Fourteen recent Pomona College graduates have been offered Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards for 2026-27. Founded in 1946, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international academic exchange initiative.
“The Fulbright Program’s goal of promoting educational and cultural exchange aligns closely with Pomona’s vision for global, experiential learning that prepares our students to address challenges and create connections in a complex, changing world,” says Kara Godwin, assistant vice president and chief global officer. “It is no surprise that many of our students and alumni are drawn to the Fulbright, and we look forward to seeing how they will continue to learn and amplify their intellectual curiosity abroad.”
Ten of the 14 Pomona finalists have accepted the award and will go abroad to conduct research, study, or teach English for six to 12 months.
Andrea Alonzo ’26
Alonzo, a politics and Chicana/o-Latina/o studies double major from Salinas, California, will serve as an English teaching assistant in South Korea, where she studied abroad in fall 2024. She looks forward to building upon that cross-cultural experience, with plans to serve as a global leader in the future, “whether that’s in a classroom, community organization, legislative office or embassy,” she says.
Niles Brooks ’20
An international relations major from Memphis, Tennessee, Brooks will research how students in Salvador, Brazil, perceive success and how teaching methods shape their performance. Brooks is connecting his Fulbright research to his work with local youth with the Change Collective, where he is building a free standardized test prep program and laying the foundation for a student exchange program to places including Brazil.
Aden Cicourel ’26
Building on his senior thesis on jazz in India, Cicourel will travel to India to conduct research on the hybridization of jazz and classical music in the country from 1930-1980. “The connections and collaborations I make will position me as an important bridge between Indian scholars, archivists, musicians and the jazz studies community in the U.S.,” says Cicourel, a history major from Albany, California, who plans to pursue a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology.
Zabei Frank ’26
Frank, a philosophy, politics, and economics major from Conway, Arkansas, will participate in the Fulbright Binational Business Program in Mexico City, which combines placement in a Mexican organization with academic study at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. She hopes to use the experience “to advance cross-cultural business practices across the public and private sectors,” she says.
Se’maj Griffin ’26
Griffin, an environmental analysis and sociology double major from West Palm Beach, Florida, will study culturally safe chronic illness care for Indigenous communities in northern Canada, focusing on cancer and type 2 diabetes. “This project is a call to reimagine healthcare,” says Griffin, who plans to pursue a dual J.D. and Ph.D. in public health.
Hana Hunter ’26
Hunter, a neuroscience major from Cocoa, Florida, will serve as an English teaching assistant in Taiwan. She plans to earn a Ph.D. in neuroscience and build a research lab focusing on developing strategies for teaching children with learning disabilities. Her Fulbright experience will allow her to “better understand how different cultures embrace teaching and learning,” she says.
Andrew Kim ’26
Kim, a philosophy major, will serve as an English teaching assistant in South Korea.
Peter Schwammlein ’26
A linguistics major from Fayetteville, Arkansas, Schwammlein will serve as an English teaching assistant in Taiwan. Schwammlein’s long-term goal is to join the Foreign Service, and he looks forward to “sharpening the skills most essential to diplomacy: language proficiency, cross-cultural understanding, and resilience in unfamiliar contexts” during his Fulbright year.
Emma Tom ’26
Tom, a politics major from New York City, will serve as an English teaching assistant in Taiwan, where she studied abroad her junior year. She hopes her time in Taiwan will expose her to “new systems, new forms of education and new tools” and launch her into a career in education policy and academia.
Josephine Yip ’26
A psychological science and linguistics double major from Hong Kong and San Francisco, Yip will serve as an English teaching assistant in South Korea. Her Fulbright experience will help her toward her goal of working as an educational psychologist and researcher, as she seeks to learn “how Confucian and Buddhist beliefs inform the country’s approach to education, well-being and resilience,” she says.
Four recent Pomona alumni declined the Fulbright Award, including Jake Chang ’26, Rachel Pittman ’26 and Ava Santos-Volpe ’26.