UMD Named Top Producer of Fulbright Students
17 Scholarships and Grants Awarded for Study, Research Abroad in 2024-25
JaKyah Beatty M.P.P. '24 (right) speaks to a group including the former First Lady of Ghana, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, about her reseach project as a Fulbright student in the country.
Courtesy of JaKyah Beatty
As a student interested in the fashion industry, JaKyah Beatty MPP ’24 had assumed that donating used clothes was always a good thing. But as a Fulbright student in Ghana, she is seeing firsthand both the challenges and opportunities created by receiving 15 million tons of secondhand clothing per week.
“Go to the landfill and you see these huge mountains of clothing that just pile up on the coastlines. Fishermen cast their nets and come back with T-shirts and shoes and just all of this trash,” said Beatty, who is researching solutions. “The [goal] is to figure out how to turn this waste into something that can be reused, helping Ghana’s economy and the environment.”
Discarded clothing chokes a beach in Ghana. (Photo courtesy of JaKyah Beatty.)
Beatty is one of 17 Terps—recent graduates, graduate students and alums currently studying, researching and teaching around the world—who earned the University of Maryland the designation of Top-Producing Institution of Fulbright U.S. Students.
It is the 11th time UMD has received the recognition announced Tuesday by the U.S. Department of State according to rankings published by The Chronicle of Higher Education. UMD also ranked No. 3 among all public doctoral institutions in its number of students awarded Fulbright scholarships.
“Through education, research, scholarship and service, we aim to address humanity’s greatest challenges,” said William A. Cohen, associate provost and dean for undergraduate studies. “With the support of Fulbright grants, Terps are empowered to develop innovative solutions and tackle a wide range of pressing, complex issues—both locally and globally.”
Beatty, who examined the trade policies that contribute to the problem of dumping used clothing in Ghana, just finished interviewing sellers in secondhand textile markets. She is now learning about the industrial process of regenerating worn clothes into new fabric.
Other Fulbright students from UMD are studying how Korean medical students analyze patients’ illness narratives and working to forecast and prevent climate-related diseases in the Philippines.
Caterina Ieronimo ’21, ’23 is in Sicily studying how litigation might help immigrants who are falsely accused of smuggling.
“Thinking about how people create home away from home—and then how we can do that for other people—is important for me,” said Ieronimo. “I feel this is almost like an academic residency where I have nine months to explore everything that I love.”
In addition to the Fulbright students, College of Education Professor Dennis Kivlighan is conducting research about group counseling in Italy as a Fulbright Global Scholar.
More than 500 UMD students, alums, staff and faculty have earned Fulbright awards since the program was launched in 1946 to foster mutual understanding and support peaceful relations between the people of the United States and other nations. The university also hosts students and faculty from other institutions, including eight this year.
“The importance of the Fulbright Program’s aim—to connect people and nations through academic exchange and mutual understanding—has never been more important,” said Ross D. Lewin, the university’s associate vice president for international affairs. “We are so proud of our students who have received this prestigious scholarship because their success reflects their deep and genuine commitment to advancing peace and humanity.”
The National Scholarships Office, which oversees the student program, and the Office of International Affairs, which leads the scholars program, work together to help Terps pursue Fulbright opportunities.
“We are so delighted that so many University of Maryland students qualified for Fulbright awards,” said history professor Marsha Rozenblit, UMD’s Fulbright faculty adviser. “Such recognition shows the excellence of our graduate and undergraduate programs at Maryland.”
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