Nine FSU Students Will Study And Teach Around The World After Winning Fulbright Scholarships

From the left. Top Row: Michelle Perez, Denisha Campbell, Tessa Santner. Middle Row: Miguel Gonzalez, Rachel Neale, Arria Hauldin. Bottom Row: Caitlin Mims, Rachel Blankenship, Mia Hernandez.

Nine current and former Florida State University students have earned scholarships through the prestigious US Fulbright Student Program.

Winners include undergraduate and graduate students and represent a range of majors and research areas. Five will do teaching grants while the remaining four will do research. They will do this work in: Taiwan, Bulgaria, Scotland, Brazil, Spain and its Canary Islands, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and one student will split his time between Greece and Turkey.

Jesse Wieland, associate director of FSU’s Office of National Grants (ONF), said the Fulbright application process is particularly rigorous.

“This year’s Fulbright awardees spent many months and in some cases years developing their research projects and preparing their application materials,” he said. “These students truly represent academic excellence and what is obtainable for FSU students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.”

Wieland added that her office’s hope is that FSU’s FULbright awardees will inspire other students to dream big and embark on the application process. ONF assistant director Bonnie Garcia-Gloeckner echoed Wieland.

“Undergraduate students, graduate students and recent alumni interested in applying for the current Fulbright cycle should contact our office now,” he said. “The first campus deadline is June 7, and we would like the opportunity to work with recent students and alumni on their applications.”

For more information, visit FSU Office of National Scholarships.

Rachel Harbin Blankenship

Memphis, Tennessee

Master’s student

Major: art therapy

Fulbright type: Fulbright Award/University of Stirling in Health, Wellbeing and Sport

Destination: Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom

Fulbright Work: Sports Psychology

Denisha Campbell

Chicago, Illinois

PhD student

Major: Communication Sciences and Disorders

Fulbright type: English teaching assistance

Destination: Uruguay

Fulbright Work: Interest in literacy practices

Miguel Gonzalez

Miami, Florida

major

Major: International Affairs

Fulbright type: English teaching assistance

Destination: brazil

Fulbright Work: “Beyond teaching English, I will create and host multicultural activities on the campus of my designated university, and also work with local LGBT organizations to promote LGBT rights and public health for all.”

Arria Hauldin

Cooper City, Florida

Graduated 2020

Major: Anthropology

Fulbright type: English teaching assistance

Destination: Uzbekistan

Fulbright Work: Teaching English at university level

Mia Hernandez

Miramar, Florida

Graduated 2022

Major: Double degree in English and psychology

Fulbright type: English teaching assistance

Destination: Canary Islands, Spain

Fulbright Work: “I will be running a podcast project to highlight the various refugee aid organizations in the Canary Islands, working to give visibility and connect locals and non-locals with community resources.”

Caitlin Mims

Fort Walton Beach, Florida

PhD student

Major: Art history

Fulbright type: Greece-Turkey Joint Research Award

Destination: Greece and Turkey

Fulbright Work: Research of Byzantine amulets preserved in collections in Greece and Turkey to understand the way amulets slipped between the boundaries of magic and religion.

Rachel Neale

Crystal River, Florida

Master’s student

Major: Slavic studies

Fulbright type: research

Destination: Bulgaria

Fulbright Work: Study of the Bulgarian language, research of Bulgarian oral-traditional epic to investigate the roles of Slavic women in societies within the Ottoman sphere of influence, translation of Bulgarian epic songs.