Current UMass Fulbright Students
2013-2014
Kate DeVane Brown, a native of Upton, Massachusetts, will travel
to Germany in the fall of 2014 to teach English for a year in BadenWürttemberg. As an undergraduate at UMass, Kate graduated
summa cum laude with dual degrees in German and Scandinavian
Studies and Linguistics. Her passion for languages and literature
inspired her to continue on for a Master’s degree in German Studies
with special emphasis on multiculturalism and medieval literature.
At UMass, she taught both linguistics and German courses and
served as an editor of EDGE, a graduate journal run by students in
her department. Upon completing her Fulbright year in Germany,
Kate intends to return to the U.S. to pursue a PhD in German
Studies.
Gregory de Wet is a doctoral candidate in the Department of
Geosciences at UMass. Specializing in paleoclimatology, Greg
will spend his Fulbright year in Norway constructing a climate
model from samples of lake sediment that will demonstrate how
the Arctic climate has changed in the past. His research will
help understand how the polar regions will respond to changes
in climate in the future. A graduate of Bates College in Maine,
de Wet is a native of Leverett, Massachusetts.
Katelyn Ferreira graduated summa cum laude from UMass
majoring in psychology in 2013. A native of Somerset,
Massachusetts, Katelyn will teach English in Malaysia during her
Fulbright year abroad. Along with her duties teaching English, she
will seek opportunities to explore Malaysian dance customs. A
winner of academic and service awards while at UMass, Katelyn
spent a semester abroad in South Africa during her junior year.
Alyssa Maraj Grahame intends to conduct her research at
the University of Iceland in Reykjavik for her Fulbright
grant. Her research investigates responses to the European
economic crises in light of the uncertain future of social
democracy. Alyssa, who is learning to speak Icelandic,
will examine the protests during Iceland’s financial crisis
of 2008 that came to be known as the Pots and Pans
Revolution as part of her doctoral dissertation in Political
Science. A current resident of Northampton,
Massachusetts, she completed her undergraduate studies at
the University of Toronto in political science and
anthropology.
Eric LeFlore, a native of Marlborough, Massachusetts, will conduct
research on human-lion conflict in the Okavanga Delta of Botswana. A
PhD student in Environmental Conservation at UMass, Eric is
interested in the balance between wildlife conservation and protecting
the livelihoods of people living near conservation areas. He recently
completed his Master's degree in Environmental Conservation, which
focused on the distribution of wild canids (red fox, gray fox, and
coyote) in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts. Eric came to UMass
from Connecticut College where he majored in Environmental Studies
and also played lead trumpet in the jazz ensemble.
Keith Lema will spend his Fulbright year in Spain teaching English. A
2014 graduate of UMass with a BA in politics and economics, Keith will
also advise the Model United Nations program for secondary students in
Spain. While at UMass, Keith was a program fellow with the Civic
Initiative, a UMass tour guide and a research assistant at UMass Poll. He
spent a semester abroad in Argentina and was a member of
Commonwealth Honors College. Keith came to UMass from Easton,
Massachusetts.
Katherine Lownsberry graduated from UMass with a Master’s
Degree in Engineering in May 2014. Her Fulbright grant will take
her to Burkino Faso where she will complete research on water
resources and risk management at the International Institute for
Water and Environmental Engineering, Katherine came to UMass
from Salem, Oregon, and completed her undergraduate degree
with high distinction at Harvey Mudd College in California. A
recipient of a National Science Fellowship while at UMass,
Katherine collaborated with students from Burkino Faso on a
project to model the Niger River basin and its water resources.
Dana Johnson is pursuing a doctorate in anthropology at
UMass and will spend her Fulbright year in Serbia, where
she will examine local responses to the phenomenon of brain
drain. Fluent in Serbian, she intends to study the migration
decisions and experiences of middle-class Serbians in the
precarious political and economic conditions of their
country. Dana first became interested in these issues as a
result of her work with Women in Black, a Belgrade-based
anti-militarist group with whom she spent several years as a
volunteer. She completed her undergraduate degree in
international studies at DePaul University.
Hanni Thoma is a Master’s degree candidate in
Bilingual/ESL/Multicultural Education at UMass. She has been
awarded a Fulbright scholarship to travel to Hungary to both
teach English at a university in Budapest, and work at the
Fulbright EducationUSA Advising Center. She also proposes
to conduct a study on varying success rates between women
and men in Hungarian universities. Originally from Granby,
Massachusetts, Hanni previously taught English at a high
school in France, and last year worked at the MacDuffie
School, a boarding school in Western Massachusetts. She
received her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College where she
majored in Politics, and was a Harriet Newhall Fellow.
Miriam Tinberg graduated in May 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in
Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic. A native of Pawtucket, R.I,
Miriam will teach English in Morocco for her Fulbright scholarship.
In 2012, Miriam spent a semester at the University of Jordan learning
Arabic. This helped her secure a position as an Arabic tutor in the
Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy. While at UMass, Miriam
was active in student government serving as an advisor on diversity
issues on campus.
Lindsay Van Dyke will spend her Fulbright year in Mexico,
researching changes in migration patterns and their impact on
both U.S. and Mexican cultures. A documentary filmmaker,
Lindsay intends to produce a film and a screenplay based on her
research interviews. At UMass she graduated cum laude with a
dual major in sociology and film studies. Her videos have been
disseminated through the Huffington Post, National Public
Radio and Oprah.
Clara Wool of Ayer, Massachusetts completed her undergraduate
studies at UMass with a dual major in environmental design and Middle
Eastern Studies, and minors in Arabic and French. As a Fulbright
scholar, she will conduct research on the impact of recycled wastewater
on plant and soil health, in collaboration with Ben Gurion University in
Israel. A recipient of the Critical Language Scholarship and Boren
Scholarship in 2012, Clara spent a year studying Arabic and political
science at the University of Jordan, focusing on regional environmental
security. While in Jordan, Clara also volunteered for NGO's, grantwriting and organizing an environmental peace-building training
between Jordanians, Palestinians and Israelis.
Katherine Miller from Marlborough, Massachusetts
graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in
Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies in May
2014. Her thesis on global health education led her to
pursue a Fulbright scholarship in the United Arab
Emirates researching the impact of health awareness
programs on the transmission of chronic diseases there.
She will be based at the School of Public Health in the
United Arab Emirates University. Miller, who spent a
semester abroad in Jordan, has also earned a Critical
Language Incentive Scholarship to perfect her Arabic
in Morocco prior to starting her Fulbright year.
Jacob Carter is a doctoral student at the Center for
International Education in the College of Education.
He has earned a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy
Fellowship and will spend a year at the Ministry of
Education in Guatemala doing research on and
supporting the Ministry’s interactions with a large,
international non-government sector that is involved in
education. Carter, who speaks Spanish fluently, has
spent many years working with an organization in
Guatemala (Safe Passage/Camino Seguro) that
provides educational programs for children and
families who make their living by harvesting
recyclables from garbage dumps. He will be joined by
his wife Theresa and son Samuel for the duration of
the fellowship. Carter received both his BA and
Master’s degrees from the University of
Massachusetts.