Record Number of Holy Cross Graduates Receive Fulbright Grants

10 new alumni to teach and conduct research abroad

Ten recent graduates from the College of the Holy Cross have been awarded Fulbright grants to work and teach abroad.  This marks a record high number of Fulbrights awarded in a single year for the College.  Since 2002, Holy Cross has received a total of 44 Fulbrights, and has consistently been among the nation’s top producers of Fulbright students at the undergraduate level.

The highly competitive grants are awarded on the basis of academic merit and professional promise. “The Fulbright is a good fit for Holy Cross,” said Anthony Cashman, director of Distinguished Fellowships and Graduate Studies at the College.  “We have first-rate students, excellent language instruction, full-year immersion study-abroad experiences, and a mission-based global perspective that we inherited from the earliest Jesuits.”

Each year approximately 1,000 college students are awarded grants through the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship program in international educational exchange. Fulbright grants are made to U.S. citizens and nationals of other countries for a variety of educational activities, primarily university lecturing, advanced research, graduate study and teaching in elementary and secondary schools. Since the program’s inception in 1946, more than 250,000 participants have had the opportunity to observe each other’s political, economic and cultural institutions.

This year’s recipients are:

Francesca Bruzzese ’11, of East Greenwich, R.I., has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Italy. A Spanish and Italian double major who spent her junior year studying in Bologna, Italy, she will teach English to high school students. Following her Fulbright experience, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Italian and teach at the college level. Read more »
Jennifer Caffrey ’11, of Mount Airy, Md., has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Peru, where she will serve as an English teaching assistant, and hopes to start an after-school math program for girls. A math and Spanish double major with a concentration in Latin American and Latino Studies, Caffrey studied in Lima, Peru last year through the College’s study abroad program. Read more »
Kerry Drury ’11, of Wyckoff, N.J., has been awarded a Fulbright grant to research the causes of colon cancer in the Epithelial Biochemistry Lab at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Melbourne, Australia. A biology major with a concentration in biochemistry, she also hopes to volunteer in the oncology unit at The Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne. As a student, Drury was in the health professions advisory program and College Honors Program. Her Fulbright project is an extension of her undergraduate research work at Holy Cross. Read more »
Kristen Dunlap ’08, of Bridgewater, Conn., has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Brazil, where she will work as an English teaching assistant at Federal University of Pelotas in Rio Grande do Sul, as the country prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. A Spanish and anthropology double major with a Latin American & Latino Studies concentration at Holy Cross, she received her master’s degree in Spanish linguistics from Middlebury College in 2009. Read more »
Herma Gjinko ’11, of Worcester, Mass., has earned a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Germany, where she will teach English to German students. A political science major with a self-designed minor in European integration, Gjinko interned for the East European Studies Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars through Holy Cross’ Washington Semester Program. She plans on pursuing a graduate degree in international relations and hopes to one day work as a professor or for the State Department. Read more »
William Grebe ’11, of Clifton Park, N.Y., has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Turkey, where he will teach English to Turkish students. A religious studies and classics double major, Grebe spent a semester in Rome studying classics through Holy Cross’ Study Abroad program. He hopes to become a professor of philosophy of religion, specializing in Christian-Muslim interaction. Read more »
Jamie McCarthy ’11, of Stoneham, Mass., has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Peru, where she will teach at an institution that trains future English teachers. During her stay, McCarthy also hopes to organize a bilingual children’s choir. When she returns to the U.S., McCarthy plans to attend graduate school to study Spanish translation, psychology, or community development. Read more »
Thomas McGlynn ’11, of Philadelphia, has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Germany, where he will teach English to German high school students. A music and German double major, McGlynn spent his junior year abroad at Otto-Friedrich University in Bamberg, where he taught English as a second language to 11th graders at the Dientzenhofer Gymnasium in Bamberg. He also provided editing and translational support to two German professors. Read more »
Abigail Chorlton Riskind ’11, of Wellesley, Mass., has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Taiwan. A self-designed Chinese language and civilization major, she will teach English to elementary or junior high school students in Yilan County in northeastern Taiwan. Riskind, who was a member of the College Honors Program, spent her spring semester of junior year studying in Beijing. Following her Fulbright experience, she plans to focus further education and her career around China. She hopes to attend business school, and join an international or governmental organization that has operations in both the United States and China. Read more »
Kathryn Simison ’11, of West Suffield, Conn., has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Spain. A Spanish major with a concentration in Peace and Conflict Studies, she will teach English in the northern region of Cantabria, Spain. In an effort to expand the English program at the high school, Simison will work with the Fulbright program and Global Classrooms, a program of the United Nations Foundation that introduces middle and high school students to pressing international issues and the work of the UN. She also hopes to work as a cultural advisor to students traveling to Spain for the first time. Read more »