Five win Fulbright grants to study and work abroad

Five 2007 graduates were awarded grants by the U.S. Department of State’s 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., 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 from that country, Foster will complete six weeks of orientation in Chuncheon before being placed in a teaching position.

Jenchura, a member of Phi Beta Kappa who created her own cross-cultural psychology major, is researching 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. She also has been accepted into the Peace Corps.

Knies, a history major, is teaching 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 Bonner Center for Civic Engagement.

Reighard, a chemistry and religion major and Jewish studies minor, is researching functional nanomaterials and electrochemistry in Israel. At Richmond, she was a member of ODK and  received an Oldham Scholarship—a merit-based full scholarship.

Schultz, a history and political science major and Spanish minor, is researching  ethnic and racial dimensions of the Spanish Civil War by examining Spanish Nationalist and Republican perceptions of American volunteers during the war. At Richmond, she was a mentor in the Math and Science Investigators program.

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.