I just left my home away from home. I woke up the last day of my program. I admittedly had been pretending this morning would never have to come. I had 24 hours to submerge myself as far as I can in the beauty of what is San Ramon Costa Rica.

UI international studies and German major Madeline Kaiser, a native of Orono, MN, was awarded a United States Teaching Assistantship at Austrian Secondary Schools and will headed to Vienna this fall to teach at two secondary schools. 

Funds will be used for research, writing, teaching abroad

Meet a few of this year's recipients

A graduating international student reflects on her time on campus.

Cooking with firewood and other biofuels is one of the most urgent problems in the world today. It affects the health and wellbeing of those inhaling the fumes at close range, relies on increasingly scarce sources of firewood, and contributes over 20% of global black carbon emissions. The harm to individuals and the environment cannot be denied, and yet there’s little awareness of the issue among the general public. WorldCanvass host Joan Kjaer and a panel of experts drawn from multiple fields including engineering, urban and regional planning, public health, anthropology, and geography discussed the use of traditional wood-burning cookstoves and the complex social and cultural underpinnings of the practice on the April 12 WorldCanvass, a highlight of the UI’s yearly Provost’s Global Forum.

For Henry Hartzler, what started as a passion for both teaching and climate science eventually transformed into the opportunity of a lifetime. This August, he will be serving in the Peace Corps as an environmental education primary teacher in Nicaragua.

English courses that introduced Katherine Will to Spanish literature sparked her interest to develop her writing in two languages. As a language-learning assistant in Argentina, Will plans to use her Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to promote an appreciation for language and dialect diversity.

A Fulbright U.S. Student Program Study/Research award will allow Scott Sulzener to conduct research critical to his dissertation on Protestant convents that existed in Germany more than a century ago. Sulzener plans to use his Fulbright grant to explore the intersection of gender and power in the German provinces.

Hodna Nuernberg is a literary translator and voracious reader of North African literature. She is excited to expose students in Morocco to contemporary American authors and, in turn, become a more sensitive translator and advocate for Maghrebian literature.

Recognizing that science, at its core, is an international effort, Nicholas McCarty will use his Fulbright Program Partnership Award grant to conduct research on a global stage and foster collaborations with European scientists in the United Kingdom. McCarty’s ultimate goal is to make intensive drug production processes much less expensive in an effort to expand access for cardiovascular disease patients.

Samantha Korns thoroughly enjoys teaching. After traveling to Russia in 2016, Korns looks forward to creating a cross-cultural understanding with Russian students, practicing Russian Sambo, and using her entrepreneurial knowledge to lead discussions on evaluating business ideas.