Ten Syracuse University students/alumni, including Nish Chowdhury, Sarah Dolbier and Camran Shealy of the Maxwell School, have been named as 2023 recipients of awards through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

The program funds a range of awards that include English teaching assistantships (ETA) and study/research grants in over 140 countries. All of this year’s Syracuse recipients received teaching assistantships.

The 2023 recipients are:

• Sarah Bennett ’20, G’22, a philosophy and psychology alumna in the College of Arts and Sciences and master’s of social work alumna in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, Poland.
• Laura Bueno ’22, a modern foreign languages alumna in the College of Arts and Sciences, Germany. Bueno studied abroad in Spain in fall 2018.
• Nish Chowdhury, a senior international relations and anthropology major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences, Spain. Chowdhury studied abroad in Spain in spring 2022.
• Sarah Dolbier ’22, a citizenship and civic engagement alumna in the Maxwell School, a sociology alumna in the Maxwell School and College of Arts and Sciences and German language, literatures and cultures alumna in the College of Arts and Sciences and a former member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program, Germany. Dolbier studied abroad in Germany in spring 2020.
• Kiana Khoshnoud, a senior public relations major in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Tajikistan. Khoshnoud studied abroad in Spain in fall 2019.
• Kiana Papin ’22, a television, radio and film alumna in the Newhouse School, France.
• Alyeska Reimer, a senior theater management major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and Spanish language, literature and cultures major in the College of Arts and Sciences, Mexico. Reimer studied abroad in Spain in spring 2022.
• Camran Shealy, a senior political science major in the Maxwell School and College of Arts and Sciences and public relations major in the Newhouse School, Spain. Shealy studied abroad in Spain in fall 2019.
• Kimberly Stuart G’23, a graduate student in creative writing in the College of Arts and Sciences, Czech Republic.
• Ruth Xing G’23, a graduate student in library and information science in the School of Information Studies, Germany.

Bennett will teach English at a Polish university and plans to support refugee aid initiatives. She also plans to engage with creative writing communities. “I know firsthand that poetry can offer an affirming space for cultural expression and exchange,” she says. “In Poland, I hope to join or create a space for writers to come together and share their work.”

Her time in Poland will also be personal. This year, she uncovered an autobiography written by her great-grandfather, which chronicled his life as a teacher, scholar and political activist with the General Jewish Labor Bund in his hometown of Łódź. “There has been a long lineage in my family of writing, teaching and advocacy,” she says. “I hope to follow this familiar pull as a Fulbright ETA in Poland while connecting with a culture and history I am eager to know better.”

During her Fulbright year, Khoshnoud will teach English and American culture in one of the eight American Spaces—a public diplomacy program run by the U.S. Department of State—located across Tajikistan. She has proposed a course in multimedia storytelling.

“I hope to help students to express themselves through storytelling because it is an incredibly powerful tool for learning, and it can also work as a cultural bridge for them to learn about the United States,” she says. “I know this experience will be transformative, and I am sure that it will teach me about a new culture and lifestyle.”

“As someone who is passionate about one day living and working in Washington, D.C., I believe this experience will teach me public diplomacy skills and give me an international perspective that will be important as I further my education and career,” Khoshnoud says.

Reimer will work part time teaching English and engage in a supplementary volunteer project involving theater. She hopes to volunteer with a branch of Microteatro, which she has been researching with Gail Bulman, associate professor of languages, literatures and linguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences and a Fulbright Global Scholar.

“I am really excited for this opportunity for so many reasons. I am honored to be offered the position and thrilled to find myself in a third Spanish-speaking country in two years. I am also excited to reconnect with some elements of Mexican culture that were prevalent in my hometown, especially coming from a dual-immersion K-12 program where many of my peers and close friends were from Mexican families,” Reimer says. “I’m excited to approach this opportunity with an open mind and to challenge my own perceptions.”

In the future, Reimer hopes to work to expand access to the arts by addressing translation and access barriers. “I aim to encourage connecting with art from other communities and cultures and helping people see how we can learn from each other,” she says.

Shealy will teach at the American Space in Valencia, Spain. “I hope to help students become familiar with what life and academics look like at an American university, and to help bridge cultural and language barriers,” she says.

She hopes the experience will help her improve her Spanish and gain skills to promote cross-cultural collaboration in her future career. “My long-term goals include working in a sector that combines my passions for international affairs, law and communications,” she says.

Stuart will teach English language at a secondary school in the Czech Republic for the 2023-24 school year. “I hope to use creative, inclusive lessons to scaffold learning for English language learners through my teaching,” she says.

She will also pursue a secondary publishing project that she’ll be completing with students and the community—writing poetry and prose and hand-binding chapbooks to distribute to surrounding communities. “I hope to inspire a love for writing and to encourage eager writers to put their work out there,” she says.

Stuart hopes to become a stronger teacher during her year abroad, and to take what she learns from Czech educators and apply it to American classrooms.

The Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising (CFSA) supports current undergraduates, graduate students and alumni in Fulbright applications. CFSA will hold an information session on the Fulbright U.S. Student program on the following date:

• Friday, May 5, from noon-1 p.m. on Zoom.  Register for the session.

Email mlwelsha@syr.edu for more information or to request accommodations.

Students interested in applying to the Fulbright program should contact CFSA at 315.443.2759 or cfsa@syr.edu.

Interested students should open an application on the Fulbright portal by June 1. The campus deadline for the 2023-24 application cycle is Sept. 12.