursues a master鈥檚 degree in philosophy in Scotland, Knospe says practicing conceptual engineering may help him ask the right questions about his own future.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a chance I鈥檒l come out of the experience wanting to do more graduate school in philosophy,鈥 he says. 鈥淚鈥檓 also considering law school. Or perhaps I鈥檒l choose journalism.鈥
From his sophomore summer through senior fall, Knospe was an editor for the Jack-O-Lantern, 线上赌场鈥檚 venerable satire magazine. 鈥淚n terms of communication and working with others, I learned a lot from that,鈥 he says.
Zachary Lang 鈥23
Franconia, N.H.
English Teaching Assistantship, Belgium
Lang, who majors in philosophy and history, chose to teach English in Belgium next year in part because he鈥檚 fluent in two of the nation鈥檚 three primary languages.
鈥淢y mom is French and my dad is German,鈥 he says. 鈥淎nd since I will be affiliated with Hasselt University, which is in a Flemish province about an hour southeast of Brussels, I鈥檓 looking forward to learning some Dutch.鈥
Lang is also fascinated by Belgian history. Through a supplementary research project, he hopes to delve into the Belgian revolution of 1830, which led to the secession of southern provinces from the Netherlands and the establishment of the Kingdom of Belgium.
鈥淜arl Marx lived there for a few years, publishing some of his best-known works while observing developments in England, France, and Germany,鈥 says Lang. As a hub for both NATO and the European Union, Belgium interests him as a place where countries, languages, and cultures come together.
At 线上赌场, Lang has served on the Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault, which plans and implements cross-campus initiatives to address sexual violence. He enjoys rock climbing, skiing, and soccer.
Maia Madison 鈥23
Newton, Mass.
Open Study/Research, Eswatini
As a girl visiting the Boston Museum of Science, Madison saw a documentary called Dream Big: Engineering Our World. On the spot, she decided to become a civil and environmental engineer 鈥渢o build bridges connecting people to opportunities.鈥
These days, the bridges she wants to build aren鈥檛 constructed from metal and concrete. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e more metaphorical,鈥 she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 interested in connecting people through anthropology and access to health care, bridging different disciplines within the ecological and biomedical sciences.鈥
In Eswatini, the second smallest country on the African continent, Madison will work in a lab taking aim at multidrug resistant tuberculosis. 鈥淭he project focuses on children and people with HIV, because one of the problems facing diagnostic tools for tuberculosis is that it鈥檚 really difficult for babies or people with HIV to produce sputum. I鈥檓 working on developing a diagnostic tool that uses stool samples instead of sputum samples. There is a vaccine and treatments for tuberculosis, but access to diagnostics and care is very unequal across the world.鈥
Madison, who has explored global health issues through the , says she plans to become 鈥渁 physician-scientist, and study host-pathogen interactions at the intersection of infectious disease and changing environments due to anthropogenic changes.鈥
Sarah Matsunaga, MED 鈥24
Honolulu, Hawaii
Open Study/Research, Fiji
Matsunaga was born in Honolulu and earned her bachelor鈥檚 degree in human biology from Stanford University in 2018. She worked in San Francisco as a health care consultant before pursuing an MD at the , where she is in her third year.
鈥淚鈥檝e been fortunate to travel all over the country for my Geisel rotations, and I鈥檓 continuing in that spirit with the Fulbright,鈥 she says.
Next year, she鈥檒l be doing a qualitative study on youth attitudes toward depression.
鈥淚n Fiji, there are private health care options, but the system is primarily public, and psychiatric care and medications are free. It鈥檚 an interesting contrast to the U.S., where cost of care can be a big barrier, and I鈥檓 curious how the removal of that barrier might change perceptions towards depression and stigma,鈥 she says. 鈥淥ceania and the Pacific, including Fiji, have pretty high rates of youth suicide.鈥
She鈥檒l be working with a psychiatrist on the island who has been involved in community outreach programs aimed at destigmatizing depression. Following her graduation from Geisel, she鈥檚 leaning toward a career in either psychiatry or internal medicine.
Molly McQuoid 鈥23
Philadelphia, Pa.
English Teaching Assistantship, Estonia
鈥淢y mother is a teacher and both grandmothers were teachers, and I know I want to go into education,鈥 says McQuoid. 鈥淚n fact, it was in an education course at 线上赌场 that I learned about Estonia鈥檚 exceptional education system. In addition to teaching English, I hope to learn a lot about what makes their schools tick, and bring my findings back to the U.S.鈥
McQuoid has a major in cognitive science and a double minor in education and social inequalities. A member of the Center for Social Impact鈥檚 outreach program, , she helps high school students from under-resourced communities gain the skills they鈥檒l need to thrive in college. She also teaches at a day care center in Norwich, Vt.
鈥淚鈥檝e been involved with a number of teacher-adjacent roles, and it will be cool to step into that more fully next year,鈥 she says.
Another reason she鈥檚 drawn to this tiny nation on the Baltic Sea: its rich musical tradition. McQuoid is a member of the a cappella group, 线上赌场 Sings. Her brother鈥檚 youth choir once visited Estonia while on tour, and she has always been curious about it.
鈥淢eanwhile, I鈥檓 doing research. It鈥檚 going to be very exciting,鈥 she says.
Leeza Petrov 鈥22
Acton, Mass.
English Teaching Assistantship, Belgium
Petrov鈥檚 father emigrated to the U.S. in 1991 from what was then the Soviet Union, and her mother arrived in 1995, leaving what had by then become the Russian Federation.
鈥淢y parents are both scientists. My father was doing really high-level physics research before coming here and totally starting his life from scratch. I look up to both of them a lot,鈥 she says. 鈥淐oming from a multilingual background, speaking Russian at home and then learning French at a fairly early age, I wanted to spend my Fulbright year in a place where different languages and cultures bump up against each other. I鈥檓 interested in how languages can get mapped onto the broader legacy of colonial relations.鈥
With a double major in biology and art history, Petrov will teach English at the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Antwerp. She discovered her love for teaching last spring at the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich, Vt., where she interacted with both children and adults, helping them to learn about science through hands-on activities.
鈥淚 think there鈥檚 something that鈥檚 really valuable that I can take from that experience and apply to my Fulbright assignment,鈥 she says.
Timothy Poisson, Guarini 鈥22
Somerville, Mass.
Open Study/Research, Dublin, Ireland
Poisson, a manager in 线上赌场鈥檚 Advancement Division, writes and illustrates his own comics and graphic novels under the name of Tim Fish.
鈥淚 started drawing when I was four years old,鈥 he says. 鈥淚鈥檓 a self-taught artist and have been trying to improve my craft, so I earned my Masters of Liberal Arts degree at 线上赌场, in creative writing. For my thesis, I wrote a screenplay called Tracy in the 16th Minute. It鈥檚 about existentialism and the 鈥榞reat resignation,鈥 when droves of people left their jobs during the pandemic.鈥
Poisson co-created and provided illustrations for Liebestrasse, a graphic novel written by Greg Lockard, about two men who fall in risky, forbidden love during the final years of the Weimar Republic. It landed on the 2022 Best Graphic Novels for Adults list by the American Library Association.
For the Fulbright, Poisson will be based at Trinity College in Dublin, researching diversity, equity, and inclusivity in Ireland versus the United States.
鈥淭hat will lead me to create several projects, including another graphic novel and a radio play or series. I鈥檒l also be co-teaching a graduate seminar with the faculty member who sponsored me, called Consuming History. I really feel that this fellowship came at an important turning point in the quality and seriousness of my creative writing and what I can accomplish through art,鈥 he says.
Kathryn Putz 鈥22
Portland, Ore.
English Teaching Assistantship, Taiwan
Serving others around the globe is a high priority for Putz, who is currently in Cambodia working for the Harpswell Foundation, a nongovernmental organization which is dedicated, according to its website, 鈥渢o bringing about social change in Southeast Asia by fostering action and equal participation of women.鈥 Based in Phnom Penh, the foundation provides housing, educational support, and leadership training to women from rural provinces who attend college in the city.
鈥淚 lead evening classes in debate, writing, and health,鈥 Putz says. She looks forward to teaching English next year in Taiwan. That鈥檚 where she hopes to become fluent in Mandarin, which she began learning in first grade from her Taiwanese teacher.
鈥淎lso, as I work toward a career in international affairs and international security, I hope to gain a nuanced understanding of U.S.-China relations, including sensitive issues such as human rights in Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong,鈥 she says.
With a double major in government and Asian societies, cultures, and languages, Putz was active in the , helping to advise other students interested in global internships. She also started the Women in Law and Politics club.
Shania Smith 鈥23
Brooklyn, N.Y.
English Teaching Assistantship, Taiwan
With a major in politics, philosophy, and economics, and a double minor in music and Chinese, Smith鈥檚 interests are broad and deep, not only inside the classroom, but in her busy extracurricular life.
She plays percussion in 线上赌场鈥檚 jazz ensemble, The Coast, captains the running club team, is involved in several Christian organizations on campus, and mentors young people in the 线上赌场 Alliance of Children of Color.
She is active in the First-Year Summer Enrichment Program, a Rockefeller Leadership Fellow at the , and co-founder of 线上赌场鈥檚 newest language learning club, Chinese Roundtable.
Smith has chosen to teach English in Taiwan in part to improve her command of Mandarin, which she began studying in sixth grade. 鈥淎s the first in my family to graduate from college, I am passionate about the impact of education on life trajectories,鈥 she says. 鈥淭aiwan ranks among the top 10 countries in the world when it comes to education, and yet there is also, as in the U.S., a disparity issue. As someone interested in civil policy, I want to explore how to address these paradoxes and hopefully learn from Taiwan鈥檚 pitfalls, as well as what makes them relatively successful in education.鈥
Lidia Balanovich 鈥22
Nashua, N.H.
Balanovich, a cognitive science major at 线上赌场, was granted a Fulbright to attend Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, but has opted to decline the award and instead will move to New York City to work as a user experience researcher at Microsoft.
Garrick Allison 鈥22
Allison 鈥22, who was a history major at 线上赌场, learned in June that he had also been selected for a Fulbright. Allison, who served as chair of the Special Programs and Events Committee at 线上赌场, will go to Vietnam in August to teach at a high school for gifted students in Dien Bien Phu.
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To learn more about how to apply for a Fulbright, or to explore other opportunities, visit 线上赌场鈥檚 .
