Haverford Students Find Fulbright Success

According to a report published by the Chronicle of Higher Education, Haverford College is ranked among the top producers of U.S. Fulbright students. Breaking the data down by type of institution, the Chronicle's report showed that Haverford is one of only 25 bachelor's degree granting colleges in the U.S. to see more than four of its students awarded the highly competitive Fulbright grants, which provide funding through the U.S. State Department for graduate study, advanced research and teaching in foreign countries.

Haverford, which was also recognized in 2006 and 2009 by the Institute for International Education as one of the 'top producers' of Fulbright Scholars among liberal arts colleges, saw five of our students receive Fulbrights in 2010.

Here's what our 2010 winners are currently pursuing:

A Fulbright Research Grant awarded to Conor Bischak '10, has allowed the chemistry major to join the lab of professor Martina Havenith at the Ruhr-University in Bochum, Germany, where he is assisting the research team there in using Terahertz (THz) spectroscopy, a technique used by only a few labs around the world, to determine how large segments of proteins move in solution and interact with water molecules.

Another Fulbright Research Grant went to biology major Sara Berman '10, who is spending a year at the Max-Planck Institute of Neurobiology's Axonal Guidance and Neural Connectivity Laboratory in Martinsried, Germany, studying the formation of neural circuits that allow for vision.

Also engaging in scientific research thanks to a Fulbright grant is Dylan Hatt '10, a double major in astronomy and physics, who is at the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, exploring the properties of dwarf galaxies.

Noel Ottman '10, a double major in history and Spanish, received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to go to Madrid, where she is teaching in a secondary school bilingual program.

Philosophy and English major Paul Bisceglio '09 has used his Fulbright to enroll in the Philosophy and Literature M.A. course at the University of Warwick in England. Bisceglio was one of 597 applicants vying for Fulbrights to the U.K. and one of only a handful of winners.

“It really is quite an accomplishment for these students to be chosen by Fulbright,” says Dean of Academic Affairs Philip Bean, who oversees the Fulbright application process.“Each of these successes represent months of work in the short-term, which is itself the end product of years of careful, thoughtful, and intensive preparation. I think the success of our [Fulbright] candidates reflects extremely well on the quality of a Haverford education.”

--Eils Lotozo