---
title: UMD Named Top Producer of Fulbright Students
date: 2025-02-26T05:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/umd-named-top-producer-of-fulbright-students"
section: Articles
---
# UMD Named Top Producer of Fulbright Students

*February 26, 2025* — by [Laura Barnhardt Cech](/author/laura-barnhardt-cech)


> 17 Scholarships and Grants Awarded for Study, Research Abroad in 2024-25

*KBP04130 1920x1080 1 — 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.*

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.”


*clothes washed up along rocks — Discarded clothing chokes a beach in Ghana. (Photo courtesy of JaKyah Beatty.)*




**Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)


**Tags:** [Student Experience](https://today.umd.edu/topic/student-experience)


**Units:** [Office of International Affairs](https://today.umd.edu/topic/office-international-affairs), [Office of Undergraduate Studies](https://today.umd.edu/topic/office-undergraduate-studies)