Thirteen University of Pennsylvania students and alumni have been offered Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants for the 2024-25 academic year, including seven fourth-year undergraduates.
They will conduct research, pursue graduate degrees, or teach English in countries including Argentina, Austria, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and Tuvalu.
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.
Penn consistently ranks as a “Top-Producing Institution,” among those with the highest number of candidates selected for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.
Most of the Penn recipients applied for the Fulbright with support from the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.
Among Penn’s Fulbright grant recipients for 2024-25 are:
Victoria Bulgier, from Harleysville, Pennsylvania, graduated in 2022 from the Graduate School of Education with a master's degree in international educational development. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Italy.
Luke Campo, a fourth-year student from Philadelphia, is majoring in international relations in the College of Arts and Sciences. He has been offered the Fulbright Greece-Turkey Joint Research Award.
Cody Eskandarian, a fourth-year student from Westchester, New York, is majoring in chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, and physics in the College. With a Fulbright research grant, he plans to continue researching cancer by surveying the mechanisms behind mutational burden at the Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna.
Carolyn Grace, from Philadelphia, graduated in 2016 from the College with a bachelor’s degree in history and French studies with a minor in journalistic writing. With the Fulbright grant, she will pursue a Master of Philosophy degree in creative writing at Trinity College Dublin, concentrating in creative nonfiction.
William Han, a fourth-year student from Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, is majoring in health and societies with a concentration in public health and a minor in chemistry. He has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in South Korea.
Roni Itkin-Ofer, a fourth-year student from Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, is majoring in psychology and minoring in urban education in the College. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan.
Kolby Kaller, from Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, graduated in 2020 from the College with a bachelor’s degree in international relations and history with a minor in journalistic writing. With a Fulbright research grant, she plans to conduct research in Tuvalu to create culturally sensitive tools for the preservation of indigenous and local knowledge systems in the digital age.
Tyler Kliem, a fourth-year student from Hamilton, New Jersey, is majoring in comparative literature and design in the College. With a Fulbright research grant, he plans to go to Düsseldorf, Germany, to continue research on the European Yiddish avant-garde.
Nissim Lebovits, from Philadelphia, is completing a master’s degree in city planning from the Stuart Weitzman School of Design. With a Fulbright research grant, he plans to go to La Plata, Argentina, where he will explore opportunities to integrate open-source remote sensing data into local flood risk modeling.
Chandni Shah, from Hillsdale, New Jersey, graduated in 2022 from the College with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience with minors in chemistry and health care management. With a Fulbright research grant, she plans to travel to India to conduct research on the barriers to early diagnoses and interventions for autism in South India.
Alexandra Shank, a fourth-year student from Kailua, Hawaii, is majoring in international relations with a language certificate in Mandarin from the College. She has been offered a Fulbright to teach English in Taiwan.
Vernon Wells, a fourth-year student from Ocean Park, Maine, is majoring in anthropology and sociology with a minor in Asian American studies in the College. With a Fulbright research grant, they plan to travel to the Philippines to examine how Indigenous peoples negotiate pag-unlad, or development, in relation to tribal goals of economic self-sufficiency. Wells plans to use archival sources and ethnographic methods and to collaborate with Indigenous communities, local advocacy partners, and Filipino scholars.
