Kenyon’s success in producing Fulbright winners continued this year as four graduates were named to the prestigious program.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, provides funding for students and young professionals seeking graduate study, advanced research and teaching opportunities worldwide. Recipients of the coveted fellowship receive grants to serve as English teaching assistants or conduct research abroad.
This year’s recipients from the College are:
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Julia Conner ’24, a modern languages and literatures major from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who studied Chinese and Spanish. She will teach English in Taiwan.
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Claire Haynes ’23, a modern languages and literatures major from Fair Haven, New Jersey, who studied Spanish and Chinese and who also will teach English in Taiwan.
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Maddie Kwasnick ’24, a double major in international studies and modern languages and literatures who studied Spanish and Arabic. She is from Charlottesville, Virginia, and will teach English in Colombia.
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Ashita Wagh ’24, a double major in Spanish and political science from Aurora, Illinois, who will teach English in Mexico.
More good news came when Cooper Bertschi ’26 was named by the U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Commission to this summer’s cohort of the UK Summer Institutes program. A double major in history and political science, Bertschi, from Hartville, Ohio, will participate in the Fulbright Queen’s University Belfast Summer Institute in Northern Ireland.
The Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international academic exchange program. Since its inception in 1946, more than 400,000 students, scholars, teachers, artists and professionals of all backgrounds have been given the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research abroad in over 160 countries.
Kenyon has long been a liberal arts leader in producing these scholars, and earlier this year it was recognized for the number of applicants it had selected for the 2023-24 student scholar program. Kenyon has received the “Top Producer” designation 13 times since 2009-10.
This year’s winners from the College were busy both in the classroom and outside of it during their time on the Hill.
Conner was an executive board member for the Multicultural Identities Organization and active in Kenyon Asian Identities and club soccer. She also served as a teaching assistant for Spanish and Chinese courses.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to improve my language and intercultural understanding in Taiwan while at the same time sharing my experiences as an Asian American,” she said.
Wagh, a senior associate for the Center for the Study of American Democracy, served as a Spanish teaching assistant as well as an English-as-a second-language tutor for organizations that work with refugees. She has high hopes for her time in Mexico, which she will be traveling to for the first time.
“In Mexico, I hope to hone communications skills that I know are necessary to be a successful immigration attorney, a career that requires the ability to cultivate strong interpersonal relationships with those different from yourself,” Wagh said. “Moreover, as part of my grant project, I will start a spoken word poetry club where I teach, where club members can write poetry in any language they wish.”
Kwasnick, a co-valedictorian of the Class of 2024, is also a talented musician who was active at Kenyon playing classical and jazz piano and learning to compose. She said her work as a teaching assistant in Spanish and the guidance of faculty and staff helped put her in a great position to pursue this award.
“I feel incredibly honored to have won a Fulbright award, a success which I largely owe to Kenyon,” she said. “I'm incredibly excited for the upcoming year! In addition to teaching English, I'm especially looking forward to working on the second issue of my bilingual literary/art magazine, Testimony of the Times/Testimonio de los tiempos.”
Haynes, who minored in anthropology, served this past year as a post-baccalaureate fellow at the Brown Family Environmental Center. As an undergraduate, she was leader of the Outdoors Club and captain of the rugby team, as well as a volunteer at Wiggin Street Elementary. She worked as a Spanish teaching assistant and a Chinese tutor as well as for the Office for Community Partnerships’ Rural Life Initiative.
Like her fellow winners, Haynes expressed gratitude to all the members of the Kenyon community who provided help and encouragement in her Fulbright application. Students who wish to apply for awards that require an institutional endorsement work with Assistant Director of Academic Advising Betsy Billiter in the Office of National Fellowships and Scholarships.
“I was surprised by just how many people at Kenyon were willing to offer help and support, even people I didn’t know at all!” Haynes said. “Really, I could not have done it alone.”
As a participant in a UK Summer Institute, Bertschi will be able to explore the culture, politics and history of Northern Ireland while experiencing higher education at a university there. The summer institutes are three- to four-week programs for U.S. undergraduate students who have limited travel experience outside North America.
At Kenyon, Bertschi is an associate at the Center for the Study of American Democracy, a member of the Chamber Singers, and a leader with the Pealers.
“I'm excited to engage with learners from across the Atlantic in an entirely new environment while sharing experiences and making new friends and memories along the way,” Bertschi said. “I'm also eager to learn more about the field of Irish Studies, with a particular focus on how the Irish diaspora's role in the early United States fits into my Summer Scholar research program at Kenyon.”