[dropcap sid=”dropcap-1446585320″]F[/dropcap]ulbright Awards top the list of the most prestigious grants conferred on college graduates. So the announcement that three Baruchians—one graduating senior and two recent graduates—had been selected for U.S. Student Fulbright Awards for 2017–18 was met with great fanfare. It’s the greatest number of Fulbright Student Awards in one competition cycle in Baruch’s history.
The 2017 winners are Zicklin/Macaulay Honors alumna Maneesha Bhugwansing (’14), Marxe alumnus Hasin Ishraque (’16), and Zicklin senior Kristina Sarkissyan (’17). This fall their Fulbright-funded programs will take them to three distinct regions of the world: Ms. Bhugwansing heads to the Netherlands to pursue a master’s degree with a focus on European economic politics and global innovation economics; Mr. Ishraque accepted an English Teaching Assistantship to Malaysia; and Ms. Sarkissyan, an international business major, will intern at a Mexican company.
All three have expressed their belief in the program’s mission of spreading education and goodwill, strengthening partnerships with other nations, and preparing a new generation of global leaders and change agents. Says Ishraque, “You have to better understand the world before you can truly help.”
Since 2013, six Baruch candidates have been recognized with U.S. Student Fulbright Awards. Not coincidentally, that same year the College created the Office of National and Prestigious Fellowship Advising, which has managed a steady increase in student applications each year from a greater diversity of majors and disciplines.
“Academic excellence has always been a hallmark of a Baruch education,” says David P. Christy, PhD, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “Our students and alumni compete and succeed at the highest levels, and these three awards confirm our commitment to making a global perspective central to the Baruch experience.”