Thirteen University of Rochester students and recent alumni are semifinalists in the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Grant Program, the government’s flagship international educational exchange program. Sponsored by the State Department, it offers opportunities to pursue advanced studies, conduct research, and teach English language and U.S. culture abroad.
Final award offers will be announced on a country-by-country basis over the next three to four months.
Thirty-two candidates applied to this year’s competition through Fulbright review committees at the River Campus and at Eastman.
Rochester also has been named a “top producer” of Fulbright US Student Grant winners for the 2017-18 academic year. The University had 40 applicants and 10 who accepted grants last year. Two other students were offered Fulbright grants but declined.
This is the second year in a row Rochester has been designated a top producer, and the third time in the last five years.
Here are the 13 semifinalists, along with their hometowns, majors, country of application, and type of grant sought:
Cherish Blackman ’18 (Rochester)
East Asian studies/Russian
China: study/research language and literature
Laura Cowie-Haskell ’18 (Marshfield, Massachusetts)
Anthropology
Kenya: English Teaching Assistantship
Meg Cutting ’18E (Salem-Keizer, Oregon)
Organ performance
France: study creative and performing arts in organ performance
Ella DeFalco ’18 (Skaneateles, New York)
Linguistics
Belgium: English Teaching Assistantship
Annamarie Forestiere ’18 (Pulaski, New York)
Business/music
United Kingdom: study/research arts management
Oleaser Johnson ’18 (University Heights, Ohio)
French/linguistics
South Korea: English Teaching Assistantship
Amelia Kelly ’18 (Camillus, New York)
Anthropology/history
Malaysia: English Teaching Assistantship
Crystal Lee ’18 (Rochester)
Brain and cognitive sciences/linguistics
Netherlands: study/research psychology and cognitive science
Lauren Oey ’18 (Mountain Lakes, New Jersey)
Brain and cognitive sciences/linguistics/statistics
Hong Kong: study/research linguistics and cognitive science
Reva Peer ’18 (Roseland, California)
Molecular genetics
South Korea: English Teaching Assistantship
Joseph Plyan-Franke ’17 (T5) (Syracuse, New York)
Computer science/linguistics
Laos: English Teaching Assistantship
Erin Straight ’17 (Wolcott, New York)
International relations/Spanish
Colombia: English Teaching Assistantship
Alexis Wallace ’18 (Carthage, New York)
Political science/Russian
Russia: English Teaching Assistantship
