Fulbright 2023 U.S. Student Program grants awarded to 29 Penn affiliates

Twenty-nine University of Pennsylvania students, recent graduates, and alumni have been offered Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants for the 2023-24 academic year, including eight seniors who graduated May 15. 

They will conduct research, pursue graduate degrees, or teach English in Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Israel, Latvia, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, the West Bank-Palestine territories, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Thailand.

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 Penn recipients applied for the Fulbright with support from the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

Penn Fulbright grant recipients for 2023-24:

Anuj Amin graduated in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree from the College of Arts and Sciences, completing majors in religious studies, classical studies, anthropology, and Near Eastern languages and civilizations. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University in the Department of Religious Studies, specializing in traditions of late antiquity. He was offered a Fulbright Fellowship to travel to Israel for his research project, “Aramaic Incantation Bowls: Traditions of Ancient Healing, Exorcisms, and the Trade of Medical Antiquities,” which explores the intersection of demonic possessions, magic, and medicine in Jewish, Christian, and Zoroastrian communities. 

Ella Atsavapranee, from Cabin John, Maryland, graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science and a minor in chemistry from the College. She was offered a Fulbright to conduct research at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland. 

Rebecca Bean graduated in 2021 from the Huntsman Program where she earned bachelor’s degrees from the Wharton School and College. She was offered a Fulbright in Mexico as part of the Binational Business Program, which places grantees as interns in businesses, and offers international business courses at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.

Rachael (Viola) Bordon graduated in 2021 with a master of fine arts degree with a certification in emerging design and research from the Weitzman School of Design. She was offered a Fulbright to work with Katmandu University in Nepal, where she will be a visiting artist within their new Craft and Design program. Her research focuses on shifting landscapes, climate change, craft, sustainability, and indigenous knowledge in Nepal. 

Erin Brennan, from Beverly Hills, Michigan, graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in creative writing and a minor in cinema and media studies from the College. She was offered a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan.  

Mia Cheung graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in linguistics and a certificate in French from the College and is currently a master's student studying higher education at the Graduate School of Education. She was offered a Fulbright to teach English in France. 

Allison Chou, from Needham, Massachusetts, graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and a minor in chemistry from the College. She has been offered a Fulbright for research at the University of Bern in Switzerland, conducting phosphoproteomic analysis in slow wave sleep.

Teresa Christensen graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in linguistics and cognitive science from the College and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at the Graduate School of Education. She was offered a Fulbright to teach English in South Korea. 

Sabrina de Brito graduated in May with a master’s degree in education from the Graduate School of Education and was a fellow in the Independent School Teaching Residency program. She was offered a Fulbright to teach English in Thailand.

Ashley Fuchs graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and classical studies with concentrations in American politics and classical civilization from the College. She was offered a Fulbright to teach English in Estonia. 

Zacharia Hamdi graduated in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the College. He was offered a Fulbright to conduct research on the effectiveness of Ecuador’s new antitrust regulatory regime. 

Nilesh Kavthekar graduated in 2016 as part of the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology, with majors in computer engineering and economics, in a dual-degree program in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and Wharton School. He was offered a Fulbright to conduct research at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and the Instituto de Empresa Law School in Spain on the diverging labor protections for workers on digital labor platforms.

Vincent Kelley is a Ph.D. candidate in ethnomusicology in the School of Arts & Sciences with a projected graduation date of 2026. He has been offered a Fulbright to pursue research on the international musical, political, and cultural interactions fostered by the Jazz Yatra festivals in post-independence Mumbai and Delhi in India.

Lauren Lamb graduated in May with a master’s degree from the Graduate School of Education and was a fellow in the Independent School Teaching Residency program. She was offered a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan where she plans to conduct research comparing the Taiwanese education system and its values to those in the United States.

Esther Lee, from Milford, Pennsylvania, graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies with a minor in mathematics from the College and from Wharton, where she concentrated in finance and statistics. She was offered a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan. 

Beyoncé Lightfoot graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in international relations with a specialization in foreign policy and a minor in East Asian civilizations and Chinese from the College. She was offered a Fulbright to teach English in South Korea. 

Colin Lodewick graduated in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in Hispanic studies from the College, completing a creative writing honors thesis. He has been offered a Fulbright grant in Guatemala to research sound artist, composer, and writer Joaquín Orellana. 

Lea Mangifesta graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in linguistics and cognitive science from the College and a master’s in linguistics from the School of Arts & Sciences. She was offered a Fulbright grant to teach English in Latvia. 

Vanessa Martinez Penn graduated in 2022 with her master’s degree from the Graduate School of Education. She was offered a Fulbright to teach English in Spain. 

Anya Miller, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in sociology with a concentration in structures of opportunity and inequality and with a minor in design, from the College. She was offered a Fulbright to pursue a master’s degree in social science at University Carlos III of Madrid in Spain. 

Marissa Mojena graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and medical anthropology and with a minor in chemistry from the College. She was offered a Fulbright to conduct research in neurodegenerative diseases at the University of Otago in New Zealand. 

Priyamvada Nambrath is a Ph.D. candidate in South Asian studies with a focus on manuscript studies and the history of science in the School of Arts & Sciences, with a projected completion in 2030. She was offered a Fulbright to conduct manuscript research in India into the history of Indian mathematics.

Trevor Núñez graduated in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in political science with a concentration in American politics from the College. He was offered a Fulbright to teach English in Colombia. 

Sriram Palepu is a third-year medical student in the Perelman School of Medicine, interested in LGBT and global health, with an expected graduation date of 2024. He was offered a Fulbright for his clinical research year at the MITR Clinic, working to understand the barriers to care that trans women face in Hyderabad, India. 

Kyra Schulman graduated in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in history and French and Francophone studies from the College. She is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Chicago. She was offered a Fulbright to conduct her dissertation research in France, studying the everyday lives of Jewish women in Paris from the Vichy-era to its afterlives in the postcolonial age. 

Laila Shadid of Cambridge, Massachusetts, graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in modern Middle Eastern studies and sociology with a concentration in law and society from the College. She was offered a Fulbright to teach English in the West Bank-Palestine Territories. 

Ingrid Sotelo from Mexico City graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience with minors in psychology and healthcare management from the College. She was awarded a Fulbright to conduct research in Germany at the Freie Universität Berlin, where she will be studying the role of cultural values and resilience in transgenerational trauma of Holocaust survivor offspring. 

Sally Thomas from Rumson, New Jersey, graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, politics, and economics with a minor in Arabic and Islamic studies from the College. She was offered a Fulbright to teach English in the West Bank-Palestinian Territories. 

Erin Wrightson is a Ph.D. candidate in early modern art in the School of Arts & Sciences with a projected graduation date of 2027. She was offered a Fulbright to conduct research in Brazil for her dissertation, “Cartographies of Wood: Foraging in the visual archive in Colonial Brazil, 1500-1650,” which addresses the extraction of tropical materials and the representation of ecology, land, and landscape in the global early modern period. She focuses on knowledge and
trade networks between Indigenous groups and Portuguese, French, and Dutch colonizers in early modern Brazil. 

Last year, 27 Penn students and alumni were offered Fulbright grants, and the University was included on the list of 2022-2023 Fulbright Program “Top Producing Institutions” of Fulbright U.S. Students.