Five students at San Diego State University have received Fulbright Scholar grants for the 2009-2010 school year. The grants will help fund their research in countries around the world, including Colombia, Ecuador, Romania, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

“Earning such a prestigious honor and opportunity takes great commitment by our students, faculty and staff," said SDSU Provost Nancy Marlin. 

“Their Fulbright experience will enable them to contribute on a global level and is inspiring to the campus community. Each of these scholars reflects the university’s mission to provide students with a broad understanding of human experience throughout the world.”

Students receiving Fulbright grants include:

• Alexander Eastman, a recent SDSU graduate in Spanish and journalism, will teach English to university students in Colombia, where he will share his interest in how literature shapes national and collective diversity.
• Leah Bremer is a doctoral student in SDSU’s joint Ph.D. program in geography. While in Ecuador, she will research the causes and biophysical outcomes of changing burning regimes in Ecuadorian alpine grasslands, in collaboration with the Fundacion Cordillera Tropical and the University of Azuay.
• Martin Woodside recently received his master’s of fine arts in creative writing and has been accepted into the doctoral program in children’s literature at Rutgers University. He will work with the American studies program at the University of Bucharest in Romania to study the relationship between U.S. culture and contemporary Romanian poetry.
• Tonya Warren will head to Taiwan this summer for an intensive language study program and will examine the role of meditation in the Buddhist drug treatment program at Mingde prison as part of her philosophy master’s degree program at SDSU.
• Kyndra Turner will be an English teaching assistant in Hong Kong, and hopes to institute an extracurricular flute choir ensemble. She will complete her master’s degree program in American literature this June.

Since 2005, SDSU has had a total of 22 students receive U.S. Fulbright grants. This year, SDSU also had three professors named Fulbright scholars. Learn more about SDSU Faculty Fulbright Scholars here.

About the U.S. Fulbright Program

The U.S. Fulbright Program was established in 1946 to “increase mutual understanding between people of the United States and other countries.” 

More than 1,500 grants are awarded yearly to students nationwide, and assist with travel and living expenses of students. Graduate students create their own research programs and are given the opportunity to teach in elementary schools and universities, conduct advanced research and continue graduate study in over 155 countries around the world.

Fulbright alumni have gone on to serve in professions including heads of state, cabinet ministers, ambassadors, Members of Congress, judges, university presidents, professors and teachers. Fulbright alumni are the recipients of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur Foundation Genius Awards and U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.