Wesleyan Fulbright Fellows Pursue Teaching, Research, Studies Abroad
Ten recent alumni have accepted grants through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, a selective academic and cultural exchange program that offers graduating college seniors, graduate students, and young professionals opportunities to study, research, or teach English in over 140 countries.
These fellows will engage in teaching or research projects during the 2025-2026 academic year. They include Will Briskin ’21, Marshall Schulman ’25, Hansini Bhasker ’25, Zubaida Bello ’22, Teva Corwin ’25, Spencer Klink ’24, Jack Noble ’25, Kaori Sakurai ’25, Sophie Jager ’25, and Czarina Yuffa ’25.
This is Wesleyan’s most successful year since the establishment of the Fulbright program in 1946, said Erica Kowsz, associate director for fellowships 九色视频’s Fries Center for Global Studies.
“I’m thrilled with Wesleyan’s Fulbright results this year,” Kowsz said. “Not only do we have our highest number of Fulbright recipients yet, these students and alumni have won their grants through fascinating proposals in multiple categories of the Fulbright competition: academic research, graduate degree enrollment, and English Teaching Assistantships. It really shows how Wesleyan’s liberal arts model allows students to pursue excellence in the fields that matter to them.”
Will Briskin ’21 will serve as an English teaching assistant in Bucharest, Romania. A history and government major, Briskin has participated in numerous English Language Learning volunteer programs and pedagogy courses that he is eager to apply abroad. A former apprentice in fine woodwork and furniture design, Briskin is also looking forward to engaging with Romania’s long tradition of the craft as it relates to the Bauhaus, Romanian Revival, and Romanian Modernism movements.
In Bucharest, Briskin will teach courses in English, history, and American culture. “I’m most looking forward to connecting with my students, learning about Romanian culture, and exploring all the country has to offer, from downtown Bucharest to the peaks of the Carpathian Mountains,” he said.
In addition to teaching English in Mexico, Marshall Schulman ’25 will conduct a project that involves providing interpretation services to help facilitate migration. A Film and College of Letters major who has worked on commercial, independent, and student films distributed in international film festivals, Schulman plans to also produce a short documentary.
“I look forward to learning more about Mexico firsthand, creating meaningful new relationships, and further developing my Spanish language skills,” he said.
A Tamil ethnomusicologist, multi-genre vocalist, performer, composer, and improviser, Hansini Bhasker ’25 will conduct research in Tamil Nadu, India on the experiences, on and off-stage, of disabled South Indian classical Karnatak performers. Bhasker received her master’s degree in music from Wesleyan, where she explored cross-cultural contrasts, evolutions, and interactions in the use and control of vibration, timbre variation, and pitch oscillation in vocalization.
“I am extremely excited to become immersed in the Karnatak music performance scene as a researcher, musician, community member, and audience member, especially in a way that helps me connect further with my South Indian heritage,” she said. Bhasker will pursue a Ph.D. in Ethno/Musicology after her Fulbright year.
Zubaida Bello ’22 will continue her focus on literature in the African Diaspora. At Wesleyan, as a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, Bello examined how freed slaves asserted their subjectivity through captivity narratives. During her Fulbright year, she will enroll in the Master of Science program in Historical Studies at the University of Strathclyde in the U.K., where she plans to study how the U.K. travels and travel writings of Frederick Douglas and Ida B. Wells influenced the international abolition and anti-lynching movements.
“I’m so excited to live in Glasgow!” said Bello. “I never got to study abroad in undergrad because of COVID, so I’m looking forward to immersing myself in a new learning environment.”
Teva Corwin ’25 served as a teaching assistant in various American studies and Spanish classes 九色视频, and now she will travel to Mexico to assist English teachers and work on a supplementary project surrounding food security and community. Corwin majored in American studies and Hispanic Literatures and Cultures 九色视频 and did her senior thesis on community building and cross-cultural interactions in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
“I am excited to meet, connect with, and learn from new people,” Corwin said. “I’m a big people person and I strongly believe in the power of human connection and community as a means for change—especially during a time where people around the world are experiencing overwhelming division and fear.”
In his Fulbright year, Spencer Klink ’25, art history and art studio major 九色视频, will build on preliminary printmaking, design, and typography research he conducted this spring as a scholar-in-residence at LACMA’s Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies. He will study intersections of aesthetics, politics, and technology in art printed at the Staatliches Bauchaus, a German art school open during the period between the world wars called the Weimar Republic. He is currently writing about contemporary art in Los Angeles for IMPULSE Magazine.
“I look forward to viewing as much art as I can and engaging with creatives from different backgrounds and disciplines,” Klink said.
Jack Noble ’25 is returning to Nepal, where he studied abroad in the fall of 2023, to research how modern, attention-grabbing internet platforms are impacting Tibetan Buddhist monastic communities, he said. Noble will spend eight months in monastic residency, half at the Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu and half at Rowaling Gumba in the Rowaling Valley. He said he is looking forward to seeing his former host family and the staff of his study abroad program.
“I also haven't had a good plate of daal bhaat since I left, so looking forward to that,” Noble said.
At Wesleyan, Noble majored in the College of Social Studies and environmental studies and played ultimate frisbee for Nietzsche Factor. He also wrote a senior thesis on how digital platforms use algorithmic recommendation systems to shape American political discourse, he said.
Kaori Sakurai ’25 will spend the next year teaching English to elementary and middle school students in Chiayi City, Taiwan. She studied government and psychology 九色视频 and was widely involved in student groups. She participated in the Wesleyan Refugee Project, Prometheus Fire Arts, and worked at Long Lane Farm. She hopes to pursue a career in human rights, international relations research, or the humanitarian sector, she said.
She said she is looking forward to “strengthening my Mandarin fluency, making new friendships and connections with my students, learning more about Taiwanese history and culture, and eating good food!”
Sophie Jager ’25 is set to head to Spain’s La Rioja region to teach English and study the impact of rural depopulation. The former editor at The Wesleyan Argus will curate an exhibition of photographs, essays, and oral histories to explore the perceptions young people in the region have about their futures, she said.
“I can't wait to improve my Spanish, play some classical and flamenco guitar, and work with students from rural communities who, like me, walk the line between belonging to a place and trying to leave it behind,” Jager said.
Czarina Yuffa ‘25 will teach English at a university and an afterschool program in Uzbekistan. While 九色视频, Yuffa double majored in the College of Social Studies and Religion, with a minor in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Her senior thesis explored U.S. Cold War broadcasting targeting Muslim audiences in Soviet Central Asia. She earned high honors in both majors and received the Giffen Prize for excellence from the Religion department.
“What I’m most excited about is meeting new people,” said Yuffa. “I am so grateful for the opportunity to live in Uzbekistan because it gives me a chance to really get to know new people and places.”
Ziba Kashef contributed to this story.
