By
Andy Brown
Assistant Director, College Communications
Halfway through her third year in the College, Ayushi Hegde, AB/BS’22, had accepted that COVID-19 was going to complicate her plans to study abroad as an undergraduate.
However, when she saw an email from the College Center for Research and Fellowships (CCRF) inviting students to consider taking part in the upcoming Fulbright application cycle, she realized that the program might be her second chance to engage internationally.
Fulbright is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program and is among the largest and most diverse exchange programs in the world. Since its inception in 1946, nearly 800 students from UChicago have participated in the Fulbright Program.
Hegde knew about UChicago’s strong track record with Fulbright, but it was still hard for her to wrap her head around the fact that she was qualified for this highly competitive national fellowship. She nonetheless followed CCRF’s proven process to the letter, including several months of internal benchmarks and meetings with advisers to ensure that her application was as polished as possible ahead of the October deadline.
One year later, Hegde was moving to Paris, preparing to start the academic year as a Fulbright researcher at the Pasteur Institute.
“I definitely had imposter syndrome the whole time, even up until I hit submit on the application,” Hegde said. “It helped to have that mentorship and encouragement from CCRF. But it’s nice to know now that I really did have a chance, and that Fulbright is interested in everyone's story. They just want to see you do something with it.”
Hegde is among 12 students from the College that received Fulbright grants for the 2022-2023 award year. UChicago has been named a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for U.S. students by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for the past 17 years.
The Fulbright Top Producer designation jointly honors the success of UChicago College student and alumni applicants, supported by CCRF, and also that of UChicago graduate student applicants, supported by UChicagoGRAD.
A significant driving force behind UChicago’s success in the Fulbright program is CCRF, which has supported undergraduate students in the College as they pursue faculty-mentored research opportunities and nationally competitive fellowships, such as Fulbright, since 2015.
Noelani Bernal, AB’21, who recently finished a Fulbright teaching assistantship in Belém, Brazil, can also attest to the value of CCRF’s support.
“They’re very methodical and have very reasonable expectations for deadlines,” Bernal said. “The benefit of starting so early is being able to do the application very thoroughly. I always felt like someone was guiding me through the application process.”
After attending information sessions and filling out self-assessments to share their interests at the beginning of the application process, CCRF paired Hegde and Bernal with advisers who were best suited to help them achieve their goals.
“As casual as the meetings were, because the advisers are great and friendly people, there were still very real internal evaluations every time,” Hegde said. “They were giving us direct feedback on what we were writing and specific pointers on what to change. It felt very real, without being too high stakes at that point.”
“There was always a method,” Bernal added. “I realized how rigorous they are, not just with Fulbright but other grants as well. They definitely know what you need to put in your application. That information isn't as available or accessible at other institutions. So that was really eye opening for me when I got to Brazil and met other Fulbright scholars.”
Both Bernal and Hegde’s Fulbright placements built upon their undergraduate experiences and prepared them for the next steps of their careers.
Bernal’s eight-month teaching assistantship took place in the Amazon region of Brazil. Aside from teaching college students English full-time April through December of last year, she took weekend trips and met people with indigenous heritage in the region, a direct tie to her undergraduate research.
Now that her Fulbright grant is over, she plans to head to Washington D.C., where she will work with a financial technology non-profit company.
Hegde currently works full-time in a lab, conducting experiments and analyzing data. Since France requires students to be enrolled in degree programs as part of their visa, she is completing a year-long French master’s in life sciences in addition to her research project.
When she completes her Fulbright program in June, she will pursue a Ph.D at Yale in biological and biomedical sciences.
Hegde and Bernal offer the following advice for UChicago students who are interested in the Fulbright program:
“Fulbright was a really good choice for me because I was able to go through a guided program and live abroad, and take a year to figure out what I wanted to do,” Bernal said. “I don't think that's something that you can easily internalize from within UChicago. If you’re not sure what your next step is, Fulbright is an option for you, and UChicago has infinite resources to help you get there.”
“CCRF and their team of advisers [are] so great; I strongly encourage anyone who’s interested to give it a shot,” Hegde added. “We were never discouraged or told ‘this might not be for you.’ It was instead, ‘this is what you'd like to do? Let's take that and run with it.’”