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Indiana University among the top institutions sending Fulbright students abroad

• Feb. 21, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University again is one of the nation’s top producers of Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant winners, as announced by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
 
The Fulbright program is among the U.S. government’s top international educational exchange programs and funds students going abroad. Fulbright awards typically support graduating seniors and graduate students in carrying out research projects or teaching English.
 
Thirteen of the IU Fulbright recipients are enrolled at IU Bloomington, most in its College of Arts and Sciences. Along with one recipient at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, they represent a variety of disciplines and will go to 10 countries in Europe and Latin America.
 
IU ranks ninth among all public universities and fifth in the Big Ten in terms of Fulbright recipients. The lists of top-producing institutions appeared in today’s issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education.
 
“For 70 years, the Fulbright Scholars program has been an important piece of our country’s cultural engagement with the world,” IU Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel said. "Our commitment to this program, and our students’ success in it, embody the academic excellence and global engagement that are central to IU Bloomington’s mission."
 
Eight of this year’s recipients from IU Bloomington are participating in the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant program. Alexander Allison, a 2016 IPFW graduate, also is in Colombia as a recipient of a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant award.
 
Three students from the Bloomington campus who graduated in May 2016 are teaching at universities in Bogotá, Colombia. Outside of their teaching responsibilities, they are each pursuing an independent research project or an internship. One of them, Megan Kelly, works with an organization that studies borders and security, and she is focusing on the effect of the conflict on Colombia's border region with Ecuador.
 
Beth Ciaravolo, a graduate student in the Department of Geography, is conducting research with a Fulbright Study/Research grant in Ukraine, her second time there on a Fulbright grant. She went to Ukraine in 2013 on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant grant and is currently in Lviv, where she is analyzing spoken and written discourse about Ukrainian historical sites and how those sites relate to a national myth and a national homeland.
 
“The Fulbright program is all about cultural exchange and is a very interesting opportunity in that way," Ciaravolo said. “I've encountered a lot of Ukrainians who had never met an American before, and even the ones who have are often very surprised by the things I tell them about America. It really does cause you to see the world in a whole different way.”
 
Below is a list of IU Bloomington's Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant recipients, including their host country, major(s), hometown and type of Fulbright award:
 

• Paul Asta: Ireland; creative writing; Wheaton, Illinois; study/research
• Jenna Beasley: Spain; international studies; Bloomington, Indiana; English teaching assistantship
• Brittany Belkiewitz: Russia; Slavic languages and literature; LaPorte, Indiana; English teaching assistantship
• Joseph Bradley: Mexico; Spanish; Mishawaka, Indiana; English teaching assistantship
• Beth Ciaravolo: Ukraine; geography; Dayton, Ohio; study/research
• Mary Grace Gramelspacher: Colombia; Spanish/Portuguese; Indianapolis; English teaching assistantship
• Emily Hentz: Mexico; biology; Fort Wayne, Indiana; English teaching assistantship
• Matthew Hurley: Germany; education; Indianapolis; English teaching assistantship
• Megan Kelly: Colombia; Spanish; Bloomington, Indiana; English teaching assistantship
• Emma McDonell: Peru; anthropology; Sebastopol, California; study/research
• Bryan Rupert: Ecuador; anthropology; Gallipolis, Ohio; study/research
• Craig Skillman: Colombia; Spanish; Richmond, Indiana; English teaching assistantship
• Shaun Williams: Romania; folklore and ethnomusicology; Loveland, Ohio; study/research

In addition to the U.S. Fulbright Student Program grants, four IU Bloomington graduate students received Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad grants administered by the Department of Education for doctoral dissertation research in countries outside Western Europe:

• Denisa Jashari: Chile; history; Worcester, Massachusetts
• Brandon Miliate: India and Myanmar; political science; Paradise, Montana
• Kenneth Linden: Mongolia; Central Eurasian studies; Somerset, New Jersey
• Justin Wild: Tanzania; education; Seaford, Virginia

Students interested in pursuing a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant or Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellowship should contact their respective adviser: Paul Fogleman, pfoglema@iu.edu, advises undergraduates; and Emily Winters, ugsawrd@indiana.edu, advises graduate students.