CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Sixteen University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students and recent graduates were offered Fulbright grants to pursue international education, research and teaching experiences around the globe this coming year. Another six Illinois students were named Fulbright alternates.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program builds international relationships to help solve global challenges. This flagship international educational exchange program of the U.S. government awards grants to students based on their academic and professional achievement, as well as their ambassadorial skills and leadership potential. The Fulbright student program will fund approximately 2,200 U.S. citizens to live abroad for the 2022-23 academic year.
“After a couple years of reduced study-abroad opportunities, it is exciting that borders have reopened and Illinois students and alumni have been selected to take part in the amazing adventure that is study abroad as a Fulbrighter,” said David Schug, the director of the National and International Scholarships Program. “In fact, the 16 grantees from U. of I. match the highest number selected in our university’s history.”
“The disciplinary range of those awardees is also notable, with students from the fine arts, social sciences, humanities and the sciences all being selected,” said Ken Vickery, the director of fellowships in the Graduate College. “Fulbright welcomes students of all stripes, and it’s great to see so many of our students, from so many departments, taking advantage of this extraordinary opportunity.”
The 15 U. of I. students and young alumni who have accepted Fulbright grants:
Jan Balan, from Chicago, a graduate of Whitney M. Young High School, has received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Spain. Balan graduated in May with a B.A. in teaching of Spanish. Since her freshman year, she has served as a teacher’s aide in a bilingual elementary school tutoring both Spanish and English. Balan also has volunteered and played piano for blind adults at the Friedman Place in Chicago. In Spain, she said she hopes to incorporate music into her classroom activities and use music to connect with her local community. After her Fulbright, Balan said she plans to earn a master’s degree in foreign language education and aspires to become a high school Spanish teacher.
Carolina Bieri, of West Dundee, Illinois, is a doctoral student in atmospheric sciences. She earned a bachelor’s degree in atmospheric science from Cornell University with a minor in climate change. Bieri was awarded a Fulbright grant to collaborate with scientists at the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela in Spain on improving a computer model used for climate predictions. She said this kind of interdisciplinary international scientific collaboration is critical in confronting the global climate crisis and developing climate change mitigation strategies. While in Santiago de Compostela, Bieri also plans to work with the university’s Office of Sustainable Development to develop community events aimed at empowering school-aged girls to devise solutions to climate change-related problems.
Aeriel Burtley, of Chicago, a graduate of the British School of Chicago, has earned a Fulbright grant to teach English in Sofia, Bulgaria. Burtley graduated with a B.A. in political science in December. On campus, she facilitated leadership workshops for two years as a Graf Intern at the Illinois Leadership Center and for three years worked at the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center improving the retention of minority students at Illinois. Burtley also served as a Design Your First Year Experience course instructor for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and tutored adult students in English at the Urbana Adult Education Center. Burtley currently is a workforce development specialist for New York Courts, facilitating the professional and holistic development of noncustodial fathers. After her Fulbright year, Burtley said she aspires to serve as a linguist for the Federal Bureau of Investigation after receiving a Juris Doctor.
Janani Comar, of Downers Grove, Illinois, has accepted a Fulbright-Nehru Student Research grant to India to study how non-elite writers and communities participated in the shaping of Hindu ethics in colonial times. Comar earned her master’s degree in religion in May 2019 before beginning a doctoral program at the University of Toronto. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the California Institute of Technology. In India, Comar plans to conduct her study by developing relationships with scholars of folk performance and artists, accessing local manuscript material and working with scholars to translate Indian texts. She said she also plans to continue training in the Indian dance form Bharatanatyam and in martial arts to engage with other members of Indian society. Comar said her career goal is to become a professor who broadens her students’ cultural understanding through teaching courses in Hinduism, empire and religious narratives.
Travis Dore, of Island Park, New York, is a doctoral student in physics who earned bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and physics from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. Dore was awarded a Fulbright grant to collaborate with scientists at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. Dore’s project brings his specialization in hydrodynamics together with the Goethe Institute for Theoretical Physics’ expertise in kinetic theory to discover more about the behavior of the exotic nuclear matter created through heavy ion collisions. Dore seeks for his work to increase our understanding of fundamental aspects of the early universe as well as neutron star mergers. He said that he is guided by a philosophical interest in connecting our human experience to our outer universe and is excited by the opportunity afforded by Fulbright to strengthen ties between American and German nuclear physicists.
Sophia Ebel, of Champaign, and a graduate of the University of Illinois Laboratory High School, was awarded a Fulbright combined award to Austria. There, she will teach English at a teacher training college while also conducting research on the representation of refugee narratives within Austrian secondary school classrooms. Ebel graduated in May as a Bronze Tablet Scholar and member of the Campus Honors Program and James Scholar with majors in comparative literature and Germanic studies, and minors in French and Arabic studies. While in Austria, she plans to host English-language cooking classes and expand a local library collection through book drives and fundraisers. After her Fulbright year, Ebel said she plans to stay in Austria to pursue a master’s degree before attaining a Ph.D. in the U.S.
Aiman Ghani was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award in Thailand. Ghani graduated in May with a B.S. in elementary education from the College of Education after transferring from the University of Illinois Chicago and Joliet Junior College. She did her student teaching in bilingual elementary school classrooms and completed her teaching practicum in Italy. On campus, she was engaged with interfaith and diversity-promoting organizations, and in Thailand is interested in exploring how Buddhism’s focus on mindfulness may be linked with mental health. Ghani writes and presents her own poetry and is completing her first novel. After the Fulbright, Ghani said she plans to become an English as a second language teacher in an elementary school and is committed to diversifying children’s literature as an author.
Hamed Kadiani, of Springfield, Illinois, and a graduate of Springfield High School, has earned a Fulbright to teach English in Germany. He previously spent four weeks as a high school exchange student in Germany and continued his studies of German as an undergraduate. Kadiani graduated in May 2019 with an MAS in accountancy after also earning a B.S. in accountancy from the Gies College of Business as a member of the Campus Honors Program and James Scholar. He graduated as a member of the Dean's Scroll, a Top 10 business student. Additionally, Kadiani holds a Master of Arts in Teaching in secondary mathematics. A first-generation American from India, Kadiani currently teaches math at Taft High School, a public school in Chicago. After the Fulbright, Kadiani said he plans to pursue his administrative license and provide equitable education access to all students.
Lauren Lynch, of Ipswich, Massachusetts, is completing her doctorate in natural resources and environmental sciences. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and in wildlife and fisheries conservation from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a master’s in natural resource management from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Her Fulbright grant will take her to the city of Cotonou, Benin, to study the impacts of urbanization on bees and the pollination services they provide. Lynch said many families in Cotonou maintain household gardens as a supplementary source of food and income. By measuring the effects of urbanization on the abundance and diversity of bees, her research seeks to contribute to improving food security in West African urban ecosystems and beyond. As a future professor, Lynch said she aspires to develop an urban ecology research program that would allow undergraduate students to engage in socially and culturally conscious research.
Owen MacDonald, from Overland Park, Kansas, is a doctoral student in history. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history, Latin American and Caribbean studies, and political science, and a master’s in African and African American studies from the University of Kansas. He was offered a Fulbright to conduct research in northwestern Brazil on an early 20th-century effort to construct a railroad that would have transported rubber from the Brazilian interior to foreign markets. MacDonald said while the railroad was a commercial failure, its reliance on Black Caribbean migrant workers profoundly shaped local communities. He hopes his project will make an important contribution to Brazilian labor history. While in Brazil, MacDonald said he looks forward to sharing his love of the sport of strongman, and his competitive experience as Topeka’s second strongest man, with local fitness enthusiasts.
Sarah Marks Mininsohn, from Pikesville, Maryland, is an MFA student in dance. She earned a bachelor’s degree in dance and sociology from Wesleyan University. Mininsohn was awarded a Fulbright grant to conduct a choreographic project in Italy. In three Italian cities, Mininsohn will seek to understand how acts of departure and return interact with the environmental landscape, with a specific focus on the migration of Jewish communities. The project will culminate in a choreographed dance performed amid sites of Jewish history and in collaboration with community partners. Upon returning to the U.S., Mininsohn said she hopes to continue collaborating with the Italian dancers and scholars with whom she will work during her Fulbright year.
Folashade Olumola, of Homewood, Illinois, and a graduate of Homewood-Flossmoor High School, has earned a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award to teach university students in Turkey. Olumola graduated in May with a political science major. She was a James Scholar honors student and spent the spring 2022 semester studying Arabic in Oman as a Boren Scholar. At Illinois, Olumola served as a residential assistant and volunteered as an English conversation partner with the Intensive English Institute. She also served as a teaching assistant intern for an introductory course in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences to familiarize incoming international students with campus culture and complemented this work as a global leader for the Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations to connect domestic and international students. Olumola said she aspires to work as a foreign service officer for the U.S. Agency for International Development under the Bureau of Development, Democracy, and Innovation.
Amanda Oversen, of Highland Park, Illinois, and a graduate of Highland Park High School, has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Spain. Oversen graduated in December from the College of Applied Health Sciences with a major in speech and hearing science and a minor in Spanish. At Illinois, she served as a teaching assistant in the Child Development Laboratory. Oversen also served as a camp counselor at the Center on Deafness. While in Spain, Oversen said she plans to learn Spanish Sign Language and connect with the local deaf community, as her goal is to become a bilingual speech-language pathologist for elementary school-aged students. She also is interested in how to cultivate cultural-linguistic diversity in the American school system. After her Fulbright, Oversen said she plans to enroll in a master’s program for speech-language pathology.
Ksenia Polyarskaya, of Vernon Hills, Illinois, and a graduate of Adlai E. Stevenson High School, has accepted one of 10 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Awards to teach at higher education institutions in Kazakhstan. Polyarskaya graduated in May as a James Scholar honors student with a BMUS degree in instrumental music from the College of Fine and Applied Arts, with minors in Spanish, business and English as a second language. A first-generation American from Transnistria, Polyarskaya earned TESL certification and spent two years on campus as a course instructor for college freshmen. She also worked as a Graf Intern with the Illinois Leadership Center co-facilitating educational workshops and spent a semester guiding low-income, minority high school students preparing for college. Post-Fulbright, Polyarskaya said she hopes to attend law school to further her goal of advancing accessibility to international education as a human rights advocate and international law attorney.
Damir Vucicevic, of Hamtramck, Michigan, was awarded a Fulbright to conduct research in Belgrade, Serbia, on Yugoslav-Egyptian relations during the Cold War. Vucicevic earned a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from the University of Michigan, Dearborn and a master’s in history from Tufts University. Vucicevic is a doctoral student in history, and his dissertation examines the extent of Yugoslavia’s influence on the broader Non-Aligned Movement that sought to establish a neutral “third way” within the geopolitical climate of the Cold War. While in Belgrade, Vucicevic hopes to use his own experience as a Yugoslav-American, along with his proficiency in Arabic and Serbian, to serve as a cultural ambassador between the U.S., Serbia, and recent Arabic-speaking migrants to the country.
The Fulbright program is jointly administered at Illinois by the National and International Scholarships Program, which works with undergraduates and recent alumni, and the Graduate College Office of External Fellowships, which supports graduate students. Additionally, Illinois faculty members, returned Fulbrighters and staff with geographic and programmatic expertise review student application materials and conduct candidate interviews.
Applications are open for students interested in pursuing studies, fine arts, research or English teaching assistantships under the Fulbright for the 2023-24 academic year.