Environmental sciences graduate Madeline Friend has been selected to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, a highly competitive honor that will send her on a one-year assignment as an English teaching assistant in Colombia.
Since completing her degree last spring, she has worked with nonprofit organizations to develop sustainable systems by integrating physical sciences, outdoor education and service learning.
“This honor will help me combine my areas of interest and help me to become an engaged citizen: an active stakeholder invested in the future of a connected globe,” Friend said.
Senior Ricardo Peterson, an electrical engineering and modern languages student within NAU’s Global Science and Engineering Program, was recognized as a Fulbright Alternate English teaching assistant for Argentina. Alternates are next up if a recipient takes another opportunity or cannot go.
After graduating, Peterson will pursue a Ph.D. with a specialty in semiconductor devices at Stanford. He plans to work as a research scientist.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program funds recent graduates and graduate students for either one academic year of graduate study, an advanced research or creative project or an English teaching assistantship in one of more than 140 countries.
Signed into law by President Truman in 1946, the Fulbright Program was established as the primary educational exchange program sponsored by the federal government. Approximately 10,000 applicants apply for the program each year, with around 1,900 receiving funding. In the last three years, NAU has had five Fulbright recipients and three Alternates.