Fulbright Recognition

From Kenyon News - February 10, 2020

Kenyon is among 19 institutions in the country to be a top producer of both Fulbright U.S. students and Fulbright U.S. scholars in the 2019–20 academic year. The College also is one of the top baccalaureate institutions that produce the most student winners of the fellowship, marking the 15th time Kenyon has appeared on the top-producing student list, published in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Last year, five Kenyon students were selected as Fulbright winners, going on to teach English or conduct research in Belarus, China and Malaysia. Two students were selected as alternates to teach English or conduct research in Slovenia and Spain. 

“To be named a top producer of not only Fulbright students, but also scholars, is an extraordinary achievement,” said Thomas Hawks, dean of academic advising and support. “This recognition demonstrates Kenyon’s commitment to global learning, and it is a testament to our faculty’s dedication to engaging themselves and their students in the international community.”

The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by Congress to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. More than 2,200 U.S. students and more than 900 U.S. college and university faculty and administrators are awarded Fulbright grants annually. In addition, around 4,000 Fulbright Foreign Students and Visiting Scholars come to the U.S. annually to study, lecture, conduct research or teach their native language. 

Kenyon’s latest cohort of Fulbright students and alternates includes six members of the Class of 2019 and a graduate from the class of 2018. They are:

• Sriya Chadalavada ’19, an economics major from Cincinnati, who was selected to serve as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in Malaysia.
• Charlotte Dreyer ’19, a psychology major from Denver, who was selected as an alternate ETA in Spain.
• Mary Grace Detmer ’19, a political science major from River Forest, Illinois, who was selected to serve as an ETA in Malaysia.
• Leila Dusthimer ’19, an international studies major from Danville, Ohio, who was selected to serve as an ETA in Malaysia.
• Daniel Hojnacki ’18, an English major from Toledo, Ohio, who was selected to serve as an ETA in Belarus. 
• Nick Kaufman ’19, a political science major from Boston, who was selected for a study-research grant in China. 
• Sarah “Maggie” Murphree ’19, a physics major from Meadville, Pennsylvania, who was selected as an alternate for a study-research grant in Slovenia.

Additionally, three Kenyon faculty members were awarded Fulbright scholar grants in the 2019-20 academic year: 

• Associate Professor of Psychology Irene López, with Hungary’s Eötvös Loránd University, for a project titled “Towards a Pedagogy of Global Understanding: Comparing the Processes of Social Integration in the U.S. and Hungary.”
• Assistant Professor of Sociology Shaun Golding, with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, for a project titled “Labor Migration, Natural Resources, and Environmentalism in Rural Norway.”
• Associate Professor of Chemistry Yutan Getzler, with Israel’s Tel Aviv University, for a project titled “New Materials for Controlled Degradation.”