2016-17 FULBRIGHT U.S. STUDENT PROGRAM SEMI-FINALIST BIOS

These 13 Purdue students and alumni are 2016-17 Fulbright U.S. Student Program Semi-finalists. News of which students are offered a Fulbright grant will be reported from each of their prospective host countries as rolling results between March and June. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is the largest U.S. exchange program offering opportunities for students and young professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, or primary and secondary school teaching worldwide. The program currently awards approximately 1,900 grants annually in all fields of study and operates in more than 140 countries worldwide.

Purdue's Semi-Finalists

Ayat Abourashed

Applying for an English Teaching Assistantship in Indonesia
Hometown: Frankfort, IL
Pursuing Degree: BS (current senior)
Major: Pharmaceutical Sciences
Colleges: Pharmacy, Honors College

Ayat has a unique perspective to share with her fellow Boilermakers as an Egyptian-American student who has lived in Saudi Arabia for four years, and will soon be headed into medicine. She serves as a Multinational Integration Xchange welcome and orientation ambassador for international students coming to Purdue and works as a Supplemental Instructor for Biology 110 and 111, assisting students with challenging assignments twice each week. Ayat plans to work at a teaching hospital and serve with Doctors Without Borders in the future. Her goal is to serve patients from various cultures with a deep understanding of how patients' religious, social, and economic backgrounds affect the care they need.

This fall, she hopes to serve as an English Teaching Assistant in Indonesia, gaining a more complex understanding of how Islam is practiced in different parts of the world.

Jessica Eisma

Applying for an academic grant to Tanzania in Engineering
Hometown: Lansing, MI
Pursuing Degree: PhD
Major: Civil Engineering
College: Graduate School

In sixth grade, Jessica's principal sent her home with a pamphlet for Purdue's week-long summer program designed to introduce girls to engineering. According to Jessica, this changed the course of her life. Jessica has already spent six months working with Peace Corps volunteers to design a youth rehabilitation center in the Philippines. Now she focuses her research on the ecological impact of an ancient water capture and storage technology become popular again: sand dams. Awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship this year, Jessica hopes to increase access to clean water stores for communities and to improve research at universities in developing countries through international scholar exchange programs.

Jonathan Freeman

Applying for an academic grant to South Africa
Hometown: Memphis, TN
Pursuing Degree: PhD   
Major: American Studies
College: Graduate School

Inspired by his first trip to Cape Town, South Africa as a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow in 2011, Jonathan's research examines the role of African-American musical recording artists in the anti-apartheid movement. He hopes to travel to South Africa on a Fulbright to complete his research this fall. Freeman has received numerous research fellowships and grants and plans to enter the professoriate to bring his unique perspective to educating others about African American history and transnational social movements in the future.

Jackson Havens

Applying for an English Teaching Assistantship in Spain
Hometown: Westfield, IN
Degree: alumnus, 2015
Major: Linguistics and Spanish, Sociology (B.A.)
College: Liberal Arts

Jackson is dedicated to helping others develop their confidence when learning to speak a new language. Influenced by the book "Through the Language Glass," which argues that language is a lens that colors the way we view the world, he already speaks Spanish, is now learning Mandarin Chinese, and enthusiastically teaches others. Jackson has worked at Lafayette Adult Resource Academy as an English Teaching Assistant five days a week. “I want everyone to WANT to speak the language,” he writes. He hopes to serve as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Spain next year.

Kasey Kaisershot

Applying for an English Teaching Assistantship in Mexico
Hometown: Normal, IL
Pursuing Degree: Bachelor’s (college senior)
Major: Elementary Education
College: Education

Kasey's professors describe her as a naturally gifted teacher, one who is both creative and empathetic. She has tutored students at Happy Hollow Elementary and served as an English tutor at both Klondike Elementary and LARA. She was deeply impacted by her experience of teaching third-grade students at a bilingual school in Honduras in 2013 and visiting the rural schools in the region, noting the complex challenges that English language learners face when adapting to a new language and a new cultural environment. Kasey has won numerous scholarships, including the Judy Stump Riordan Education Scholarship. After graduation, she hopes to serve as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Mexico and then teach in an elementary school with a high population of English language learners upon her return.

Kera Lovell

Applying for a Fulbright National Geographic Fellowship to South Africa, New Zealand, and the UK
Hometown: Albany, GA
Pursuing Degree: PhD
Major: American Studies
College: Graduate School

Inspired by the civil rights history of her hometown, Kera’s research focuses on the transnational movement of insurgent park creation as a form of spatial and environmental protest. She was awarded a Global Synergy Grant from the College of Liberal Arts for 2014-2015 and has won numerous other fellowships and grants for her research. If awarded the Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellowship, Lovell would spend three months each in South Africa, New Zealand, and the UK completing research for her dissertation. By interviewing grassroots organizers and using a combination of blogging, photo essays, and illustrative infographics, she aims to facilitate a global dialogue on how policies and ideologies shape people’s relationship to urban green space as sites of political protest.

Brittany Mihalec-Adkins

Applying for an academic grant to The Netherlands in Psychology
Hometown: Fort Wayne, IN
Pursuing Degree: Master’s in Educational Psychology
Undergraduate Majors at Purdue: Psychology, Law & Society, Forensics (2015)
College: Graduate School

Brittany plans to continue her research on stereotyping and prejudice on a Fulbright in The Netherlands, studying instructor bias towards non-native students in Dutch classrooms with an eye toward closing the gaps in education often experienced by minorities. As an undergraduate, she spoke about the impacts of educational access at Purdue’s “President’s Council” events and is currently in Purdue’s Master’s program for Educational Psychology.

Elizabeth Mitchell

Applying for an academic grant to Spain in Business Management
Hometown: New York, NY
Degree: Bachelor’s, Alumna, 2012
Major: Hospitality & Tourism Management
College: Health and Human Sciences

Elizabeth currently works at the Four Seasons Hotel in Peninsula Papayago in Costa Rica but eventually hopes to create her own chain of sustainable eco-luxury hotels in Central and South America. Quickly distinguishing herself as a skilled manager and proactive problem-solver during her two years with the company, Elizabeth is capable of inspiring diverse staff to work together as a team.

Megan O’Connell

Applying for an English Teaching Assistantship in Peru
Hometown: Carmel, IN
Degree: Bachelor’s (senior)
Major: Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences (SLHS), Spanish, and Linguistics
College: Health and Human Sciences

Awarded the Kevin Richards Clinician’s Achievement Award in 2013, Megan has worked both as a translator and research assistant in Dr. Amanda Seidl’s infant speech lab at Purdue. She has honed her teaching skills by volunteering in the community as an ESL teaching assistant at the Lafayette Adult Resource Academy. In 2014, she interned at the Villa Caritas and San Pedro schools in Peru, working alongside the speech pathologists there and hopes to return to Peru as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant next year. Upon returning, she plans to pursue a bilingual master’s degree in speech pathology and work in a clinical setting, assisting the growing number of Spanish-speaking families in the U.S. with receiving the medical care they need.

Grant Owen

Applying for an English Teaching Assistantship in Indonesia
Hometown: West Lafayette, IN
Degree: Bachelor’s (senior)
Major: Anthropology
College: Liberal Arts

Grant works as a director for Purdue Student Government on the board of Diversity and Inclusion and is a committee member for Purdue 360 in Diversity in Entertainment. As an anthropologist, he plans to work in the tourism and development industry in Southeast Asia, advocating for marginalized people in communities that depend on ethnic tourism there. Grant observes, “as tourism increases throughout the globe, there is a need for skilled, culturally-sensitive workers.” Formerly holding a cross-cultural internship in Indonesia, Grant hopes to return as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant this fall. Upon returning, he plans to pursue postgraduate studies in applied anthropology.

Benjamin Rich

Applying for an academic grant to South Korea in International Relations
Hometown: Kirkland, WA
Degree: B.A. (Alumnus, 2010)
Major: English and Comparative Literature
College: Liberal Arts

Earning his BA from Purdue in 2010, Ben commissioned into the Army through Purdue’s ROTC program and currently serves on active duty with the US Army Corps of Engineers in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since graduating, he has continued to study economics and Korean language in preparation to pursue a Master's degree in International Studies at Seoul National University. As a military officer, Ben “developed an interest in and appreciation for the role of diplomacy as an instrument to create peace and international stability.” After completing graduate studies, he plans to become a Foreign Service Officer with the US Department of State representing US foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific rim.

Gideon Singer

Applying for an academic grant to Australia in Anthropology
Hometown: Reisterstown, MD
Pursuing Degree: Master’s
Major: Anthropology
College: Graduate School

As an anthropological archaeologist, Gideon Singer is an expert in analyzing the dynamic relations between society and the artifacts that we design, manufacture, use, and eventually discard. Specifically, he hopes to spend a year in Australia collaborating with Zero Waste SA to design solutions to the growing problem of electronic waste and to educate communities there about the impact of e-waste on the environment and human health. Gideon is a Fellow on an NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) in sustainable electronics and has served on numerous digs around the country.

Kelsey Stummer 

Applying for an English Teaching Assistantship in Turkey
Hometown: Aurora, OH
Pursuing Degree: Bachelor’s (senior)
Major: Elementary Education
Colleges: Education, Honors College

As a future elementary school teacher, Kelsey Stummer believes “in the power of education as a universal agent of change.” She has taught gifted 3rd and 4th graders as a Purdue Super Saturday teaching assistant, assisted in equine therapy for kids with special needs, and volunteered as a Homework Help Room volunteer for 4th-6th graders. She also a College of Education Ambassador and teaches choreography as a member of Purdue’s Higher Ground Dance Company. Kelsey is now student teaching in the U.S. and hopes that her experience teaching English abroad in Turkey will help her to serve as “an ambassador of religious and cultural understanding” when she returns. She hopes to work with diverse students in schools in poor communities in the U.S. and to help improve American views of Islam, starting in her classroom.