2018 Fulbright Alumni Ambassadors

Current City: Sarasota, Florida
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
P.Adolphsen.alumniambassador@fulbrightmail.org

In Cape Town, South Africa, Paul explored the intersections of pedagogy and performance by working with students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). He taught a course titled “Explorations in Writing for Performance,” where students wrote plays about their experiences as members of South Africa’s “born free” generation. Additionally, Paul led a weekly extracurricular writing workshop and lectured in English Literature courses at UWC, using the classroom as a site to explore how process-oriented theater-making and dramaturgical collaboration can create space for students to connect their lived experience with course content. During his time in Cape Town, Paul also connected with South African theater artists (publishing interviews with them on the American theatre website howlround.com), served as a guest judge for the Zabalaza Community Theatre Festival, gave two research presentations at UWC faculty seminars, and began a weekly pedagogy reading group with like-minded UWC faculty. Upon returning home, Paul served for a year as the Allen Lee Hughes Literary Fellow at Arena Stage in Washington DC. He is currently the Dramaturg and Literary Manager at Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, one of the largest professional theaters in the southeastern United States.

Current City: Camp Lejeune, North Carolina
West Point
M.Auten.alumniambassador@fulbrightmail.org

In Ukraine, Mike conducted a series of qualitative and quantitative studies to chart Ukraine’s path of economic development and determine the future of entrepreneurship and small enterprise in the country. Relying heavily on the research and practical experience of his colleagues and faculty at the Kyiv School of Economics, Mike explored data trends and compared them the perceptions of everyday entrepreneurs. Additionally, he volunteered his free time as an English tutor at the Kyiv Military Lyceum and for the Ukrainian Wounded Warrior team. When he wasn’t practicing economics, he wrote a comparative analysis of the conflicts in Ukraine and Georgia and was a guest lecturer at the Ukrainian Academy of Leadership and multiple Ukrainian universities. After Mike finished his master’s degree at the Kyiv School of Economics in June 2017, he reported to his initial training as a U.S. Marine Corps officer. He is now serving as a public affairs officer in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Current City: St. Louis, Missouri
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
E.Boeing.alumniambassador@fulbrightmail.org

While in the Netherlands, Erika Boeing pursued a master’s degree in Society, Science, and Technology at Maastricht University. This program focused on how technology affects society and, conversely, how society determines which technologies are accepted. As an engineer who is driven by a passion for sustainability, Erika has used her degree to explore her long held questions about how her work on energy technologies was affecting the world, and how she could use her talents to move it towards increased sustainability. During her award, she focused her research on the unintuitive concept of the energy rebound effect, which states that energy efficiency measures may not lead to energy reduction overall. She worked to understand different scholars’ conceptualizations, and European governments’ and city planners’ policy recommendations on how to treat energy efficiency measures. Outside of her research, Erika also helped to organize student run sustainability courses and participated in an entrepreneurship program. Currently, Erika is the CEO of Accelerate Wind, a startup company which is developing novel technologies for distributed wind energy generation. Her Fulbright research was significant in informing her choices of which topics to pursue with her startup, and the company still maintains many helpful ties to the Netherlands to this day.

Current City: Washington, DC
Yale University
G.Bogden.alumniambassador@fulbrightmail.org

Dr. George Bogden is a researcher and writer on international affairs, based at the Hudson Institute. He currently serves as the Associate Director of the Center on the Future of Liberal Society and manages Professor Walter Russell Mead’s projects in scholarship, journalism, and teaching. His work includes strategic planning for the Center, administering its day-to-day operations, fundraising support, as well as the training and supervision of junior staff. His commentary has appeared in the German Marshall Fund’s Paper Series, The American Interest, Presidential Studies Quarterly, and Perspectives. Aspects of George’s Fulbright research on the Balkans will appear in a forthcoming chapter published by the United States Marine Corps Press. George received M.Phil. and D.Phil. degrees in international relations at the University of Oxford, where he was awarded a Clarendon Scholarship. During the last year of his doctoral studies, he served as a Fulbright Public Policy Fellow in Kosovo. Before beginning his graduate studies, he received his B.A. in political science from Yale University, serving as the university’s Fox International Fellow in Istanbul the following year. George is a member of Chatham House and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Current City: Washington, DC
Spelman College
C.Boyce.alumniambassador@fulbrightmail.org

In Malaysia, Cheyenne developed and conducted English lessons at a secondary school in rural Kedah, Malaysia. During her Fulbright, she worked closely with the English teachers to make learning fun while encouraging confidence, creativity, and dedication to education. A highlight of her award was creating the school’s first multicultural club and leading a four-day, cultural exchange trip for 13 students and four teachers to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia. The multicultural club began as an opportunity for students to learn about different peoples and cultures from around the world through independent research and group presentations. After realizing that many of her students had not had direct experiences with the variety of cultures in Malaysia, she shifted the club’s focus. The trip, themed Discovering Cultures in Our Own Backyards, included an English Camp with a partner school in Sabah, community service projects, and a day of learning about traditional food, dance, and traditions at the Mari Mari Cultural Village. Cheyenne considers her Fulbright experience to be a critical turning point in her education and career. After returning from Malaysia, she completed her master’s degree in international peace and conflict resolution from American University, with a focus on the role of cultural exchange as a post-conflict mediation tool. She currently works for the Confucius Institute U.S. Center where she develops programming that fosters mutual understanding between the United States and China.

Current City: Hanover, New Hampshire
The College of William and Mary
R.Brooks.alumniambassador@fulbrightmail.org

Rachel E. Brooks works at the Center for Business, Government and Society at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She spent two years in Jeju City, South Korea as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant and taught over 800 high school students each week. She served as Fulbright Korea's Junior and then Chief Orientation Coordinator for two six-week orientation programs to prepare cohorts of 69 and 74 new grantees for their placements. In her free time, Rachel conducted independent research on the Jeju 4.3 and Taiwan 2.28 massacres, delivered the keynote speech at the 2016 Peace Island Forum hosted by Jeju National University’s World Peace Academy, and coordinated the North Korean Defector Program for her city. She led Women's Youth Leadership Development (WYLD) to create conferences for high achieving young women across Jeju Island and contributed to Fulbright Korea's literary magazine, Infusion. Before her Fulbright, she worked for the World Affairs Council and the Virginia General Assembly. A Sharpe community scholar and honors fellow, Rachel graduated from the College of William and Mary with a bachelor’s degree in public policy and honors in interdisciplinary studies.     

Current City: Austin, Texas
University of Texas at Austin
R.Fan.alumniambassador@fulbrightmail.org

While based in the Moroccan capital of Rabat during his Fulbright, Ryan traveled frequently to other cities to conduct doctoral fieldwork on language diversity in Moroccan deaf communities. His research involves analyzing signed language vocabulary and grammar, as well as documenting variation in spoken and written usage of Arabic, French, Spanish, and Amazigh (indigenous) languages among deaf communities. The anthropological side of Ryan’s project investigates how ideologies about these different forms of language proficiency and literacy contribute to the construction of deaf/Deaf identities at the individual and group levels. During his award, Ryan and several friends from the Moroccan deaf community participated and presented in conferences and workshops to increase visibility and combat stigmatization of deafness. He was also enlisted as a volunteer teacher and translator/interpreter for Arabic, French, English, American Sign Language, and Moroccan Sign Language(s) for several deaf associations and events. Ryan is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Current City: Brooklyn, New York
Trinity College
J.Frank.alumniambassador@fulbrightmail. org

Joshua Frank was a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Malaysia. Throughout his award, Joshua worked to provide emotional and academic support for his students with camps and classroom lessons. He hoped to create experiences for them that paralleled the support system of the Posse Foundation, a program that assisted him in college. Joshua and his students worked on writing intensive projects together and used them to create a book called, Voices of Malaysia. The book contains stories, poems, and letters to the United States -- all created by students. Joshua also worked with his roommate to hold an Art in Nature English Camp for 50 students from two schools. Students had the opportunity to learn from one of Joshua’s fellow Fulbrighters about environmental preservation and caring for turtles in Malaysia. Currently, Joshua is preparing to begin a Masters of Philosophy in Education at Cambridge University.  

Current City: Manvel, Texas
At-Large
J.Freeman.alumniambassador@ fulbrightmail.org

In Johannesburg, South Africa, Jonathan spent ten months of his Fulbright in the South African Research Chair (SARChl) in Local Histories, Present Realities at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits, for short). He spent considerable amount of time conducting archival research at the South African History Archive (SAHA) and at the Historical Papers Archive at Wits. His research on the cultural boycott against apartheid, with the focus on Sun City, focuses on how protest music functioned as a popular initiative and response to Apartheid. His Fulbright research also corresponds to work undertaken at the SARChl and History Workshop. The anti-Apartheid movement, including the international boycott campaigns, is a key focus of the center’s research. The center has paid considerable attention to the histories of the former bantustans, such as Bophuthatswana (where Sun City is located). Jonathan has been invited by the History Workshop Group, the U.S. Consulate in Johannesburg, and Phomolong Secondary School in Tembisa, a township outside Johannesburg, to share his work on protest music and social activism. He completed a PhD candidate in American Studies at Purdue University. Jonathan is based in Manvel, Texas and is completing his dissertation.

Current City: New Haven, Connecticut
University of Chicago
E.Gerdin.alumniambassador@fulbrightmail .org

As a Fulbrighter in Israel, Emily studied how growing up in a region of ethnoreligious conflict (i.e., the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) influences children’s emerging beliefs about the social world. With Dr. Gil Diesendruck at Bar-Ilan University, she considered how studying in more culturally heterogeneous school environments affects young adults’ beliefs about the cultural groups present in their communities. In addition, she worked with graduate students at Bar-Ilan University and conducted research with infants, exploring early emerging beliefs about race. In addition to her research, Emily volunteered with organizations in Israel that sought to provide aid to lower income communities and inform young Americans about the conflict within the region. After coming back to the states, Emily moved to Chicago and became a research coordinator at the University of Chicago, where she continued to investigate children’s early social experience. Emily is now a PhD student at Yale University, where she studies what influences children’s bourgeoning ideological beliefs.  

Current City: New York, New York
Columbia University
D.Hamburger.alumniambassador@ fulbrightmail.org

In India, David was a Fulbright-Nehru English Teaching Assistant at Kailash Vidyamandir, an all-boys, primary, and lower secondary school in Kolkata. David was the first Fulbrighter placed at Kailash and the school’s first full-time English teacher in five years. In addition to helping his students become experts in the foundations of the English language, David did his best to introduce them to American culture— from trick-or-treating, to dancing to Michael Jackson, to explaining the differences between cricket and baseball. David also fundraised $10,000 from 116 donors that helped to build the 167-year-old school its first library, paint murals, and make crucial infrastructure improvements. David is currently living in New York City and is a 2018 Work First Foundation fellow, where he helps prepare New Yorkers on government assistance for jobs and researches unemployment issues. 

Current City: Lexington, Kentucky
Centre College
J.Howell.alumniambassador@fulbrightmail .org

In the region of San Carlos, located in north-central Costa Rica, Jeri assisted teenage students and high schools affiliated with the U.S. Department of State’s English Access Microscholarship Program. Jeri taught U.S. culture, managed students’ community engagement projects, and assisted English teachers in three public high schools. In addition to working with Access, she facilitated cultural programming for regional schools, universities, and community groups, often performing concert-lectures on Kentucky music and dance traditions. Jeri invested in local relationships and traveled throughout Costa Rica, spending time to understand people's relationship with place and the natural environment. This experience abroad informed a series of original songs that Jeri wrote once back in the United States and which she plans to use for a tour about international exchange and the human-environmental relationship. Now, Jeri is a singer-songwriter and develops cultural and environmental programming and research for local nonprofits and businesses in central Kentucky.

Current City: San Francisco, California
At-Large
C.Keung.alumniambassador@fulbrightmail. org

Born in Italy and raised in Southern California, Christine’s fascination with Northwestern China stemmed from her parents’ experience as sent-down youth during the Cultural Revolution and her father’s childhood in Ili, a Kazakh autonomous prefecture on the border of Xinjiang Province, Kazakhstan, and Russia. She began conducting environmental research in this region in 2012, after receiving a National Science Foundation grant that funded field research in rural Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan provinces. In 2014, Christine went to Xi’an, China on her Fulbright award, where she had the opportunity to engage with U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus and the Country Heads of global NGOs. In 2016, she became the youngest person to win the Rolex Awards for Enterprise, in the award’s 30-year history, which supports the watershed restoration project she had started while on her Fulbright. More recently, TIME Magazine featured Christine in their 2017 Next Generation Leaders issue. Christine graduated with a B.A. in economics from Wellesley College and was accepted into Harvard Business School’s MBA Program during her senior year. The first in her family to graduate from high school and college, she advocated for first generation students while serving on the College’s Board of Admissions and as an academic tutor and mentor for students from under-resourced backgrounds. Christine began her professional career as an analyst on Dropbox’s Trust & Security team, and eventually served as the Legal Team’s Chief of Staff. When she’s not speaking or publishing papers on her research in China, she speaks about her work in cybersecurity at conferences like the SANS Institute. Christine will pursue an MBA at Harvard this fall, where she will develop her interest and expertise in business practices and policies that govern privacy and security.

Current City: Yuba City, California
Wellesley College
M.LaBouyer.alumniambassador@ fulbrightmail.org

In Scotland, Maria earned her master’s degree in human nutrition from the University of Aberdeen. During her program, she took courses in metabolic and molecular nutrition, food security, and public health nutrition. She also conducted research at Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, where she studied the impact of diet on the human microbiome. This research included comparing gut bacterial responses in both obese and non-obese individuals on varying diets. Outside of her Fulbright research, Maria spent time volunteering with local youth programs and hillwalking in Scotland’s beautiful countryside. She is currently working at a biotech startup and pursuing her MBA at University of California - Davis.

Current City: Davis, California
Yale University
K.McLean.alumniambassador@fulbrightmail .org

Kevin McLean is an ecologist focused on wildlife in tropical forest canopies. On his Fulbright award, he worked in Malaysian Borneo and the Ecuadorian Amazon to survey canopy mammals in two of the most biodiverse areas of the world using motion-sensitive cameras (camera traps). As he collected his scientific data, he wrote stories, took photos, and created videos to provide a view of some of the least-known species in the forest and the significant effort required to study them. His research and stories will be made available through an exhibit that will highlight canopy wildlife and the conservation threats they face. Originally from Minnesota, Kevin studied Earth Systems at Stanford University, completed his PhD in ecology and biodiversity conservation at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California - Davis.

Current City: Orem, Utah
Brigham Young University
G.Nagaishi.alumniambassador@ fulbrightmail.org

Having previously performed interviews in Ghana and archival research in England, Garrett’s interest in the history of slavery led him to receive a Fulbright award to the UK, where he completed an MA in international slavery studies at the University of Liverpool. As part of his coursework, Garrett’s dissertation analyzed ways in which nineteenth-century Britons wrote about and represented West African slavery, and how these representations transformed beliefs about race and colonization. While in Liverpool, Garrett also assisted at the International Slavery Museum, where he provided direction for improving the museum’s representation of colonialism in Africa. Garrett’s Fulbright year was a transformative experience for both his academic and professional future, inspiring him to further engage with academia through higher education administration. Garrett now works as the Program Manager for First-Generation Students at Utah Valley University.

Current City: Wilsonville, Oregon
Oregon State University
K.Perez-Hammerle. alumniambassador@fulbrightmail.org

While in Chile, Katharina-Victoria dedicated herself to huemul conservation. The huemul is an endangered deer species, threatened by habitat loss, competition, and disease. Katharina-Victoria contributed to local conservation efforts by centralizing and standardizing data collected from interviewing and collaborating with Chilean and international NGOs, governmental agencies, universities, and independent interest groups. With this data, she created interactive maps depicting the variables threatening the endangered species and participated in local activities aimed at documenting deer presence, health and distribution for both technical use and public education. In collaboration with Corporacion Nacional Forestal, Chile’s Forest Service, Katharina-Victoria participated in local conservation efforts, like huemul census surveys, telemetry tracking and exploratory surveys, to determine population trends. Additionally, she directed capacity building initiatives by training rangers in ecological monitoring techniques, camera trap methodologies, and how to use basic Geographic Information System software programs. After her Fulbright, Katharina-Victoria is now applying to a PhD program in conservation planning.

Current City: Tucson, Arizona
At-Large
V.Redhouse.alumniambassador@ fulbrightmail.org

In Australia, Vince was the Anne Wexler Fulbright Scholarship in Public Policy recipient at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, where he completed a MPhil in Philosophy under the supervision of Robert E. Goodin. Vince's thesis focused on the topic of political reconciliation between Settler states and their Indigenous citizens. In addition to his master's program, Vince tutored for a course on Indigenous Culture through ANU's Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, was a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Canberra's Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, gave a TEDx presentation, and through support from both the ANU and the Lois Roth Endowment, visited Utopia, an Indigenous community in the Northern Territory, where he was able to learn first-hand, some of the issues faced by Indigenous Australians. Upon completion of his two years in Australia, Vince returned to his home in Tucson, Arizona, where he currently works for his county government and volunteers with the local Indigenous populations. Shortly after his return, Vince started an Indigenous music program at a public school through a partnership with Tucson Mayor, Jonathan Rothschild, and a private party. Unsure of where to go next, Vince has applied for a PhD program as well as to several law school programs throughout the United States.

Current City: Austin, Texas
University of Maryland, Baltimore
R.Rettaliata.alumniambassador@ fulbrightmail.org

In the Republic of Moldova, Rachel conducted historical research focused on the intersection of public monuments, national identity construction, and preservation policy during the 20th century. Embedded within Moldova’s Agency for the Inspection and Restoration of Monuments, Rachel had the opportunity to travel to cultural heritage sites throughout the country. During these site visits, Rachel recognized a need to advocate for increased public awareness of endangered heritage sites and community participation in cultural heritage protection. Supported through a U.S. Embassy grant, Rachel created and implemented a social media outreach campaign to engage the public in sharing the heritage sites that mattered to them. As a result, the campaign celebrated Moldova’s diversity and initiated dialogue about the value of preserving historic resources. Through social media, television and radio interviews, and presentations delivered throughout the country, her campaign reached over 200,000 Moldovans in the span of two months and will resume for a second season in May 2018. In addition to her independent research and preservation advocacy campaign, Rachel led a cross-cultural book club, an English club for professionals, facilitated bi-weekly TOEFL preparation courses, and presented at numerous conferences. Since returning to the United States, she has presented her research at Fulbright and professional conferences. Rachel is currently translating her research into a digital mapping project and is a M.S. candidate in historic preservation at The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Architecture.

Current City: Washington, DC
Louisiana State University
V.Richardson.alumniambassador@ fulbrightmail.org

Valencia Richardson is a first-year law student at Georgetown University and a Fulbright alumna to Mexico, where she worked at a non-profit focused on developing citizenship skills in children. During her time as a Fulbrighter, Valencia developed her passion and study in civic engagement and democracy building. Valencia graduated magna cum laude from Louisiana State University (LSU) in 2016, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication, with a concentration in Political Communication with a minor in Spanish. While at LSU, Valencia was instrumental in efforts to register hundreds of students to vote. She was also an advocate for higher education funding and increases to voter accessibility for college students by leading the charge to change Louisiana’s state law to allow student IDs to become eligible voter IDs. Back home in the United States, Valencia is now actively engaged in voting rights work and participates in pro bono work aiding immigrant communities.

Current City: Jersey City, New Jersey
New Jersey City University
C.Severino.alumniambassador@ fulbrightmail.org

During her Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Colombia, Claudia worked with English Language Professors in the Teacher’s College at the University of Technology and Pedagogy of Colombia. The students were training to become English language educators in primary and secondary schools across the country. While collaborating with the university professors, Claudia engaged in innovative lesson planning that would enhance the university students’ language acquisition while providing them with ideas for meaningful lessons in their individual internships. Since she had taught at the secondary level for six years prior to beginning her Fulbright award, she had the opportunity to introduce creative strategies and lessons to both professors and students. Her involvement in the university’s secondary language program included hosting tutoring sessions and workshops on notable American writers and literary works. Claudia also researched women’s rights and the violence women face across Latin America, and held a seminar at the university exploring the issue at an international level. Upon returning to New Jersey, Claudia continued her master’s degree in English as a Second Language and resumed working as a secondary English teacher in Passaic.

Current City: Centreville, Alabama
Auburn University
C.Tabor.alumniambassador@fulbrightmail. org

In Vienna, Catherine took part in the initial cohort of Fulbright’s pilot Community-Based Combined Grantees. During her award, she took courses at the University of Vienna in subjects ranging from church history to law. She taught at two secondary schools, where she developed and implemented English lessons and helped students prepare for their Matura exams. Catherine’s community based project was designed with Caritas, a local non-profit, and she worked at a Wohngemeinschaft or residential community for children with disabilities, particularly those with autism. Catherine combined both her teaching duties with her work at Caritas, and she taught lessons designed to spread awareness to her students about different mental and physical disabilities. Catherine loved her Fulbright experience, and she believes that the dynamic character of the Austrian combined award prepared her for her current studies at the University of Alabama School of Law.