Fourteen Syracuse University students and alumni have been named as 2024 recipients of awards through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. Five students were also chosen as alternates. This is the largest number of U.S. Student Fulbright recipients that Syracuse University has had in one year.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program funds a range of awards that include English teaching assistantships (ETA) and study/research grants in over 140 countries.
The 2024 recipients are:
The 2024 alternates are:
Jaemon Crosby
Crosby, while studying at LAMDA, hopes to bring a new perspective and diversify the world of classical acting, as classical texts and acting historically have been written for and performed by white men.
Jaemon Crosby
“Some of these texts, for example Shakespeare, convey a bigger message and an experience that is not unique to just one race or gender, but to everyone,” Crosby says. “There has been a big revamp in the use of classical texts and bringing them to modern eyes, and I want to be a part of that. … I have always been very drawn to language, rhetoric and the power of listening. I hope this training will help me bring that into works that are performed today and give me a new perspective and interpretation of texts to bring into auditions as I begin my acting career.”
Crosby hopes he can be a role model for younger Black kids in that they may see themselves in classical texts. “Representation is very important in television, theatre and film,” he says. “I want to act and play roles that go against stereotypes of what a Black man is and show what we can be and the power in our Blackness.”
He also hopes that in the future, the connections he makes during his time in the U.K. will aid him in producing shows both in the United States and the U.K. “In my time during my previous semester abroad in London (through Syracuse Abroad), I saw so many beautiful, specific and bold plays that are telling important stories that all should see,” Crosby says. “Theatre should tell stories that allow people to see themselves in them and relate, tell untold stories, educate and make people feel less alone. Everyone should have access to that. There are amazing shows I think should be brought to the U.S., and their messages shared with everyone. I want to be a part of that, and this training and the connections I make will help me get there.”
Jessica Hogbin
Jessica Hogbin
During her Fulbright year in Italy, Hogbin will conduct research for her dissertation, which studies how melancholy—a now-defunct medical category from humoral theory—was used and abused by Renaissance scholars and physicians to express and explain mental health and the mind. Her project, “Innumerable Melancholies: Medicine, Mental Health and Human Nature in Renaissance Italy, 1450-1650,” engages with the deeply interconnected relationship between medicine, narratives around mental health and politics in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Hogbin will conduct research in several archives and libraries in the Veneto region of Italy, including the Historic Archive of the University of Padua, the Marciana Library, and the State Archives of Padua and Venice.
“Through this study, I aim to explore the increasing presumption that it was a patient’s responsibility to care for their own mind and body, along with stereotypes that claimed certain people were more likely by birth and social status to be victims of melancholy, concepts that continue to affect how mental health is imagined to this day,” she says. “I am greatly looking forward to spending this Fulbright year building my dissertation project, conversing with Italian scholars and eating plenty of gelato.”
Hogbin plans to transform her dissertation into a book project in the future. “I hope to take everything that I learn during my Fulbright year, both academically and culturally, back into the classroom, where I am looking forward to sharing this information with my students and allowing the content that I find to shape my lessons.”
Lindsay Kernen
During her Fulbright year, Kernen will pursue a master’s degree in work and organizational psychology at the University of Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow, Scotland.
Lindsay Kernen
Her research will focus on interpersonal relationships in organizations and how diverse groups have the power to produce creative, innovative and profitable outcomes as opposed to conventional top-down management styles.
“I hope to bridge theory and practice, promoting the importance of community involvement in psychological research. I’m looking forward to partnering with an organization in Glasgow to improve employee well-being and satisfaction,” she says. “I’m so excited to have a year dedicated to community-based learning and I hope this leaves me exposed to many diverse perspectives in the psychology field and beyond.”
Beyond her Fulbright year, Kernen plans to embark upon a career dedicated to connecting psychological research that informs employee wellbeing with organizational practices and to raise awareness of the benefits of inclusive group dialogue for innovative workplaces. “This experience will allow me to dig deep into these topics while providing many opportunities to collaborate with local organizations to implement these strategies while learning from the local community and diverse cultures,” she says.
In addition to her studies, Kernen plans to attend meetings for worship at the local Quaker meetinghouse and enjoy Glasgow’s vibrant music and arts scene.
Julianne Strauss
Julianne Strauss
During her Fulbright year, Strauss will be an English teaching assistant in the La Rioja region of Spain. “I hope to find ways to promote inclusive education within the classrooms I teach in and in the school community,” says Strauss. “I also want to instill a love of reading in my students and use inclusive children’s literature that I read in my own U.S. classrooms to promote English learning.”
Strauss, who studied in Madrid during her junior year through Syracuse Abroad, hopes to grow as a Spanish speaker and immerse herself in Spanish culture. “I have not had the chance to visit this region previously, so I want to explore all of my new home,” she says.
She plans to use this Fulbright year as a chance to expand her teaching experiences to students who are learning English as a second language. “I want to bring this experience home and draw upon it to support my future students in the Central New York or New York City region,” she says.
Students interested in applying to the Fulbright program should contact the Center for Fellowship and Scholarship Advising at 315.443.2759 or cfsa@syr.edu. The campus deadline for the 2024-25 application cycle is Sept. 10.
