NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Eleven Vanderbilt students have been named Fulbright Scholars for 2006-07 and another is an alternate.
Vanderbilt had 15 finalists for the prestigious Fulbright Scholar program, and the number of Vanderbilt students who will travel abroad in the coming academic year with Fulbright funding has increased almost fourfold from last year, when three students were recipients of the scholarship.
“We’re really happy in the unprecedented interest our students have demonstrated in the Fulbright program and the commitment they’ve made to participate in the application process,” said Office of Honors Scholarships Director Lyn Fulton-John.
The Office of Honors Scholarships helps prepare qualified students to compete for funding from grant foundations to support post-baccalaureate study in the United States and abroad. The foundations’ missions range from environmental concerns to British-American relations, scientific discovery and, in the case of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, international scholarship.
“This program is highly selective, and we’re proud of the students who have earned this special recognition,” Fulton-John said. “While it is a student’s past performance that enables him or her to qualify for a national fellowship such as this, recipients are selected for their potential to become major contributors in scholarship, leadership and service.”
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, is the largest U.S. exchange program offering opportunities for students and young professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide. The U.S. Student Program currently awards approximately 1,100 grants annually in all fields of study and operates in more than 140 countries worldwide.
Since its inception in 1946, recipients have been selected on the basis of academic achievement and demonstrated leadership potential. The program, which honors Sen. J. William Fulbright, was established by Congress to “enable the government of the United States to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.”
Vanderbilt’s 2006-07 Fulbright recipients are:
Michael Cannamela, a senior mechanical engineering and German major from Boise, Idaho. Cannamela will conduct research on thickness distribution optimization in incremental sheet forming at the Westfaelische Technische Hochschule in Aachen, Germany.
James Gillenwater, a 2005 English graduate from Glasgow, Ky. Gillenwater will serve as an English language teaching assistant in Argentina while pursuing coursework in Latin American education and social structures.
Katya Kosiv, a senior philosophy major from Bronx, New York. Kosiv will work with the Children of the Chornobyl Relief and Development Fund, where she will conduct studies of children ‘s health and educational needs and arrange training programs for teachers in the Zaluchya and Znamianka orphanages in Ukraine.
Kathryn Lawton, a senior child development and psychology major from Columbus, Ohio. Lawton will serve as an English language teaching assistant in South Korea.
Andrew Levine, a senior European economic and cultural studies major from Columbus, Ga. Levine will serve as an English language teaching assistant in France, while incorporating music into his lessons.
Molly Morgan, a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology from Peoria, Ill., who earned her bachelor ‘s degree in anthropology and classics from Vanderbilt in 2001. Morgan will conduct archaeological research at Chiquiuitan in Guatemala.
Brittany Murray, a senior comparative literature major from McKinney, Texas. Murray will conduct research on the dissemination of feminist philosophy to the public through the Ni Putes Ni Soumises Mouvement in Paris, France. At the same time, she will be enrolled as a first-year master ‘s student studying cultural mediation at la Nouvelle Sorbonne.
Preetha Narayanan, a senior violin performance major from Memphis. Narayanan will study Indian Carnatic violin in Madras, India.
George Nelson, a senior classics and psychology major from Montgomery, Ala. Nelson will serve as an English language teaching assistant in South Korea in addition to pursuing language studies.
Dr. Robert Riviello, a surgical resident from Santa Barbara, Calif. Riviello will complete an international surgical fellowship under the guidance of Dr. Stephen Foster at the Evangelical Medical Center in Lubango, Angola.
Sarah Tiggelaar, a senior biology and chemistry major from Lexington, Ky. Tiggelaar will conduct biomedical research on amyloid proteins at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France.
Finally, Christina Thompson, a senior musical arts in violin major from Pleasant Prairie, Wis., has been named a Fulbright alternate to serve as an English language teaching assistant in Germany.
Media contact: Susanne Hicks, (615) 322-NEWS
susanne.hicks@vanderbilt.edu