Archives: Meet Our USA Fulbrighters

Lainie Beauchemin

Lainie Beauchemin earned a BS in biological engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she researched the molecular underpinnings of schizophrenia and other neurological diseases through the Broad Institute. During her time at MIT, Lainie was co-president of a math mentorship program for underserved middle school girls in the Cambridge/Boston area, and worked in various roles for The Educational Justice Institute, including teaching Python to incarcerated women. She was also chair of the MIT Shakespeare ensemble as well as an actress, producer, and designer for multiple productions. Since her graduation, Lainie has been researching chronic lung diseases. She plans to pursue a PhD in biomedical engineering and hopes to work on expanding healthcare access globally.

Lainie’s Fulbright-Nehru project is focusing on broadening neurological diagnostic care in rural India, in conjunction with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and Project Prakash. She is assessing the need and feasibility of a system of mental and neurological health clinics in rural India in order to pave the way for more accessible healthcare in these specialties. She is also working with her collaborators to enable the establishment of clinics which are local and accessible to villagers in the state of Uttar Pradesh. At these clinics, patients would receive screening for neurological illnesses, their data could be sent to providers in New Delhi, and prescription medicine could be sent back to the clinics, all at no cost to the villagers. Before such a system can be devised, there is a wealth of preliminary feasibility research to be conducted concerning the areas of need, the obstacles facing the villagers, the regulatory logistics of dispensing prescription medication and treatment, and the sourcing of medical equipment and personnel.

Anish Bagga

As a graduate from Emory University with aspirations of entering the medical field and a passion for mathematics and computer science, Anish Bagga seeks to connect the medical world with math and machine learning. By bridging these fields, he hopes to bring a unique approach to patient care and medical research. At Emory, he was involved with the Emory International Relations Association as the head delegate of the Model UN team and also helped found Oxford’s Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Activist organization. Anish’s current research involves modeling influenza reassortment, building a computational model of the human thyroid hormone, and using machine learning to reconstruct electrocardiography profiles. His research in influenza resulted in a publication which stated that avian hosts do not stringently select against less-fit influenza A virus (IAV) strains, thus facilitating the reassortment of diverse IAVs which increases the likelihood of zoonosis. His second publication regarding influenza A reassortment ascertained that the respiratory structure within a host like swine could support increased diversity through reassortment; this he did through the construction of reassortment simulations in non-compartmentalized respiratory systems and compared its results to the data from the extensively compartmentalized swine lungs. Based on the results, it was determined that compartmentalization does not increase viral diversity; instead, it provides pockets where viruses that are less fit for swine but more fit for humans can thrive. The research helped elucidate the importance of swine in the 2009 H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic.

Vaccines elicit a stronger immune response through the injection of a weakened virus which facilitates the formation of germinal centers containing a viral fragment: i.e., an antigen. In affinity maturation, B cells with B cell receptors (BCRs) that strongly bind to the antigen are selected for. These B cells secrete antibodies identical to their BCRs which bind to the viral components during infection, thus marking the virus for destruction. The more selective this process, the greater the antibody binding affinity, and thus a greater future immune response. To optimize the influenza A vaccine, a stochastic simulation of affinity maturation is also being developed during the study.

Medha Asthana

Medha Asthana (they/them/theirs) is currently pursuing a PhD in anthropology at Brandeis University where they study kinship and domestic spaces, intergenerational care, queerness, and gender in North India. Medha is an educator committed to inclusive higher education pedagogy and was recently chosen as a fellow with the MLA Institutes for Reading and Writing Pedagogy at Access-Oriented Institutions. Beyond their academic research, Medha is committed to publicly engaged work with grass-roots community organizations. They also hold a BA (honors, cum laude) in anthropology and a BA in business administration from the University of California, Irvine.

Medha’s Fulbright-Nehru project is studying the role of the family and the domestic space as constitutive of queer identity and belonging, especially for queer individuals socialized as daughters. They are examining daily relations between queer daughters (which includes cisgender women, non-binary people, and transgender men) and their mothers and other female kin in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh; this involves topics of gendered expectations, narratives of care, and negotiations of power.

Annika Agarwal

Annika Agarwal graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a major in anthropology in May 2023. While in school, she was the campus chairperson of Global Brigades where she organized menstrual products for communities in Honduras. She also founded Screen to Street, an organization that conducts home visits and educational programs for Latina women in their prenatal and postpartum periods. Besides, she worked as a birth doula at Magee-Womens Hospital, Pittsburgh, where she helped countless mothers during their birthing experience. One of her most valuable undergraduate experiences was developing her research skills and repertoire through Dr. Sara Baumann’s lab in Pittsburgh. During that time, she spent a summer in Mumbai, working with orphan girls to understand institutionalized menstrual practices, attitudes, and knowledge production. She has also worked on projects related to Collaborative Filmmaking, a participatory arts-based method, to understand the postpartum experiences of women in Pittsburgh. Annika will build on these experiences and skills through her Fulbright year. Ultimately, she hopes to attend medical school and continue her work on women’s health research globally.

Due to insufficient sanitary services, slum women in Dharavi, Mumbai, face a predicament. While they use dilapidated community toilets that make menstruation a communal issue, taboos perpetuate a clandestine culture. Of the sparse research that has been done on menstrual disposal, men and elders stand excluded. Therefore, this Fulbright study asks: “What are the attitudes, practices, and knowledge around menstrual disposal among men and women of different ages in Dharavi?” For her research, Annika is using Collaborative Filmmaking to co-create films on menstrual disposal with the residents. This study will contribute to the knowledge on differential bodily autonomy based on gender, a prominent issue in both the U.S. and India.

Paul Ward

Paul Ward is a recent graduate of Columbia University in New York City, with a bachelor’s degree in American history. Paul’s undergraduate studies focused on 18th-century revolutionary America, with an emphasis on constitutional law and nation building. He has also been studying Italian for the past two years and hopes to continue learning it during and after his Fulbright grant.

Paul began his teaching career with the New York City Urban Debate League in 2019 and has been interested in education ever since. As both a teacher and administrator, Paul helped the largest debate league in New York put on weekly tournaments that involved thousands of students from across the city. A debater since high school, Paul enjoys discussing world news and trends, and tries to implement these exercises into his lessons whenever he can.

In the area of education access, Paul participated as a teaching fellow with the nonprofit, Breakthrough Collaborative. At Breakthrough, he managed his own daily classroom and created a unique social studies curriculum for his class of middle school students in the Boston public school system. Paul’s curriculum challenged students to reflect on the American Dream and their role as citizens, and he is excited to personally reflect on these topics from a different perspective while abroad.

Outside of the classroom, Paul is interested in music and sports. He has played bass in jazz and rock bands for more than 10 years and is eager to bring this expertise abroad to teach others about the role of music in American culture. He is also an avid runner and completed his first half-marathon this April. In India, he looks forward to staying up late to watch his favorite baseball team, the New York Yankees, play live back home.

Paul’s grant period in India will be the first time he has ever lived abroad, and he cannot wait to meet lots of interesting people and to see the world from a new perspective.

Sumaita Hasan

Sumaita Hasan graduated summa cum laude as a valedictorian with honors from Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, receiving a bachelor’s degree in media studies, English literature, and music. Her degree was supported by a four-year merit scholarship. Sumaita has had extensive experience in journalism, having served as editor-in-chief of the City University of New York’s platform, CUNYverse, in addition to being an editor for various publications.

Sumaita has also served as a volunteer vocal teacher for three years, as a volunteer English teacher for French and Bangladeshi women, and as a volunteer English mentor for a Ukrainian student. Her experience as a tutor for grade school, undergraduate, graduate, and for other professional students has reinforced her passion for teaching and writing. Sumaita is particularly interested in media literacy and cinema, and has dabbled in production, post-production, and website design. She strives to center South Asian and underrepresented voices in her work as a Bangladeshi second-generation American.

While in India, Sumaita hopes to create a journalism club that would produce a student-led publication, in addition to discussing the impact of all forms of media. She is also a trained vocalist and would love to organize a cappella group.

Courtney Fulcher

Courtney Fulcher graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University in the City of New York in 2021 where she majored in comparative literature. She worked as a classroom and administrative assistant at The Red Balloon Early Learning Center, a community preschool in West Harlem. She previously studied abroad, in India, through the NSLI-Y Hindi Academic Year Program 2016–2017 and in the fall of 2019 through the University of Wisconsin where she conducted an independent research project on alternative early childhood education in Varanasi. While in Varanasi, she studied traditional Banarasi pit-loom weaving under Salim Sahib, a weaver in Sonarpura, a weaving center in the city. Courtney is also an on-air host at WKCR-FM, a non-commercial radio station in New York City. Among other shows, she regularly programs for Raag aur Taal, a weekly showcase of classical Hindustani music.

Prior to Fulbright, she worked at a publicity agency as an audio business coordinator, working with companies in both the entertainment and audio industries.

Colleen Choate

Colleen Choate graduated from Appalachian State University in 2017 with a bachelor’s in dance studies and a minor in Spanish. Deeply connected to the creative and expressive art communities on campus, she has performed in the fall and spring Appalachian Dance Ensemble for multiple years, organized and performed in public poetry readings, held concerts for her own choreographies, and served on The Peel Literature & Arts Review poetry committee. The focus of her scholarly work and thesis was the connection between language and the body as a somatic and expressive experience. As a choreographer and as a yoga instructor, she has realized that her greatest strength lies in facilitating experiences and in holding space for others to express themselves.

Colleen was introduced to Indian philosophy in a yoga class during her freshman year in college, and she has never looked back. She began reading such texts as the Bhagavad Gita and Devi Mahatmya. Her desire for deeper connection and authentic relationship with these teachings led her to India in 2019, where she toured its southern part, visiting temples, exploring places, and of course, eating amazing food.

In 2020, she decided to switch career paths and took a TEFL course to receive her teaching certification and began working with the English Language Program students at Virginia Commonwealth University. She quickly took to the role, especially in terms of building relationships with students, which led to her current role as the global learning coordinator in the Global Education Office at Virginia Commonwealth University.

In this role, she works daily with international students studying in the United States. This includes planning and implementing cultural events and social programs to support these students. These programs help them connect with one another, as well as with domestic students, and foster community, cultural competence, and personal growth. Colleen is excited about the opportunity that the Fulbright-Nehru grant offers to work with students every day, learn from them, and find rewarding ways to build relationships through education.

Ren Birnholz

Ren Birnholz (they/them/theirs) is an honors graduate of Northeastern University where they majored in cultural anthropology and theatre and minored in women, gender, and sexuality studies. During Ren’s time at Northeastern, they worked as a research assistant in two creative practice research labs focused on the intersections of performing arts, education, identity, and social justice. Ren’s fascination with this field led them to complete an ethnographic thesis entitled “Creating Community through Interrupted Dialogue on TransTok”, which explored how young content creators use social media to build community. They also explored how creative content is utilized to educate individuals outside of a community.

In addition to their academics, Ren spent their time as a campus leader and student advocate. Most notably, Ren led initiatives that expanded access to mental healthcare and reproductive healthcare for the entire student body. They also worked as a resident assistant for three years, mentoring first-year students as they entered the university landscape.

Ren discovered their passion for teaching at a young age. In secondary school, they worked as a theatre and dance camp counselor and as a religious schoolteacher at their local synagogue. As an undergraduate student, they completed two six-month internships: the first as a full-time elementary music teacher; and the second as the sexual misconduct and bias case manager for Boston Public Schools. Outside of a formal educational setting, Ren designs curriculum and leads workshops for reproductive justice and LGBTQ+ organizations.

After studying at Ashoka University in Sonipat, Haryana, in the summer of 2022, Ren is excited to be returning to India as an English teaching assistant through the Fulbright-Nehru grant. While Ren has explored the American education system in depth, through this program they will further their capability as an educator tied to experiences of cultural exchange.

Amariyah Ayee

Amariyah Ayee is a recent graduate of Duke University with a master’s degree in biomedical science. While at Duke, she volunteered with seniors in the Durham community and also served on the volunteer committee. She graduated from Claflin University as a valedictorian in 2022 with a degree in biology and a minor in chemistry. At Claflin, she enjoyed tutoring students as a supplemental instructor and also volunteered at the University Writing Center and Boys and Girls Club.

Amariyah has always desired to be a physician and serve individuals in underserved communities. She has been accepted to medical school on a full tuition scholarship, which she plans to pursue following her Fulbright experience. She is excited to serve as a cultural ambassador and share her love for learning with her students.