Six Emory students and one recent alum received the Fulbright scholarship last week, which provides grants to research, study or teach on an international level, according to the Fulbright Scholar Program’s website.

This year’s winners include John Gibson (’10C) and College seniors An Nguyen, Shreyas Sreenath, Allison Cohen, Karina Legradi, Jacqueline Troutman and Shivani Jain. The Fulbright scholarship allows students to travel overseas for a 10-month time period to conduct research or teach English.

“[Fulbright awards] support coursework, graduate degrees and/or research, and they provide opportunities for Americans to immerse themselves in a foreign culture and place, improving language fluency and, more importantly, gaining in depth understanding of other countries and people,” Dee McGraw, Emory’s director of national scholarship and fellowship programs, wrote in an email to the Wheel.

Cohen said she was thrilled to receive the award, noting that her “only wish after graduation was to go to Asia and improve [her] language skills.”

“This award will allow me to do that in the best possible way with access to the highest quality scholarly resources,” Cohen said.

Nguyen will research mosquito-borne infectious diseases in Vietnam. She noted that her parents grew up in Vietnam and had become ill with malaria and dengue fever at one point in their lives.

“I still don’t believe them when they say they never sought treatment and simply waited it out,” she said. “Apparently, many people in rural towns and villages still do.”

Nguyen will also volunteer at hospitals and clinics to acquire a “better perspective” on health practices, she said.

Jain wrote in an email to the Wheel that she received a Fulbright research grant to work on public health research in Ghana, specifically in the area of infectious disease, water sanitation and urban planning in the region.

However, Jain declined the award because she has already accepted the Marshall Scholarship to study in England for two years, Jain explained in an email.

Other students will be teaching English in countries overseas. Legradi received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Taiwan and will be teaching English to middle school students in Kaohsiung, a southern Taiwanese city.

“After waiting more than nine months to hear news about whether I was accepted, I felt relieved and honored to have this opportunity to explore teaching, interact with children, share American culture, and delve into life in Kaohsiung,” she said.

Other recipients will be traveling to various locations for their academic pursuits.

Troutman will teach English in Germany and Sreenath has received a study/research grant to study in Bangladesh.

According to the Fulbright website, the scholarships’ primary source of funding is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the Department of State.

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State administers the program.

McGraw explained that the Fulbright program also involves students and faculty traveling not only from the United States to other countries, but also to the United States from areas around the world.

McGraw explained that the average number of Emory undergraduate recipients of the Fulbright award is 3.8, based on data from each year since the 2004-2005 application year for the scholarship.

Two Emory students applied to Fulbright in Egypt but will not hear back until June.

— Contact Jordan Friedman