Wesleyan Named a Top Producer of Fulbright U.S. Students

For the second year in a row, Wesleyan is proud to be included on the list of U.S. colleges and universities that produced the most 2017–2018 Fulbright Students, as recently announced by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. Top-producing institutions are highlighted annually in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

For academic year 2017–2018, six recent alumni and one graduate student from Wesleyan received Fulbright awards. Those who accepted and are currently participating in Fulbright are:

• Kate Cullen ’16, academic Fulbright in Chile. Cullen is researching innovative ways to monitor glacial retreat and effective climate change adaptation strategies, focusing on Mocho Glacier in the Chilean Lake District. She has partner with local experts in Santiago and Valdiva to evaluate local vulnerability and hazards from rapid glacier melt.

• Jennifer Cascino ’17, academic Fulbright in Spain. Cascino is investigating the genetic and molecular basis of systemic inflammation that occurs in certain forms of cancer at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas (CNIO) in Madrid. She hopes to help characterize the fundamental mechanism behind this form of metabolic dysfunction, which leads to wasting, lethargy and ultimately death in many cancer patients, in order to combat these outcomes.
• Warren Enstrom, a graduate student in music, arts Fulbright in Sweden. He is developing software-based virtual musical agents that listen to their environments and create music in response to their surroundings. He is working with colleagues at the University of Gothenburg, who are experienced in building software that interfaces with the physical world.
• Claire Brady ’15, academic Fulbright in Jordan. Her project analyzes the effects of water scarcity on female Syrian refugees, who are particularly at risk, in Jordan, the world’s second most water-scarce country and host of the largest number of refugees.
• Shourya Sen ’15, teaching assistant Fulbright in Laos. Sen aspires to become a professor and is gaining experience teaching university-level students. He is passionate about learning new languages and traveling and strives to form relationships with people who have different ways of life.
• Sophie Zinser ’16, academic Fulbright in Jordan. Working under the directors of Jesuit Refugee Services’s Jordan Office and the Center for Women’s Studies at the University of Jordan, she is critically analyzing community-based nongovernmental programs focused on arts as a community-building strategy and on young women refugees as beneficiaries. She aims to derive best practices to share with Jordanian NGOs.
• Rob Roth ’14, teaching assistant Fulbright in Bogotá, Colombia. A third-year ENL/ESL K-12 public school teacher in the New York City Department of Education, as well as a recent New York City Teaching Fellow and Hunter College MA TESOL program graduate, Roth is supporting Universidad Nacional students in acquiring English proficiency. Read more here.

The Fulbright competition is administered at Wesleyan University through the Fries Center for Global Studies. Kate Smith is the campus Fulbright advisor. Interested applicants can visit the Fries Center for Global Studies Fellowships webpage to learn more about Fulbright, the campus process and how to apply.

Since its inception in 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 380,000 participants—chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential—with the opportunity to exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns. Over 1,900 U.S. students, artists and young professionals in more than 100 different fields of study are offered Fulbright Program grants to study, teach English and conduct research abroad each year. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program operates in over 140 countries throughout the world.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is a program of the U.S. Department of State, funded by an annual appropriation from the U.S. Congress to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and supported in its implementation by the Institute of International Education.

The Fulbright Program also awards grants to U.S. scholars, teachers and faculty to conduct research and teach overseas. In addition, some 4,000 foreign Fulbright students and scholars come to the United States annually to study, lecture, conduct research and teach foreign languages.

For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit http://eca.state.gov/fulbright.