Release: Feb. 12, 2019
GAMBIER, Ohio — Kenyon College is ranked fifth in the nation among baccalaureate institutions for producing winners of the J. William Fulbright Fellowship in 2018–19. This marks the 14th time Kenyon has appeared on the list, published in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Last year, 12 Kenyon students were selected as Fulbright winners, going on to teach English or conduct research in Argentina, China, Colombia, Germany, India, Russia, Spain’s Canary Islands, Taiwan, Thailand and Togo. This honor gives students “a leg up on careers in teaching, research and international work,” said Thomas Hawks, dean of academic advising.
For Max Smith, a 2018 graduate and international studies and French major from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, this opportunity is an extension of the research he began as a Kenyon student. During his study-abroad experience in Cameroon and subsequent internship in Guinea, he researched the rapid growth of innovative cellphone use in both countries, writing an honors thesis titled, “The ‘Glocalization’ of Cellphones in West Africa.” He plans to continue that work at the University of Lomé in Togo.
“This recognition demonstrates Kenyon’s commitment to helping our students thrive in a globalized world,” Hawks said. “It also speaks highly of Kenyon students that they are singled out so frequently by the Institute of International Education to represent the U.S. around the world.”
Kenyon’s latest cohort of Fulbright Fellows includes 10 members of the Class of 2018 and alumni from the classes of 2014 and 2017. They are:
Alice Cusick ’18, a Chinese and Arabic major with a joint major in Asian studies, will serve as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in Taitung, Taiwan. Cusick, who is from Chicago, looks forward to learning some of the Taiwanese Hokkien language and exploring Taiwan’s national parks.
Kraig Davis ’18, a German and Spanish major and music minor from Rices Landing, Pennsylvania, will serve as an ETA in Hamburg, Germany. After studying abroad in Berlin, he is looking forward to becoming acquainted with another German city while furthering the teaching experience he gained at Kenyon as an apprentice language teacher.
William Freda ’18, a double major in modern languages and literatures and religious studies from Deerfield, Massachusetts, was selected to serve as an ETA in Thailand.
Evie Kennedy-Maher ’17, a psychology and Spanish major, will serve as an ETA in Argentina.
Emma Lewis ’14, a sociology major, will conduct research in India.
James Miller ’18, a double major in modern languages and literatures and political science from Worthington, Ohio, will serve as an ETA in Russia.
Colleen Moore ’18, from Newburyport, Massachusetts, will travel to Chennai, India, to conduct research on oral history in the state of Tamil Nadu. The history and Asian studies major will work on improving her Tamil language skills and focus her research on the image of the bandit in public imagination.
Claire Oxford ’18, an English and Spanish double major from Worcester, Massachusetts, will serve as an ETA for elementary school students in Spain’s Canary Islands.
Hannah Russ ’18, a Chinese and dance double major from Hingham, Massachusetts, will combine her areas of study by conducting research at Nanjing University of the Arts in Nanjing, China. She will study the development and implementation of Labanotation, a system of dance movement notation, in collegiate curriculum.
Max Smith ’18, who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and is originally from Paris, France, will travel to Togo to study the impact of mobile phones on the rural-urban divide in the West African country. Smith, an international studies and French double major, will live with both rural and urban families and work with professors at the University of Lomé.
Hannah Vilas ’18, a psychology and Spanish double major from Brunswick, Maine, will teach English to students at teacher-training colleges in Argentina. She is excited to immerse herself in Argentinian culture and meet new people.
Andrea Yarkony ’18, a modern languages and literatures major from Baltimore, will serve as an ETA in Russia.