19 Johns Hopkins students, recent graduates named Fulbright Scholars

A record number of Johns Hopkins University students and recent graduates—19—have been named Fulbright Scholars, earning the opportunity to travel abroad to such places as Peru, Malaysia, and Spain to study, teach, and conduct research.

Named for the late Sen. J. William Fulbright, who sponsored legislation creating the prestigious scholarship, the Fulbright Scholar Program is the country's largest educational exchange program, offering opportunities for students and young professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and school teaching worldwide. Approximately 8,000 grants are awarded each year, and the program operates in more than 155 countries.

With the Fulbright Study/Research grant, a student designs a proposal for a specific country. The program aims to facilitate cultural exchange and promote mutual understanding by supporting study or research abroad.

The Johns Hopkins winners:

• Ruth Chen, who graduated in 2015 with a BA in English, will travel to Taiwan to pursue a master's degree in creative industries design at the National Cheng Kung University.

• Jacob Cox, an MD candidate in the School of Medicine, will travel to Paris to research the healthcare needs of the refugee population recently resettled to France. He will also pursue a master's in public health through Sorbonne Universités.

• Anna Glenn, a PhD candidate in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, will study at the University of Bern in Switzerland to complete her dissertation, which focuses on Sumerian hymns sung during royal rituals.

• Carly Greenspan, a senior majoring in international studies and anthropology, will return to Jordan to research gender-based citizenship law reform at the King Hussein Foundation in Amman.

• Arielle Kaden, who graduated in December 2015 with a BA from the Writing Seminars and a minor in Jewish studies, will spend the year in Berlin, Germany, researching the city's contemporary Jewish community and writing a memoir about her research experience.

• Alexandra Letvin, a PhD candidate in the history of art, will spend the year in Madrid, Spain, based at the Spanish National Research Council. Her project reconsiders Francisco de Zurbarán's sacristy paintings at the Monastery of Guadalupe in the context of 17th-century anxieties about visionary experiences.

• Neil Rens, who will graduate this spring with a BS in biomedical engineering and a minor in entrepreneurship and management, will study for a master's degree in health economics, policy, and law at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

• Jessica Rothstein, a PhD student in the Department of International Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, has been awarded a Fulbright-Fogarty Fellowship in Peru. She will conduct research on child malnutrition in Oasis, a town on the outskirts of Lima.

• Haziq Siddiqi, a senior majoring in molecular and cellular biology, will spend his Fulbright year in Bilbao, Spain, studying Familial Hypercholesterolemia, an inherited cholesterol disease, hoping to improve diagnostic tools and identify new drug targets.

• Jocelyn Slovak, who graduated with an MFA in fiction in 2013, will spend the year in Seoul, South Korea, researching a three-part novel inspired by her adopted brother's experience meeting his birth father in Seoul.

• Yitzi Snow, who will graduate this year with a BS in materials science and engineering, with a concentration in nanotechnology and a minor in music, will spend the year in Germany studying renewable energy at the University of Freiburg and developing solar panels at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems.

• Adam Tabeling, a PhD candidate in classical art and archaeology, will spend the year at the Freie Universität in Berlin, Germany, working with the German Archaeological Institute, the Berlin Center for Archaeology, and the Berlin State Museums to research artistic representations of the Roman goddess Virtus.

• Cyrus Zhou, who graduated last year with a BA in biophysics and molecular and cellular biology, will study the effects of methane-degrading bacteria on local and global environments at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

The Fulbright English Teaching Assistant programs place students in schools overseas to supplement local English language instruction and to provide a native speaker presence in the classrooms.

The Johns Hopkins winners:

• John Brakke, who graduated in 2015 from the School of Education with an MS in education, will travel to Argentina, where he will work with college students training to be educators. He also plans to take classes and volunteer for a high school basketball program.

• Julia Broach, who graduated in 2015 with a BA in anthropology and minors in visual arts and Latin American studies, will teach English in Nepal. She hopes to engage her students with creative teaching methods, such as drawing, and to offer after-school painting and collage classes.

• Michael Caplan, who graduated in 2015 with a BS in neuroscience and a minor in French cultural studies, will travel to France, where he will teach English and advise French students on opportunities for study in the U.S. He also plans to volunteer for Les Blouses Roses, a group that visits hospital patients, and study French at the Sorbonne.

• Noah Erwin, who graduated in 2015 with a BA in global environmental change and sustainability and in economics, will travel to Malaysia to teach English. He plans to coach in a soccer league and exchange recipes with the community.

• Michael Lewis, who will graduate this spring from the School of Education with a master's in education, will travel to Malaysia, where he plans to host English language nights for parents and students.

• Andrew Vargas-Delman, a graduating senior with a double major in Spanish and linguistics, will travel to Mexico to teach English to university students. He plans to integrate practical skills, such as resume writing, into his lessons, and to organize a spoken word poetry workshop.

More than 325,400 students have been awarded Fulbright grants since the program's inception in 1946. The Fulbright is administered by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

For more information about the Fulbright program at Johns Hopkins, visit http://fellowships.jhu.edu/.