Northwestern celebrates 22 years as a top Fulbright producer

Wildcats pursue graduate study, conduct research and teach English through global program

February 4, 2026 | By Teresa Nowakowski

Seventeen Northwestern students and alumni received Fulbright awards for the 2025-2026 academic year. Above, Tomás Gordo-Churchill, who is currently completing a Fulbright in Marrakesh, Morocco. Photo courtesy Tomás Gordo-Churchill

The U.S. Department of State has once again named Northwestern a Fulbright Top Producing Institution, marking the University’s 22nd consecutive year receiving this recognition.

Seventeen Northwestern students and alumni received Fulbright awards for the 2025-2026 academic year, allowing them to teach, study and research across the globe. They join more than 400 fellow Wildcats who have received Fulbrights since the list’s inception in 2005.

“Fulbright naming Northwestern as a Top Producing Institution speaks to the quality of our wonderful students. I am very proud of them,” said Interim President Henry S. Bienen. “This honor also reflects Northwestern’s commitment to the global community, and I look forward to continuing to build on this excellent partnership.”

Now in its 80th year, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program allows graduating college seniors, graduate students and young professionals to study, conduct research or teach English in one of 145 partner countries.

“The Fulbright Student Program sends Wildcats around the world not only as citizen ambassadors for the United States but also for the quality of a Northwestern education,” said Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe, director of the Office of Fellowships, which administers the Fulbright Student competition at Northwestern.

“Our Fulbright grantees exchange perspectives of cultures and institutions with those they encounter in their host countries, including the spectacular training they received at their alma mater.”

Graduating seniors, alumni and graduate students with U.S. passports are eligible to apply for awards that last an academic year. The campus application deadline is in early September.

Northwestern Now recently caught up with a few of this year’s Fulbrighters to hear about their experiences.

Divya Gupta ’25, Spain

Divya Gupta, an alum of the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, arrived in Logroño, Spain, in September. Gupta, who studied journalism and economics at Northwestern, is teaching in a bilingual program at a secondary school in the city.

Through her lessons, Gupta has shared her passion for journalism with her students. That same passion is what led her to pursue a Fulbright experience in the first place.

“I came here because I wanted to be a better journalist and be able to connect — be able to be someone who’s not a part of a community but able to connect with it.”

Divya Gupta, who studied journalism and economics at Northwestern, is teaching in a bilingual program at a secondary school in Logroño, Spain, during her Fulbright. Photo courtesy Divya Gupta

Outside her classroom, she kickboxes, volunteers with the Red Cross, bikes through the countryside and takes a poetry class.

“It would be hard to not be involved in so many things, because everyone here is so nice and they convince you to do things and then you’re doing them for nine months,” Gupta said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Alena Haney ’25, Colombia

Alena Haney studied theater and English literature at Northwestern. During her Fulbright, Haney is teaching in the language center of a university in Ibagué, Colombia, working with both students and community members. She also volunteers with a local environmental collective and enjoys hiking the mountains surrounding Ibagué at every available opportunity.

Alena Haney is completing a Fulbright in Ibagué, Colombia, where she teaches English and volunteers with a local environmental collective. Photo courtesy Alena Haney

“If I’m not at the university, I’m usually in the park or in the mountains somewhere,” she said.

The School of Communication alum previously visited South America in the summer of 2023, through the Northwestern Global Engagement Studies Institute (GESI). During the program, she worked with an organization in Píntag, Ecuador, that teaches youth about Indigenous Kichwa language and culture through arts education.

Seeing what it meant to the community to have youth connecting with that part of their identity “reframed” the power education could have for Haney, motivating her to continue teaching and working with community-oriented groups.

That perspective has lent deeper meaning to her activities in Colombia, and she hopes to continue to focus on community-building work after completing her Fulbright.

“I'm excited to do this kind of work back in the U.S.,” Haney said.

Tomás Gordo-Churchill ’24, Morocco

Since late August, Tomás Gordo-Churchill has been teaching English and MBA classes at multiple schools in Marrakesh, Morocco. At Northwestern, Gordo-Churchill majored in economics and Middle East and North African studies in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

Now that he’s on the other side of the classroom, Gordo-Churchill works to engage students the same way his professors once did for him. And that effort is paying off. Last semester, a group of students wrote him a letter thanking him for being not only a caring teacher but someone “who made our days feel lighter and our classes feel meaningful.”

When he’s not teaching, Gordo-Churchill enjoys taking lessons in French and Arabic, boxing and taking trips, whether a short jaunt to barter in one of Morocco’s souks or an excursion to the Atlas Mountains.

One of the highlights of his experience, he said, has been the chance to connect with people from a variety of backgrounds.

“I’ve befriended local Moroccans, a Tunisian, and my roommate is Syrian,” he said. “I’ve really expanded my worldview just by meeting and hanging out with people and drinking lots of coffee.”

Sufyaan Syed ’25, Brunei

Sufyaan Syed, who studied biological sciences at Northwestern, is completing a research Fulbright in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei.

There, the Weinberg graduate’s research looks at how plant and animal-based traditional treatments create molecular and cellular changes to help mitigate diabetes. He became interested in this research after volunteering at a charity clinic near Northwestern’s Evanston campus, in an area where the population is disproportionately burdened by diabetes.

Sufyaan Syed is researching plant and animal-based traditional treatments for diabetes during his Fulbright in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. Photo courtesy Sufyaan Syed

“Witnessing the impact that this illness can have on entire populations’ lives inspired me to research diabetes,” he said.

In his free time, Syed can be found enjoying the country’s cafe culture in the morning before work or training with his Brazilian jiu-jitsu team after he’s done in the lab. Syed also takes advantage of the area’s natural beauty.

“The country takes great care to preserve its rainforests, so just visiting them, swimming in the rivers between jungle thickets and visiting the beaches has been great,” he said.

Learn more about the Fulbright program and other opportunities by contacting Northwestern’s Office of Fellowships.

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