University of Richmond graduates awarded Fulbright grants for international research, teaching
May 6, 2008
Five University of Richmond seniors have been awarded grants by the U.S. Department of State's 2007-08 Fulbright Program for a year of international post-graduate study, research and teaching.
Emily Jenchura of Merion Station, Pa., Katey Reighard of Hollidaysburg, Pa., and Kara Schultz of Charlottesville were awarded research grants and Tori Foster of Landenburg, Pa., and Laurie Knies of Wantage, N.J., Va., were awarded English teaching assistantship grants. The students were among approximately 1,200 recipients nationwide.
Foster, a psychology and combined English-theatre major, will teach English to elementary school children in South Korea. Adopted at birth in South Korea, Foster will return for six weeks of orientation in Chuncheon and then be placed somewhere in the country to teach. While at Richmond, Foster worked as a tutor in the Writing Center and performed in several theater productions, including "Macbeth" and "Tegonni: An African Antigone." She is the daughter of Bennett and Dale Foster and a graduate of Sanford School in Hockessin, Del.
Jenchura, a member of Phi Beta Kappa who created her own cross-cultural psychology major, will research interracial friendships in Trinidad and Tobago. As a student at Richmond, she co-authored a chapter on cross-cultural studies of friendship with a professor for a book on children's friendships and researched a similar subject while studying in South Africa. Jenchura also has been accepted into the Peace Corps. She is the daughter of John and Grace Jenchura and a graduate of Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pa.
Knies, a history major, will teach English to Chinese university students while organizing cross-cultural student activities. She will study Cantonese, English as a Foreign Language teaching methods and Hong Kong/China studies. While at Richmond, Knies volunteered for the English as a Second Language program through the university's Center for Civic Engagement, was elected senator in the Westhampton Student Government Association and served on the Student Library Advisory Committee. She is the daughter of Leonard and Laurie Knies and a graduate of High Point Regional High School in Sussex, N.J.
Reighard, a chemistry and religion major and Jewish studies minor, will research functional nanomaterials and electrochemistry in Israel. At Richmond, she was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa leadership and honor society, a chemistry teaching assistant and an Amnesty International volunteer. Reighard is an Oldham Scholar—a merit-based full scholarship at Richmond—and the daughter of Robert and Deborah Reighard. She graduated from Hollidaysburg Area High School.
Kara Schultz, a history and political science major and Spanish minor, will research ethnic and racial dimensions of the Spanish Civil War by examining Spanish Nationalist and Republican perceptions of American volunteers during the war. At Richmond, Schultz was a mentor in the university's Math and Science Investigators mentorship program. She is the daughter of Frank and Sandra Schultz and a graduate of Western Albemarle High School.
The Fulbright Program, established in 1946, is named after the late Sen. J. William Fulbright, who introduced a bill in Congress to create a program "promoting international good will through the exchange of students in the fields of education, culture and science." More than 279,500 people from the United States and abroad have participated.