Nineteen Penn students and alumni have received Fulbright grants for the 2025-26 academic year.
Nineteen Penn students and alumni have received grants from the Fulbright United States Student Program for the 2025-26 academic year to pursue graduate study, conduct research, or teach English in a host country.
The Fulbright Program, sponsored by the Department of State, awards grants to students to foster global academic exchange. This year’s recipients include six members of Penn’s Class of 2025, three graduate students, and 10 alumni who were selected to receive full funding for international study, research, or teaching for up to 12 months.
Each year, approximately 8,000 students from around the world are awarded grants. Students must have completed a bachelor’s degree prior to the start of their grant period to be eligible for funding.
The 2025-26 Fulbright recipients from Penn hail from a range of academic backgrounds, spanning mathematics, biology, and religious studies — along with expertise in housing policy and foreign politics.
The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with six Penn affiliates set to travel and study internationally as part of the program.
2025 College graduate Henry McDaniel majored in Russian and East European studies and diplomatic history at Penn. He was offered a Fulbright grant to teach English in Moldova at Ion Creanga High School of Alecu Russo State University.
“As a Russian and East European studies major, during the war in Ukraine, my options to live and study in the region were limited,” McDaniel told the DP. “I always had my eye on Fulbright to do exactly that.”
McDaniel chose Moldova in particular given its current political climate and the country’s bid for membership in the European Union.
“It seemed like a really exciting time to be in a post-Soviet country that’s determining its future in moving westward or eastward,” McDaniel added.
In addition to his interest in Moldova’s post-Soviet transition, McDaniel is excited to interact with both his students and the local community to learn about how opinions on the country’s future vary across generations.
2025 College graduate Timothy Lie earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biology from Penn. Through the Fulbright Program, Lie plans to conduct research at Universitas Indonesia that focuses on the mitochondria’s function and its effects on dengue, a mosquito-borne illness.
At Penn, Lie was involved in COVID-19 research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He described the Fulbright Program as an opportunity to expand his research on other diseases worldwide in an interview with the DP.
“I grew up in Indonesia and always heard stories from my mom about how dengue took my uncle’s life and so many other lives in my community,” Lie said. “I wanted to give back in some way.”
Lie emphasized his desire to connect two cultures as an academic ambassador for the United States. As an aspiring physician, Lie also told the DP that the grant will help build his research skills and improve his proficiency in the Indonesian language — a skill he hopes to bring to patient care.
Claire Elliot — a current doctoral student in Penn’s religious studies department — was also awarded a Fulbright grant for the 2025-2026 academic year. Elliot will travel to Thailand to continue her dissertation on contemporary dreaming practices in Theravada Buddhism.
In high school, Elliot studied abroad in Thailand, where she was first exposed to contemporary Buddhism. She earned her bachelor’s degree in religious studies at Penn in 2017, before traveling to Sri Lanka to research the circulation of Buddhist ideology as part of a master’s program at Cornell.
“When you study abroad, there’s a honeymoon phase and then a crash,” Elliot told the DP. “But with Fulbright, I can be in Thailand for ten months, get past both phases, and experience life as usual.”
Elliot called the grants an expression of “soft power politics,” given its role in fostering relationships between governments.
“In some ways, you’re going to be the American people think of because you’re the American they’ve met,” Elliot continued. “It’s inevitable that you become a sort of representative.”
2025 College graduate Elan Roth — who will travel to Canada to research mathematics at the University of Waterloo — also emphasized his role as a cultural ambassador in an interview with the DP.
“I’m excited to share my genuine experience being an American citizen,” Roth said. “I’m also looking forward to exploring the relationship between America and Canada and what that will look like over the next few years.”
At Penn, Roth studied mathematical logic with a minor in religious studies. He described the Fulbright Program as “an awesome opportunity” to continue his research, while also “being able to explore the world.”
Ultimately, Roth plans to use his Fulbright grant as a stepping stone to a Ph.D. in mathematics or computer science.
2025 College graduate Leo Biehl will use his grant to travel to Austria to study international housing policy and teach English. Biehl noted his hope to explore Vienna’s approach to reducing homelessness in an interview with the DP.
“Vienna is regarded as a model for cities across the world and I think it could offer lessons for confronting the housing crisis in the United States,” Biehl said. “I also hope my Fulbright in Vienna will help me gain an understanding of how an innovative housing policy could be applied to the United States.”
While at Penn, Biehl studied both urban studies and political science, and pursued a minor in German. He credits Penn’s urban studies department with exposing him to housing issues in Philadelphia and globally.
“I hope to enter a career in shaping policy and use the lessons of my experience,” he continued.
Biehl also expressed an excitement about joining a Viennese soccer team, exploring the city’s public transit system, and connecting with his Austrian colleagues and classmates.
Another member of Fulbright’s 2025-26 cohort, Aleena Parenti — who graduated from the College this year with degrees in linguistics and Chinese — plans to teach English in Taiwan.
Parenti, who is from rural Pennsylvania, highlighted the “unique” aspects of her identity that she first picked up on as a student at Penn.
“It’s much more of a cultural divide than I had thought,” Parenti said. “Being from rural America is a unique perspective, and I’m not sure how many people from other countries come in contact with that. I really want to take that with me to Taiwan.”
Sign up for our newsletter
Get our newsletter, DP Daybreak, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
Parenti’s decision to apply to the program came after receiving support from her peers and professors at Penn. She hopes to earn a master’s degree and pursue a career as an English teacher.
Funding for future Fulbright grants has faced uncertainty after 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump canceled nearly 200 scholarships awarded to American professors and researchers. In June, all 12 members of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board resigned due to the cancellations.
In its resignation statement, the board expressed concerns that the State Department’s actions are “unlawful and damage the integrity of this storied program and America’s credibility abroad.”
The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.