Northwestern University has been named a Fulbright Top Producing Institution by the U.S. Department of State for the 22nd consecutive year. For the 2025-2026 academic year, seventeen students and alumni from Northwestern received Fulbright awards, which will enable them to teach, study, and conduct research in various countries.
Interim President Henry S. Bienen commented on the recognition: “Fulbright naming Northwestern as a Top Producing Institution speaks to the quality of our wonderful students. I am very proud of them. This honor also reflects Northwestern’s commitment to the global community, and I look forward to continuing to build on this excellent partnership.”
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is in its 80th year and offers opportunities for graduating seniors, graduate students, and young professionals to work or study in one of 145 partner countries. Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe, director of Northwestern’s Office of Fellowships, said: “The Fulbright Student Program sends Wildcats around the world not only as citizen ambassadors for the United States but also for the quality of a Northwestern education.” She added, “Our Fulbright grantees exchange perspectives of cultures and institutions with those they encounter in their host countries, including the spectacular training they received at their alma mater.”
Applicants must hold a U.S. passport and can apply during their senior year or as alumni or graduate students; awards last for an academic year.
Among this year’s recipients is Divya Gupta ’25, who graduated from Medill School of Journalism. She is teaching in a bilingual program at a secondary school in Logroño, Spain. Gupta explained her motivation: “I came here because I wanted to be a better journalist and be able to connect — be able to be someone who’s not a part of a community but able to connect with it.” Outside teaching, she participates in kickboxing, volunteers with the Red Cross, bikes through local areas, and attends poetry classes. “It would be hard to not be involved in so many things, because everyone here is so nice and they convince you to do things and then you’re doing them for nine months,” she said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Alena Haney ’25 teaches English at a university language center in Ibagué, Colombia while volunteering with an environmental group there. She enjoys hiking in nearby mountains when not working at the university. Haney reflected on her earlier experience through Northwestern’s Global Engagement Studies Institute (GESI) program: seeing youth connect with Indigenous culture reframed her view on education’s impact on communities.
Haney expressed enthusiasm about applying these experiences back home: “I’m excited to do this kind of work back in the U.S.”
Tomás Gordo-Churchill ’24 has spent his Fulbright term teaching English and MBA courses at schools in Marrakesh, Morocco after majoring in economics and Middle East/North African studies at Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. He tries to engage his students as his professors did for him; some wrote him letters expressing appreciation for his support as both teacher and mentor.
Gordo-Churchill described making friends from various backgrounds: “I’ve befriended local Moroccans, a Tunisian, and my roommate is Syrian,” he said. “I’ve really expanded my worldview just by meeting and hanging out with people and drinking lots of coffee.”
Sufyaan Syed ’25 studied biological sciences at Northwestern before beginning research on traditional treatments for diabetes during his Fulbright fellowship in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. His interest was sparked by volunteering at a clinic near Evanston that serves patients disproportionately affected by diabetes.
Syed shared what inspired his research: “Witnessing the impact that this illness can have on entire populations’ lives inspired me to research diabetes.” In addition to lab work he enjoys morning visits to cafes or training with his Brazilian jiu-jitsu team; he also spends time exploring Brunei’s rainforests.
“The country takes great care to preserve its rainforests, so just visiting them, swimming in the rivers between jungle thickets and visiting the beaches has been great,” he said.
Students interested in applying or learning more about such programs are encouraged to contact Northwestern’s Office of Fellowships.
