Student success goes global
Through UC's rich international programs, students gain global experiences that widen perspectives, enhance academic achievement and lead to greater career success
UC students enjoying the sights on a study abroad to the Amazon in 2016.
What better way to prepare students for a global workforce than through UC's international programs.
With the help of grant opportunities to help build research programs and connections all across the globe, UC students are gaining cross-cultural success — tools that studies show help broaden creativity skills.
Through university programs that arrange for paid international co-op placements and match students with opportunities to do research, teach and study abroad, UC students are maximizing their global education while pursuing their passions and using their talents.
Examples of UC students currently leaving a positive imprint all over the world through the William J. Fulbright U.S. Student Program include four 2019 student scholarship awardees and a Fulbright UK Summer Institute study recipient.
Andrea Ori
Andrea Ori
Ori, graduated this spring with a double major in medical sciences and French and will continue her studies as a Fulbright Study Research/Grant recipient at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.
Ori will be at the institute investigating a hypervirulent strain of bacteria, Klebsiella pneumoniae, which leads to infections and is well known in hospitals. It is spread through person-to-person contact largely impacting patients on ventilators, catheters or recovering from surgery wounds.
Ori had previously interned at the Pasteur Institute and will now return using her Fulbright grant to continue her research.
“I will be using the clones that I produced during my internship this summer to create mutations in the bacteria to be used in further studies,” says Ori.
Ori also spent six weeks in UC’s French Immersion program working in the UC Department of Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures.
“Andrea is a perfect candidate for the Fulbright,” says Anne-Marie Jezequel, UC associate professor educator of French, who oversaw Ori’s studies at the University of Caen in Normandy, France, during a 2017 summer study abroad. “She is an excellent student and really immersed herself, not only in the language, but in the French culture.”
Upon completion of the Fulbright, Ori will be attending Johns Hopkins University for graduate studies leading to a doctoral degree in biophysics.
Brian Nabors
Brian Nabors
Nabors, is a recent UC College-Conservatory of Music doctoral grad who will spend the first 10 months of 2020 in Australia on a Fulbright Study/Research: Creative and Performing Arts grant. There, he will work closely with internationally renowned composer Carl Vine, teach in a local music organization in Sydney and looks forward to experiencing music through new perspectives.
While at the University of Sydney under Vine’s guidance, Nabors will create the four movements of his “Concerto for Orchestra.”
Each movement will highlight a significant cultural subject relating to American lifestyle in some form or another, he says. Using robust and subtle musical tones, Nabors’ concerto will portray intense weather systems, pollution and ecosystems at risk of extermination and the false sense of reality concerning the glamour of Hollywood in the U.S. — and he hopes to do it in a way that touches the heart and soul of Americans from all cultures.
“Through these valuable experiences, I hope to curate concerts of my own in a way that brings underrepresented people and communities together, especially for those who may not know much about classical music,” says Nabors. “Together, we can all begin attending, creating and loving new music.”
Amanda Bright
Amanda Bright
Bright graduated UC with a teaching degree in 2018 and will spend the next academic year in Athens, Greece, as a Fulbright English teaching assistant and SAT math prep tutor to English-speaking students who want to pursue higher education in the U.S.
Bright’s interest in Greek history took root in high school where she says her studies in Greek literature and mythology such as “The Odyssey” by Homer made the culture come to life. “I was obsessed with these dark, fantastical, fairy-tale stories and intrigued that a country had such beautiful tales as part of its history,” says Bright.
“They incorporate the old with the new so well there so the Fulbright trip feels like a great fit for learning about another culture.”
While in Athens, Bright plans to immerse herself in the Greek culture, learn the language at a local university and travel around Europe during her winter and spring breaks.
Garrett Ainsworth
Garrett Ainsworth
As a graduate this spring with a Bachelor's degree in business administration, Ainsworth, looks forward to taking his academic skills to teach English in Taiwan for a year beginning in August. Coming from small town Independence, Kentucky, Ainsworth always wanted to see the rest of the world. And that’s just what he did as a UC business student.
“Through UC’s academic international programs I was able to start traveling and learning abroad in my second year on campus,” says Ainsworth. “Since then I have completed two study abroad programs while traveling to 16 countries. I was impressed by every country I visited but China impacted me the most and led me to my interest in Taiwan.”
Through Ainsworth’s Fulbright U.S. Student English Teaching Assistant grant he will tutor English in a small rural city in Taiwan and teach the children about American board games, sports and host traditional U.S. holiday celebrations.
“Being part of a university with a very diverse student population that also provides such rich opportunities to travel abroad has helped me develop as a person and has positively changed the way that I think,” says Ainsworth.
Chloe Elleman
Chloe Elleman
Elleman, a rising junior in UC’s Medical Sciences Program, recently completed a four-week Fulbright UK Summer Institute study program known as Education for Transformation at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland.
“Studying in the postconflict environment of Belfast helped me to understand the underpinnings of violence and how division does not necessarily resolve with an end to warfare,” says Elleman.
“For agreement to take place between differing parties, it is necessary for one to recognize and legitimize the identity of the other, making identity a complex issue.
“In my opinion, educating the younger generation is one of the most integral parts to initiating long-term change in a society. The open-mindedness of children may allow them to embrace new ideas and to look past biases forged by generations before them,” she adds.
As president of UC AmeriCats, a veterans and military support group, Elleman says her time in Belfast also gave her a better understanding of the needs of veterans, military personnel and civilians who have experienced the effects of violence.
Featured image at top: UC students enjoy the view as they boat down the Amazon River on a study abroad trip to Brazil. photo Joseph Fuqua II/UC Creative Services
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