27 students and recent graduates awarded 2022 Fulbright grants

Fulbright recipients this year include 18 seniors who will graduate May 16.

18 headshots of students
University of Pennsylvania’s Fulbright grant recipients for the 2022-23 academic year include 18 graduating seniors, from left: (top row) Aishwarya Balaji, Lilian Chen, Ria Chinchankar, Amira Chowdhury, Luke Coleman, Sonali Deliwala; (middle row) Alice Heyeh; Robin Hu, J’Aun Johnson, Jordyn Kaplan, Erin Kraskewicz, Shaila Lothe; (bottom row) Brendan Lui, Rebecca Morse, Kaitlyn Rentala, Anyara Rodriguez, Stefan Tomov, Irene Yee.

Twenty-seven University of Pennsylvania students and alumni have been offered Fulbright grants for the 2022-23 academic year, including 18 seniors who will graduate May 16.

They will conduct research, pursue graduate degrees, or teach English in Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, India, Jordan, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Timor-Leste and the United Kingdom.

The Fulbright Program is the United States government’s flagship international educational exchange program, awarding grants to fund as long as 12 months of international experience.

Most of the recipients applied for the Fulbright with support from Penn’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

Penn Fulbright grant recipients for 2022-23:

Aishwarya Balaji, from Frankfort, Kentucky, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in chemistry from the College of Arts and Sciences. She has been offered a Fulbright to conduct research on implicit biases on lemurs at the German Primate Center in Göttingen, Germany.

Gavin Blasdel, from Baltimore, is a Ph.D. candidate in ancient history in the School of Arts & Sciences. He has been offered a Fulbright to conduct research in Greece for his dissertation on the inscribed honorific statue monuments of Athens during the Roman Empire.

Lilian Chen, from San Jose, California, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a degree in nursing and health care management through a dual-degree program between the School of Nursing and the Wharton School. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan.

Ria Chinchankar, from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will graduate in the Class of 2022 from Wharton, with a concentration in behavioral economics and business analytics. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Mexico.

Amira Chowdhury, from Glendale, California, will graduate in the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in urban studies and political science and a minor in urban education, from the College. She is also graduating with her master’s degree in social policy from the School of Social Policy & Practice. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Timor-Leste.

Luke Coleman, from Dayton, Ohio, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree from the College in philosophy, politics, and economics with a concentration in public policy and governance and minors in Hispanic studies and survey research and data analytics. He has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Spain.

Sonali Deliwala, from Yardley, Pennsylvania, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and economics and a minor in creative writing from the College. She has been offered a Fulbright to conduct research in India.

Alice Heyeh, from Chappaqua, New York, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in communication with a concentration in culture and society and minors in design and consumer psychology from the College. She has been offered a U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Arts Award to pursue a master’s degree in communication design at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom.

Robin Hu, from Los Angeles, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in communication with a concentration in data and network science and a minor in chemistry from the College. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan.

J’Aun Johnson, from Bowie, Maryland, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in dual romance languages with a concentration in French and Hispanic studies and a minor in chemistry from the College. He has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Colombia.

Jordyn Kaplan, from Media, Pennsylvania, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor's degree in American history and minors in urban education and political science from the College. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Spain.

Erin Kraskewicz, from Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in international relations and history from the College. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Spain.

Anuj Krishnamurthy, from South Brunswick, New Jersey, is a master’s student in the online computer and information technology program in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He has been offered a Fulbright to pursue a master's degree in the United Kingdom.

Becca Lee, from Pittsburgh, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a minor in sociology in 2020 from the College and with a master’s degree in chemistry in 2021 from the School of Arts & Sciences. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan.

Shaila Lothe, from Richmond, Virginia, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a dual degree majoring in political science in the College and concentrating in behavioral economics in Wharton and minoring in Hispanic studies. She has been offered a Fulbright in which she will be paired with a company or non-governmental organization and study international business in Mexico.

Brendan Lui, from Potomac, Maryland, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in political science with a concentration in comparative politics from the College. He has been offered a Fulbright to pursue a master’s degree in political science at the University of Cologne in Germany.

Amin Marei, from Philadelphia, is a Ph.D. candidate in education, culture, and society in the Graduate School of Education. She has been offered a Fulbright to conduct research in Jordan.

Zonia Moore, from Bridgetown, Barbados and Sewickley, Pennsylvania, is a medical student in the Perelman School of Medicine. She has been offered a Fulbright to research skin conditions including melasma, eczema, and vitiligo, at a hospital in Mexico City. 

Rebecca Morse, from Acton, Massachusetts, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in biology with a concentration in mechanisms of disease and minors in chemistry and French from the College. She has been offered a Fulbright to conduct research at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, studying the effect of previous acute infections on COVID-19 vaccine responses.

Wil Prall, from Philadelphia, is a Ph.D. candidate in biology concentrating in cell and molecular genetics in the School of Arts & Sciences. He has been offered a Fulbright to continue his thesis work in France at the Universite Paris-Saclay.

Avneet Randhawa, from Houston, Texas, graduated in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in 20th and 21st century modernisms from the College. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Spain.

Kaitlyn Rentala, from Rye, New York, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics, and economics with a concentration in globalization from the College. She is a recipient of a Fulbright-Schuman research grant to the European Union and will spend the academic year in Germany and the Netherlands conducting research on E.U. tech policy and political philosophy.

Anyara Rodriguez, from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and political science with a minor in chemistry from the College. She has been offered a Fulbright to study the sleep and circadian influences on memory retrieval at Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich in Germany.

Lily Snider, from Philadelphia, graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in creative writing from the College. She has been offered a Fulbright grant to complete a nonfiction, research-based creative writing project in the Azores, Portugal.

Stefan Tomov, from Las Vegas, Nevada, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in international studies and a Chinese language certificate from the College and a concentration in business analytics from Wharton as part of the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business. He has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan.

Irene Yee, from Manlius, New York, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and minors in chemistry and gender studies from the College. She has been offered a Fulbright to conduct research in Sweden.

Chloe Zhou, from San Jose, California, will graduate with the Class of 2022 with a master’s degree in education from the Graduate School of Education. Zhou was part of the Urban Teaching Apprenticeship Program to be certified to teach English in secondary classrooms. Zhou has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan.

This release has been updated with two additional Fulbright recipients since the original publication date.