Audrey Williams, of West Des Moines, IA, has received a 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Student Award to analyze Turkish development cooperation with Somalia, Kenya and Sudan. Audrey is a 2013 graduate of the University of Iowa with a B.A. in political science and French. She is currently working as a Program Associate for Partnership for a Secure America in Washington D.C.

Beatrice Smigasiewicz has received a 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Student Award to write a book of essays titled Recovered Futures, which will investigate the representation of post-Soviet Polish identity in the cultural capital of Krakow. Smigasiewicz graduated with an M.F.A. in literary translation from the University of Iowa in May 2014 and will earn a second M.F.A. in nonfiction writing from the UI this May. As a Polish-American who lived in the country until the age of eleven, Beatrice seeks to understand modern-day Poland through interviews, museum research, and study of Polish literature and architecture.

Acacia Roberts has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Award for 2015-16. Roberts, of Iowa City, IA, graduated from the University of Iowa in December 2014 with a B.A. in linguistics and French. She will be putting her degrees and her Arabic language skills to use as an English Teaching Assistant in Morocco this August.

Douglas Baker, a senior majoring in piano and Japanese at the University of Iowa, has received a 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Student Award to further pursue his research abroad in a project titled, “The Japanese Style in Taijiro Goh’s Piano Music.” In this project, Douglas will gain access to unpublished compositions in archives held in Japan, where he plans to explore the methods Taijiro Goh used in order to express a Japanese style in his compositions. Goh was notably recognized as the composer of Japan’s first violin concerto in 1935.

I have never been one to shy away from a challenge, but helping students devise the “right strategy” for applying for a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award has been a daunting task. As the Fulbright Program Adviser (FPA) at the University of Iowa, a Big Ten institution with more than 30,000 students, it’s my job to assist students in their quest for this unparalleled, life-transforming opportunity.

Over the past 60 years the Fulbright Program has facilitated the travel of nearly 350,000 students and young professionals for cultural and academic exchange. On April 3, 2015, the University of Iowa will host its first annual Fulbright Day to celebrate past UI Fulbright faculty and student awardees and to provide prospective students the opportunity to learn more about the Fulbright process.