Seven UVM students and graduates received Fulbright Scholarships for the 2014-2015 academic year. The prestigious awards are yearlong fellowships which enable seniors, recent graduates, and graduate students to live abroad and represent the United States as a part of the world’s largest intellectual and cultural exchange fellowship.

As Fulbright awardees, students receive a fully funded grant to conduct research, pursue internships, or teach English in another country.

Here’s a glimpse of the scholars and the focus of their Fulbright years:

Matthew Andrews ’13 was awarded a Fulbright research grant to explore the Weimar period in Germany at Phillip-Universität in Marburg. Andrews focuses on the development of neo-conservatism and analyzing how the ideas of a radical intellectual elite were adopted and popularized by paramilitary movements during that period. Such analysis, he says, can help historians better understand how the process of popularization affects and influences ideological development. Andrews credits the success he’s had at UVM to working closely with his mentors, Helga Schrekenberger and Dennis Mahoney in the German Department, as well as Denise Youngblood in the History Department.

Marlenee Blas G’14 was awarded a Fulbright teaching assistantship to Brazil for the 2015 academic year. She will be teaching at an English language training center at a local university and mentoring Brazilian students who will go on to become English language teachers. During her time in Brazil she hopes to broaden her understanding of the links between affirmative action, access and college affordability. These are issues she explored as a higher education and student affairs graduate student at UVM, where she served as a tutor for the Upward Bound program working with first generation high school students planning to go to college. Blas was recognized by her graduate program for her "outstanding contribution to the ALANA community" at UVM and credits her success to working with faculty and staff members Jill Tarule, Kathy Manning, Rashad Shabazz, Stacey Miller and Kathy Cook.

Anders Christiansen ’14 is in Mexico on a Fulbright Business Binational Internship. As an intern, Christiansen will be placed by the Fulbright Commission in either a business or non-profit organization in Mexico City and work on issues of economic development. While interning he will also take classes on trade, business, and policy at a local university. An Honors College student and a political science major, Christiansen has worked closely with several faculty members, including Caroline Beer, Josh Farley, and Jan Feldman on issues related to ecological economics, democratic theory, and Latin American politics.

Sydney Healey ’14 was selected for a Fulbright English teaching assistantship to Brazil during the 2015 academic year. A global studies and environmental studies double major enrolled in the Honors College, Healey has been an Eco Rep and a teaching assistant for Spanish and environmental studies classes at UVM. She has also worked part time during her college career as a personal care attendant and has led service-learning programs with international volunteers. Healey spent the spring of 2013 in Argentina, where she conducted research on indigenous responses to multinational lithium mining in Salta and Jujuy. 


Dan Rosenblum ’13 is in India on a Fulbright research grant for the 2014-2015 academic year. He works in Delhi’s unauthorized colonies (city neighborhoods that have not received support from the local government), examining the transforming socioeconomic relationships in these colonies as they are incorporated into the city and start to receive city resources. Such work, he says, will help researchers better understand what formal recognition will mean for community-level economies in India. While at UVM he worked closely with several professors in the anthropology and geography departments, including Jonah Steinberg, Meghan Cope, Benjamin Eastman, and Scott Matter.

Brian Vedder ’14 received a Fulbright English teaching assistantship to Thailand for the 2014-2015 academic year. Vedder is teaching English to high school students while also running English language camps for children in the community. During his time in Thailand, Vedder also hopes to make connections with other faculty members, learn more about Thai classroom culture and ethics, and also get involved in the community through volunteering and other service. At UVM, Vedder simultaneously developed his pedagogical skills, as well as an expertise in fostering technological competence and a globally engaged citizenry in the classroom.

Joseph Friedman ’14, an anthropology major, was also selected for a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue a graduate degree in epidemiology from La Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City. Prior to his April notification from the Fulbright Program, however, Friedman chose to pursue an equally coveted opportunity as a post-bachelor fellow at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. In this position, Friedman is conducting cutting-edge research related to health metrics in domestic and global health settings.

Since 2005, when the university put a centralized fellowship outreach and support program in place, more than 100 UVM students have won or been finalists in the country’s most prestigious competitions, including the Fulbright, Rhodes, Goldwater, Marshall, Udall, Truman, Madison, Gilman and Boren Overseas scholarships.