乐播传媒

Grace Amui

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award - University of Central Florida (UCF)

After training with YWAM at the University of the Nations in Perth, Australia, for a Performing Arts DTS, Grace realised her childhood writings鈥攁nd love for Toy Story in Spanish鈥攚ere more than hobbies. She created original work for West Australian communities, from spoken word to choreographed skits, and assisted on short films with Cygnet Film. A key moment was learning 鈥榯odo lo puedo en Cristo que me fortalece,鈥� which reignited her passion for the creative arts and languages.

Grace went on to write her first musical, This is Me, performed at SEK International School in Barcelona while completing her Theatre and Creative Writing BA in London. Alongside being 2024鈥檚 editor of Brunel Writer, she鈥檚 received mentorship from LUNG Theatre, ChewBoy Productions, and Harrow Arts Centre. Her work appears in collections such as the BLA鈥檚 Borderless anthology, honouring the late Dr. Benjamin Zephaniah.

Inspired by writers including Zephaniah, Tennessee Williams, and Maya Angelou, Grace is honoured to partner with 乐播传媒 as she begins her MFA in Writing. She aims to refine her craft, explore U.S. literature in context, and empower underrepresented voices鈥攑articularly adolescents鈥攖hrough storytelling, educational training, and celebrating interculturalism. Of course, she鈥檚 also excited to expand her Spanish vocabulary beyond ordering 鈥榩an鈥�

Emily Badescu

乐播传媒-BAFTA Postgraduate Award - Duke University

Emily Badescu began storytelling through installations, video, and sound art while studying Fine Art at UAL. Upon graduating Emily moved to Brighton, where she discovered both documentary-filmmaking and skateboarding. Inspired by the skatepark鈥檚 intergenerational community, she started filming - and hasn鈥檛 stopped.

After a summer documenting skateparks in Texas, she trained with OTOXO Productions in Barcelona. Since then, she鈥檚 directed, produced, and edited award-winning documentaries and videos. Her credits include VICE, Netflix, BBC, AppleTV+, and The Guardian. A skilled editor, her work includes the SXSW-premiering Alien On Stage - described as 鈥渙ne of the funniest documentaries in years鈥� (IndieWire) and 鈥渓ife-affirming鈥� (Mark Kermode) - as well as edit consulting at Sheffield DocFest.

Supported by We Are Doc Women and ScreenSkills mentorships, she advocates for a more inclusive industry, using her skills to empower people to co-create films through workshops with Rites for Girls and Rambert. In her free time, Emily enjoys languages and the outdoors - interests she鈥檚 combined by working in educational community gardens across Spain.

Though her career has grown beyond the skatepark, Emily stays connected to the global skateboarding community, carving out time to make work that blends academia, art, and kinaesthetic intelligence. With the support of the 乐播传媒-BAFTA Award, Emily will pursue an MFA in Experimental Documentary Arts at Duke University - an ideal opportunity to further explore storytelling as a community-building tool.

Charli Cowgill

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award - The New School

Charli Cowgill graduated with a BA in English from the University of Cambridge. Since graduating in 2023, she has moved to London and worked as a writer for stage, director and dramaturg. She has produced her work as part of the performance collective piss / CARNATION. Her work has been described as 'raw and riotous' (The Stage) and 'brutally revealing' (The Guardian), winning the Untapped Award 2024 and an OFFIE Award for Best LGBTQ+ Performance.

While undertaking the 乐播传媒 scholarship, Charli intends to develop her study of writing out of theatre and into prose. She will be studying an MFA in New York City, and is looking forward to participating in a transfemme-centric literary and cultural scene - both developing her work for stage and exploring new mediums beyond.

Amy Bass

乐播传媒-New School Postgraduate Award

Amy Bass, originally from Manchester, graduated in 2023 with a first-class honours degree from UCL鈥檚 Bartlett School of Architecture. Since graduating, she has been working at the world-renowned firm Foster + Partners in London. Amy is passionate about the intersection of Architecture, Politics, and community, with a particular focus on social housing and how thoughtful design can strengthen social ties and promote equality.

As a 乐播传媒 scholar, she will pursue a master鈥檚 in architecture at Parsons School of Design in New York City. There, she aims to explore innovative approaches to community-focused social housing, combining emerging technologies such as AI and computational design with traditional hand-drawing and craft-based methods. Her research will examine inner-city housing design, using human-centered, adaptable, and sustainable urban environments.

In the U.S., Amy looks forward to immersing herself in New York鈥檚 dynamic architectural culture, collaborating with diverse voices, and participating in political conversations around the future of housing. She hopes to return to the UK with fresh strategies to influence housing policy and contribute to building more inclusive, climate-resilient cities for the future.

Ellen Buttrick

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award - Syracuse University

Ellen Frances Buttrick MBE will be attending the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University to study a Master's in Public Administration. Ellen is passionate about removing barriers to inclusion and hopes to utilise her degree to develop effective social policy in the UK.

Leeds-based Ellen graduated from Northumbria University with a BSc (Hons) Geography in 2017. She went on to compete as a member of the Great Britain Rowing Team鈥檚 Paralympic Squad between 2018 and 2024, winning a Gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in the PR3 Mixed Coxed Four event. Renowned for bringing a diligent work ethic and passion to any endeavor, Ellen has gained professional experience across the political and charity sectors most recently with the British Refugee Council and Love Rowing.

She was recently awarded a Masters with Merit in Gender, Policy and Inequalities from the London School of Economics. During this postgraduate degree Ellen developed an interest in Disability policy and completed an Independent Research Project on the UK Governments approach to the Disability Employment Gap.

Ellen is passionate about Physical Activity as a mechanism to shift the perception of Disability and in 2025 is conducting research as a Churchill Fellow visiting Canda, Italy and Spain to learn about inclusive practices in sport.

Elisa Cardamone

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Elisa is a PhD candidate at the Advanced Care Research Centre of the University of Edinburgh. Her research鈥攁t the intersection of ageing, healthcare, and technology鈥攊s deeply personal, shaped by her experience as a carer for her grandmothers in a region of Southern Italy with limited healthcare resources. With an MSc in Medical Anthropology from the University of Oxford, she brings a rich interdisciplinary approach to her work, combining human-centred design, design justice, ethics, and anthropological sensitivities to explore what is 鈥渦seful鈥� to people living longer and reimagine longevity, care, and future digital health services and products.

As a visiting student, Elisa will join the AgeLab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), working with the 鈥楢ge Gain Now Empathy System鈥� (AGNES)鈥攁n empathy suit that simulates the physical conditions normally associated with older age. Elisa鈥檚 goal is to investigate how empathy in design can act as a catalyst for social change, reconnecting people, redefining longevity, and leading to more useful products and more sustainable care systems.

While in Boston, Elisa looks forward to connecting with local communities, exchanging ideas with fellow researchers, and learning from US approaches to ageing and care. Outside of research, she is an avid runner, photographer, and food enthusiast鈥攑assions she鈥檚 excited to pursue while exploring Boston鈥檚 vibrant city life.

Sylvie Carlos

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award - University of Maryland

Sylvie is a PhD Candidate at King鈥檚 College London, where she鈥檚 researching how the British audio industry engages with Black audiences across the UK. Her work explores how stories about Black life are told, who gets to tell them, and how these decisions shape what we hear. Alongside her academic work, Sylvie has over a decade of experience in the media industry as a multi-award-winning Producer working across podcasts and radio. She鈥檚 proud of the projects she鈥檚 been part of, which unapologetically amplify Black British voices and stories鈥攚ork that continues to shape how she thinks, researches, and creates.

Whilst based in the U.S., Sylvie will explore how Black audio storytelling is currently approached. With a more established Black media landscape, the U.S. offers a valuable point of comparison and reflection to her work in the UK. She鈥檚 especially interested in how podcasting is being used to introduce the experiences of Black life globally to new audiences.

She鈥檚 looking forward to connecting with researchers, audio-makers and building community鈥攁nd of course, eating good food across the country! She hopes the experience will help her grow as a scholar and creative producer, and deepen transatlantic conversations around Black media and storytelling.

Florence Eckersley

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award - Columbia University

Flo Eckersley (b.1996, London) graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2019 with a First Class Honours (BA) in Painting and Printmaking. For the past five years, Flo has worked as a printmaking technician supporting studios like Edinburgh Printmakers and Frans Masereel Centrum, Belgium. Their artistic research practice considers non-toxic and sustainable printmaking practices.

Flo has completed artist residences at La Ceiba Grafica in Mexico and Arte Sumapaz in Columbia, supported in part by the Bet Lo foundation and Hope Scott Trust. These residences inspired them to research alternative business models and governance structures. By pursuing a Master鈥檚 in Arts Administration, Flo aims to gain practical and theoretical skills required to sustain artists and community led non-profit spaces. Through their work they explore the value of different careers and the impact this has on workers.

Through their Masters, Flo aims to learn about different arts funding models while collaborating with like-minded institutions. By the end of their program Flo aims to develop an informed approach to addressing challenges faced by creative workers globally.

Roa Hassan

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award - Harvard University

Roa is a physician and advocate for marginalised people. She was born in Darfur and raised in London. Roa returned to Sudan for her studies and graduated from the University of Medical Sciences and Technology in Khartoum with an MBBS (distinction) and prizes across all clinical subjects.

Following medical school, she joined the NHS as a doctor on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic response in London. Here she witnessed, first-hand, how health issues were disproportionately impacting ethnic minority groups who were being let down by a system that was designed without them in mind.

Roa is thrilled to study for a Masters in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School - with a focus on healthcare policy. She hopes to use her time in the US to find a diverse array of perspectives to build a strong community.

Roa likes to spend her time helping unaccompanied asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa settle in the UK. She also supports young, disadvantaged women through the Thiru and Friends Foundation. She is a Harvard Center for Public Leadership ELI fellow and is very excited to represent Black British culture; especially through her love of UK garage and drill music.

Lily Macdonald

乐播传媒-American University Postgraduate Award

Lily will graduate in 2025 with an MA (Hons) in Politics and International Relations from the University of Aberdeen. During her undergraduate degree, she specialised in American domestic politics and foreign policy.

Lily鈥檚 background is in community development, where she has been actively involved in community integration projects for the past seven years. Her work has focused on a range of topics, including intergenerational work, youth empowerment, and inclusive networking for neurodiverse individuals and their families.

Lily has also contributed to community development research projects, including designing and conducting research into the politicisation of an Aberdonian neighbourhood and its impact on residents鈥� livelihoods. She has also supported university staff in their research projects by contributing to the collection and analysis of data.

Through her 乐播传媒-American University award, Lily aims to immerse herself in diverse university, district, and political communities. She hopes to bridge her passions for community development and academia by researching the relationship between political infrastructure and grassroots conflicts - exploring the causes, effects, and potential solutions to such conflict.

Outside of academic interests, Lily is a keen musician who is looking forward to exploring the DC music scene.

Henriette Mahamane

乐播传媒-University of Maryland School of Public Policy Postgraduate Award

Henriette was born in France but made in Leeds. She graduated with a degree in International Relations and Security from the Peace Studies Department at the University of Bradford. Since joining Leeds City Council, Henriette has worked on strategic projects related to social cohesion, migration, international relations, and climate. She led the International Relations department and was instrumental in Leeds signing a Friendship Oath with Kharkiv, Ukraine, in response to the Russian invasion.

Henriette also spearheaded a partnership with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, making Leeds the first UK city to offer free virtual tours of the concentration camps. Her work is driven by a passion for uniting communities and nations, aiming to make Leeds renowned globally as a compassionate city. At the University of Maryland, Henriette will focus on leadership and public policy, researching city diplomacy and local inclusive growth with an emphasis on equality, diversity, and inclusion. In Washington, DC, she plans to connect with local third-sector organisations working in EDI. Henriette's ambition is to strengthen UK-US ties and inspire new generations of peace makers through university-level lecturing.

Connor Moore

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award - Johns Hopkins University

Connor Moore is a physician and health technology professional from Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. A graduate of Keele University, he first entered medicine as an Academic Foundation Doctor in Bristol, conducting research on digital systems in surgery, winning several academic prizes. He also holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Clinical Anatomy from the University of Leeds.

Driven to improve healthcare at scale, he transitioned from clinical practice to become an early employee at Concentric Health, a health-tech startup. At Concentric, he helped develop the leading digital consent-to-treatment application in the UK which now supports over one million patients per year.

During his time at Johns Hopkins, Connor aims to enhance his expertise in public health by developing his technical skills in epidemiology, biostatistics, and health policy, whilst also learning American approaches to health innovation and care system innovation. This will equip him with the tools to develop targeted data-driven solutions. Through the Sommer programme, he looks forward to participating in, and joining, a global network of public health leaders.

Outside academia, Connor enjoys cycling and has completed cycle tours from Vancouver to San Francisco. He plans to explore more of the United States by bicycle and join the Hopkins cycling team. Additionally, he is keen to build lasting connections with his fellow students and experience all that Baltimore has to offer.

Jeevan Ravindran

乐播传媒-Alistair Cooke Postgraduate Award in Journalism - Columbia University

Jeevan is a journalist, actor and documentary-maker whose work focuses on underreported stories and marginalised communities.

After graduating with a first-class degree in French and Spanish from the University of Oxford, she worked as a visuals producer at Reuters newsrooms across London, Paris and Madrid, and as a digital journalist at CNN. Jeevan was also part of the award-winning team behind the podcast 鈥楲ess Than 2 Percent鈥�, which investigates sexual violence in the UK.

Jeevan has reported extensively from Sri Lanka, contributing to Reuters鈥� coverage of the economic crisis and its impact on war-affected Tamil communities. Her investigation for The Guardian into tea plantations prompted probes from Fairtrade, the Rainforest Alliance, and several major tea companies. In 2024, she worked as the lead researcher for an Amnesty International report on forced labour, and she is currently working on a cross-border documentary on the India鈥揝ri Lanka fishing conflict, supported by the Pulitzer Center.

She won Reporters d鈥橢spoirs鈥� Prix du Jeune Reporter in 2021 for her French-language reporting on homelessness, and was named Outstanding Young Journalist at the Asian Media Awards. She is also a WEF Global Shaper, and in her spare time enjoys acting, making her feature film debut in the 2024 Tamil-language film 鈥極ozhi鈥�.
At Columbia, she will pursue an MA in Journalism (Politics). She is also excited to engage with the South Asian diaspora in New York and explore storytelling through the city鈥檚 vibrant theatre scene.

Cari Street

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award - University of Chicago

As she completes the final year of her BA in Culture, Media, and Creative Industries at King鈥檚 College London, Cari Street is preparing for the next chapter of her academic journey. A proud Northerner, she was born and raised in Leeds, where she worked as a teaching assistant at a state primary school, supporting children with special educational needs before relocating to London. Her experiences in education, along with her role as a sibling carer for her younger brother, have shaped her research interests at the intersection of gender, media, disability, and care.

Through the 乐播传媒 Program, Cari will pursue a Master of Arts in the Humanities at the University of Chicago, where she looks forward to engaging in truly interdisciplinary research that bridges these fields.

Beyond her studies, she is eager to explore Chicago's culture, hunt down the best deep-dish pizza, and find out just how windy the Windy City really is. She also hopes to join a local singing group and use music as a way to connect with her new community.

Tia-Mae Surtees

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award - University of Chicago

Tia-Mae graduated from the University of Bristol in 2021 with a degree in BSc Childhood Studies with Quantitative Research Methods. During her studies, she developed an interest in social inequality and its impacts on young people, focusing her dissertation on the impact of social disadvantage on youth transitions. She is committed to championing social mobility through volunteering, most recently serving on the upReach Alumni Advisory Board, supporting students from minority backgrounds.

Since graduating, Tia-Mae has worked as a researcher and statistician at the Office for National Statistics and the Department for Education. Her career in the UK Civil Service has focused on using data to understand and address social issues affecting diverse populations.

Her interest in social data led to a 乐播传媒 Award to study on the Master of Arts Programme in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago. She aims to explore the uses of linked administrative data on children and young people, exploring cross-cultural comparisons between the UK and the US to identify lessons that can be applied globally to improve data-driven decision-making.

Tia is excited to study in the US and learn in a multidisciplinary environment, exploring different sociological approaches to research. She is also keen to explore the arts sector in the US, particularly music and theatre in Chicago!

Milos Brkljac

乐播传媒 Royal College of Surgeons of England Award - Mayo Clinic

Milos graduated from Manchester University Medical School in 2013, where he developed an early interest in orthopaedic surgery. He has completed three years of higher surgical training in Northwest London, with a focus on hip surgery. His ongoing commitment to research has resulted in multiple publications, a master鈥檚 degree, and a PhD, now in its second year.

Milos鈥檚 PhD focuses on fractures around hip replacements, a growing global challenge with serious patient impact. He has developed a biomechanical model to test implant failure in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic, leveraging links through Imperial College. He now aims to build on this work by exploring implant-specific fracture risks with the Orthopaedic Surgery AI Laboratory at Mayo. This project aims to develop a patient specific risk calculator which can be used to reduce fracture risk through appropriate hip stem selection.

Outside of work, Milos is an avid traveller with a passion for exploring new cultures and has visited over 40 countries. He is especially excited to experience American life in Minnesota, particularly its sports culture. On returning to the UK, he hopes to contribute to the advancement of clinical care and research by sharing the knowledge and experience gained from his time at a leading U.S. institution

Kadija George

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - The Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and Howard University

Dr. Kadija George Sesay, MBE, FRSA, Hon. FRSL, graduated from Brighton University (2022). Her thesis, 鈥楤lack British Publishers and Pan-Africanism 1960-1980鈥�, will be published by Africa World Press. She is an independent scholar working in literary project management and creative professional development.

She received an ECR Fellowship: 鈥業nclusion, Participation and Engagement鈥� from the School of Advanced Study, to develop her methodology, PCMI (Public Collective Memory Interviews) for ongoing research on Black magazine publishing in the 90s. Whilst in the US, Kadija will continue this approach as she seeks to unlock hidden narratives of Black magazine and book publishers during critical historical periods.

Kadija will be resident at Howard University, Washington DC, to share experience and knowledge of Black British Literature. She founded and published a literary magazine SABLE, (2001-2015); edited the book, Write Black, Write British. As Publications Manager for Inscribe/Peepal Tree Press, she commissions Black British literature anthologies.

Kadija has published creative work including a poetry collection, Irki (2013). She recently launched the 鈥業nternational Black Speculative Writing Festival鈥� and AfriPoeTree, a selective interactive video.

In 2026, Dialogue Books publish Black Radical: The Political Poetry of Black Britain, which Kadija edited with the late Professor Benjamin Zephaniah.

Miriam Goldby

The 乐播传媒-Lloyd’s Scholar Award - University of Texas Austin

Miriam Goldby is Professor of Shipping, Insurance and Commercial Law at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London. Her research mainly focuses on the legal implications of the digital transformation of international trade. While in the US she will be researching cybersecurity governance, that is, the framework of rules and processes whereby cyber risk is managed across an organisation. Her aim is to understand better the US鈥檚 approach to cybersecurity governance and how these approaches affect the availability and affordability of insurance against cyber risk, another crucial element in increasing resilience against cyber risk. Miriam looks forward to joining the vibrant and dynamic academic community at the University of Texas at Austin. Her personal interests include film, music, contemporary art and good food and she looks forward to immersing herself in the cultural environment of Austin. She also plans to travel around Texas for some unique cultural experiences, including attending her first rodeo.

Elsa González Simón

Rutgers Newark Scholar Award

Robert Greally

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - New York University (NYU)

Robert completed his PhD in Constitutional Law and Theory at the University of Sheffield in 2020 and was appointed as a Lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol Law School in 2022. Robert is interested in the relationship between law and politics in modern constitutional democracies, focusing particularly on how legislatures and political parties understand, interact with, and shape constitutions. Beyond his research interests, Robert is passionate about helping disabled students succeed in pursuing a legal career and co-organises the UK Constitutional Law Association鈥檚 PhD and Early Career Researcher activities.

While at NYU School of Law, Robert will investigate why legislatures are distrusted and neglected in modern constitutional theory through a comparative study of the development of constitutional theory in the US and the UK. Through this research, Robert hopes to rehabilitate how legislatures are understood within contemporary constitutional thought to help defend the values of constitutional democracy. Robert looks forward to engaging with US academics, civic leaders, and citizens to learn about and understand America鈥檚 dynamic constitutional culture and its current challenges.

Eleanor Griffiths

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - East Tennessee State University

Eleanor Griffiths is a Nottingham-based journalist and early career researcher whose work explores American social class, regional identity and media representation. Her fascination with the United States began during her undergraduate studies, when she spent a year at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She has reported on US politics and social movements for publications including Vice, Stylist, The US Daily Mirror, The Independent, and the BBC, and was previously a fellow at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. In 2018, a visit to Appalachia sparked a lasting engagement with the region and its communities.

Her doctoral research examined how Appalachian activism challenges dominant liberal narratives, drawing on archival material and historical analysis. As a 乐播传媒 Scholar at East Tennessee State University, Eleanor will build on this work by exploring working-class environmental activism across the region. She will work with local archives, including the Archives of Appalachia, and conduct interviews with activists from both the past and present to better understand how grassroots movements are represented鈥攁nd represent themselves鈥攊n public discourse. She is also looking forward to spending extended time immersed in Appalachian culture, particularly its traditional food and Bluegrass music.

Andrew Hiscock

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - University of California Irvine

Andrew Hiscock is Professor of Early Modern Literature and a former Dean at Bangor University, Wales. He is a Fellow of the English Association, Research Fellow at the Institut de Recherche sur la Renaissance, l鈥櫭俫e Classique et Les Lumi猫res, Universit茅 de Montpellier Paul-Val茅ry and a former Marie Sk艀odowska-Curie research fellow. Throughout his career, his research has been focused on differing aspects of literary culture and social debate in Tudor and Stuart Britain and how they found their place within the European renaissance, Early America and the wider world. During the period of his 乐播传媒 award at University of California 鈥� Irvine, Andrew will be researching into questions of hospitality, reception and welcome in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literature and how these enquiries can pose thorny challenges for the twenty-first century.

In the course of his time at UCI, Andrew is looking forward to discovering more about American university life, the richness of American archives and, equally importantly, the diversity of American society. More generally, Andrew hopes to be able to draw on his own professional and personal experience to make a contribution to the communities he encounters during the time of his award and to return to the UK sharing the fruits of this experience by consolidating collaborations, partnerships and friendships that have been forged.

Debbie Hopkins

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - Cornell University

Debbie Hopkins is an Associate Professor in Human Geography at the University of Oxford (UK) appointed between the Department for Continuing Education and the School of Geography and the Environment. She has degrees from 艑t膩kou Whakaihu Waka - University of Otago, King鈥檚 College London and the University of the West of England. Her research focuses on advancing socially just and climate-compatible transformations, with a particular focus on logistical mobilities, and urban geographies of sustainability. She currently leads a UKRI Economic and Social Research Council project called 鈥楾rucking Lives鈥� which seeks to understand the experiences and coordination of mobile work in road freight, and locating potential for change.

At Cornell University, Debbie will be based at the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning. She will collaborate with scholars across the university to examine the impacts and implications of automation and digitisation for workers in the road haulage sector. Debbie鈥檚 乐播传媒 award will allow her to collect comparative empirical material, develop new collaborations and to complete her new monograph. While in the US, Debbie is looking forward to (temporarily) trading the Premier League for college football 鈥� supporting Cornell Big Red, of course!

Jasmine Oware

The 乐播传媒 Stephen Lawrence Award in Policing

Jasmine is a serving Detective Constable in England and Wales with over 10 years of experience in policing and investigations. Her academic interest in police legitimacy and use of force developed during her doctoral research at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her work explores officer attitudes, trends and patterns of force deployment, and how organisational justice and self-legitimacy shape policing practice.

As a 乐播传媒 Visiting Scholar hosted by Howard University School of Law, North Carolina Central University School of Law, and the University of the District of Columbia School of Law, Jasmine will examine the experiences of Black police officers鈥攖heir motivations for joining the force, the organisational culture they encounter, and the wider cultural and systemic factors influencing recruitment and retention.

The 乐播传媒 Award provides Jasmine with a unique opportunity to connect academic research with lived experience, while engaging with scholars, and communities in both the UK and US. It also supports the development of comparative perspectives on policing.

Outside of her academic work, Jasmine is excited to explore Washington, D.C.鈥檚 rich history and culture. She looks forward to visiting the Smithsonian museums, walking the National Mall, and discovering the city鈥檚 diverse neighbourhoods and food scene.

Adele Patrick

Royal Society of Edinburgh Award - City University of New York (CUNY)

Adele Patrick has been developing innovative cultural projects rooted in equalities for over 30 years. A co-founder of Glasgow Women鈥檚 Library, Adele has had a leadership role in this change making organisation since 1991 and is currently a Co-Director. Trained as a designer (and subsequently a lecturer) at Glasgow School of Art (GSA) in 2016 Adele gained Honorary Doctorates from both GSA and from Strathclyde University and became Scotswoman of the Year in recognition of her contribution to Scotland鈥檚 creative and cultural sectors. Following a Clore Leadership Fellowship in 2018 Adele鈥檚 Post Fellowship research has focused on feminist leadership.

Drawing on her experience in developing independent initiatives, her work in and with academia, collaborations with feminists working in global contexts and in recent years as a consultant, coach and trainer, Adele鈥檚 Scholarship will focus on what it means to lead well and specifically what constitutes values led leadership in the arts and cultural sectors. This award will enable Adele to bring to fruition a publication, research and generate new thinking in the stimulating environment of the CUNY Graduate Center, accessing their inspiring collections. She will be hosted as a CLAGS/Feminist Press Scholar in Residence at the Center for LGBTQ Studies.

This award is sponsored by the US-UK 乐播传媒.

Gaspard Pelurson

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - UNC Chapel Hill

Gaspard is a Lecturer in Culture, Media & Creative Industries at King鈥檚 College London. He grew up in France and Belgium, and began his academic journey with a BA in English Studies from the University of the Sorbonne-Nouvelle (Paris III). He went on to complete a Master鈥檚 degree in English Literature at the University of Cambridge in 2012, followed by an MA in Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex in 2013. During his time at Sussex, Gaspard worked as a Doctoral Tutor and Research Associate, earning his doctorate in Media and Cultural Studies in 2018.

From 2019 to 2022, he held the position of Lecturer in Media at Leeds Beckett University, where he retains fond memories of his time in the North of England.

Gaspard鈥檚 research sits at the intersection of cultural studies, game theory, and queer theory. His interests include digital exploration, ludic pedagogy, game d茅tournement, and the pedagogical use of games in the classroom. His work critically engages with video games as a multifaceted medium and a space for cultural and societal reflection.

Tom Ritchie

乐播传媒-Elon University Award

Dr. Tom Ritchie is a Reader and Director of Student Experience at the University of Warwick, where he champions inclusive STEM education, relational pedagogies, and integrated curriculum co-design. With a background in history, his award-winning 'We are Chemistry' programme has created thriving learning communities focused on student success and wellbeing. As academic lead for Warwick's Building Belonging Framework and Education for Sustainable Development agenda, he works in partnership with students to co-design institution-wide approaches.
At Elon, Tom will investigate how interdisciplinary AI approaches can enhance STEM education. He will contribute to core courses and design a new course exploring AI across disciplines, applying Scholarship of Teaching and Learning principles to evaluate teaching effectiveness.

Tom eagerly anticipates collaborating with Elon's Chemistry Department and Centres for Teaching and Engaged Learning to develop inclusive teaching practices. Beyond academics, he looks forward to supporting civic engagement initiatives and contributing to campus-wide projects, including Elon's Design Forge and Howard Hughes Medical Institute initiatives.

Through this 乐播传媒 experience, Tom aims to make a lasting impact by enhancing STEM education through AI integration, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, and developing innovative teaching methodologies. He is committed to bringing these insights back to Warwick, establishing connections that benefit both institutions.

Daniel Scroop

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - Emory & Henry University

Daniel Scroop graduated with a BA and DPhil in Modern History from the University of Oxford. As a doctoral student, he spent a year at Columbia University in New York City, where he conducted research in US political history, focusing on the New Deal and American liberalism. Since then, he has published and taught on a variety of American political, social, and intellectual themes. In 2015-16 he was the Walter Hines Page fellow at the National Humanities Center in North Carolina.

At the University of Glasgow, where he has worked since 2012, he has developed an interest in how the stories we tell about the past connect to questions about citizenship and expertise.. His 乐播传媒 project at Emory and Henry University, a liberal arts college in southwest Virginia, will examine those questions. He looks forward to sharing his ideas with students, faculty, and the public.

In addition to being an historian, Daniel is deeply involved in the Scottish running scene both as a coach and club leader. He is the president of Garscube Harriers, one of Scotland鈥檚 largest running clubs. At Emory and Henry, he is keen to connect with local athletes and to build bridges between Scotland and Appalachia.

Katharine Wright

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - Harvard University

Dr Katharine Wright is a Senior Lecturer in International Politics at Newcastle University, where she specialises in the United Nations Women, Peace and Security agenda, with particular expertise in how NATO engages with this framework. Her research explores the complex and sometimes surprising dynamics that emerge when defence institutions engage with what was originally intended as a feminist peace agenda.

As a 乐播传媒 Scholar, Dr Wright will further investigate what happens when military and defence institutions take up the Women, Peace and Security agenda through a comparison of US and UK approaches. Her work will engage both scholarly and practitioner communities, with the aim of deepening transatlantic dialogue and understanding around feminist approaches to peace and security.

During her time as a Research Fellow on the women and public policy program (WAPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School, Dr Wright looks forward to exchanging ideas with colleagues across disciplines, building new collaborations and bringing fresh perspectives back to her work in the UK, ultimately with the aim of contributing to more inclusive and reflective approaches to global security.

Outside of her academic pursuits, she hopes to explore the country鈥檚 Parkrun scene, combining her passion for running with the chance to get to know new places and people!

Ella Paremain

乐播传媒 Distinguished Teacher - University of Rochester

Eleanor Paremain has been teaching English Literature and Language in a large comprehensive secondary school (Uckfield College) for the past 9 years, teaching students aged 11-18. As Deputy Curriculum Leader of English, she is actively involved in shaping the curriculum, contributing to teacher training, and working with others to build a rich super-curricular programme. Prior to training to teach in 2014 (Exeter), Ella was awarded a BA in English and Drama (Royal Holloway, 2004), an MA in Modern Literature and Culture (York, 2006), and a PhD in Theatre Studies (Birkbeck and the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2013).

Ella is passionate about all things theatre and performance, in particular the transformative power of improvisation. Through the 乐播传媒 DAI programme, she is looking forward to exploring methods to foster a sense of confidence and self-expression by finding a voice in the English or Language Arts classroom, in order to promote a sense of belonging.

Adam Smith

乐播传媒 Distinguished Teacher - University of Rochester

Adam is a mathematics teacher at Rushey Mead Academy in Leicester, England. His professional interest in supporting students鈥� confidence in numeracy has led to a growing focus on mathematics anxiety and how it affects classroom learning. During his 乐播传媒 placement at the University of Rochester, Adam hopes to explore effective strategies to better understand and reduce mathematics anxiety in young people, with the goal of creating more inclusive and empowering learning environments.

Beyond the classroom, Adam is passionate about arts education and community engagement. He volunteers with the Leicester Print Workshop to raise the profile of the arts locally and supports school bands, helping students find creative outlets alongside academic achievement.

While in the United States, Adam looks forward to visiting New York City and experiencing its vibrant arts and culture scene. He is excited to connect with educators, researchers, and students to gain deeper insights into education systems across cultures.

Morayo Abbey-Bada

乐播传媒/Newcastle University Award

Morayo Abbey-Bada graduated with distinction from Duke University with a B.S. in Neuroscience and a minor in Chemistry on the pre-medical track. Originally from Fredericksburg, Virginia, Morayo鈥檚 academic and professional interests lie at the intersection of neuroscience, mental health, and sports medicine鈥攑articularly as they relate to female athletes. Her passion for research was sparked during an undergraduate course on exercise and mental health and deepened through work in the Psychology of Sport Injury Lab with Dr. Shelby Baez. There, she completed a senior thesis examining the relationship between trait mindfulness and brain activity in individuals after ACL reconstruction. Professional experiences as a certified personal trainer further strengthened her interest in the psychological side of injury recovery.

At Newcastle University, Morayo will pursue an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology, where she aims to investigate the relationship between perfectionism and ACL injury risk in women's football.

During her 乐播传媒 year, she looks forward to engaging in research, collaborating across disciplines, and immersing herself in the UK鈥檚 cultural and scientific commitment to women鈥檚 sport. She hopes to contribute to more holistic injury prevention strategies and lay the groundwork for culturally responsive interventions as a future physician-scientist supporting female athletes鈥� health and well-being.

Phoebe Ambrose

乐播传媒/Royal Holloway, University of London Award

Phoebe Ambrose grew up on a farm in Syracuse, New York, which sparked her passion for food systems and agriculture. She earned a B.S. in Food Studies and Citizenship and Civic Engagement from Syracuse University in 2022.

After graduation, Phoebe joined the AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program. During her three years of service with a hunger relief nonprofit in the Florida Keys, she contributed to various programs and events to advance local food security. Phoebe鈥檚 most notable project involved establishing and managing an aeroponic urban farm where she deepened her horticulture skills and passion for community gardens as a solution to food insecurity. This 乐播传媒 grant will enable Phoebe to become a leader in urban agriculture through an MSc in Global Health: Food Security, Sustainability, and Biodiversity from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Phoebe plans to continue gardening with the Royal Holloway campus garden and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. She is excited to learn about UK agricultural traditions and to explore the UK鈥檚 extensive green spaces and waterways.

Kayla Anthony

乐播传媒/Queen Mary, University of London Award

Kayla Anthony, originally from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, has called Philadelphia home since 2011. In February 2017, she joined the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks (PhilaLandmarks) as the Development and Programs Manager. She was appointed Executive Director in 2019. PhilaLandmarks is a 94-year-old private nonprofit that stewards four 18th century historic house museums: the Powel House, Grumblethorpe, Hill-Physick House and Historic Waynesborough.

Under her guidance, the institution has reinvigorated its commitment to increasing public understanding of history, including supporting historical scholarship, enhancing its education programs for young people, attending to critical and significant preservation work on the organization's historic houses and fostering new and existing community partnerships. She graduated summa cum laude from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2011 with a dual degree in Theatre Arts and French (DALF- Niveau 1, Universite de Nancy 2, France) and in July 2023 received the NY Community Trust Edward Maverick Fund Scholarship to complete the prestigious Attingham Trust Summer School program - an intensive study of the English country house in the United Kingdom. In March 2025, she was honored as a leading Woman of the 175th District by Pennsylvania Representative Mary Isaacson for her leadership and contributions to her community.

She has also appeared on C-SPAN to talk about Elizabeth Powel's friendship with George Washington in partnership with George Washington's Mount Vernon and can be seen in a lottery commercial or two. In addition, Kayla serves on the Union League Founding Forward Historic Preservation Committee, the Program Committee of the Acorn Club of Philadelphia, and is a member of the National Society of Colonial Dames of America and SAG/AFTRA. She enjoys acting, theatre, music, hiking, and traveling and enjoys spending time with her German Shepherd, Huxley, and her cat, Hugo.

Zubaida Bello

乐播传媒/University of Strathclyde Award

Standing at the intersections of Africana Studies, History, and Literature, Zubaida explores literature in the African Diaspora, investigating how Black writers conveyed their culture and reclaimed subjectivity in times of displacement. As a James Baldwin Scholar at Hampshire College, Zubaida studied Black Feminist Literature in mainstream feminist movements. As a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow at Wesleyan University, Zubaida examined how freed slaves asserted their subjectivity through captivity narratives.

At the University of Strathclyde, Zubaida will join the Historical Studies MSc program, where she鈥檒l study how the UK travels and travel writings of Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells influenced the international abolition and anti-lynching movements. Zubaida hopes this research on Douglass and Wells鈥� travel writing, contextualized within modern transatlantic Black travel writing, can illuminate how Black communities in the African diaspora have crafted cross-cultural relationships through travel and how we can use travel narratives to continue building cross-cultural connections.

When she isn鈥檛 studying literature, Zubaida loves to write her own poetry and prose. Former 2019 New York City Youth Poetry Slam Team member and author of How to Stop the Burning, Zubaida is a multi-disciplinary poet who seeks to blend her academic interests with creative mediums. Zubaida has performed at The Apollo Theater, The United Nations, The Teen Vogue Summit, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Museum, and more. While in Scotland, Zubaida will take inspiration from her research project and write her own travel literature.

Imani Campbell

乐播传媒/IOE-Faculty of Education and Society at University College London

Imani Campbell began her academic journey at Fisk University where she graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Political Science and History in 2021. During her junior year, she became increasingly aware of the detrimental impact low early literacy scores can have on children鈥檚 life trajectories. This propelled her to create a volunteer community initiative called the Reading Scholars Program that she later transformed into a nonprofit she co-founded in 2023 called Reading in Color: Children鈥檚 Literacy + Social Emotional Learning.

Imani鈥檚 community involvement also inspired her senior honors research in which she investigated disparities in 3rd grade reading scores among children in Nashville. Her research revealed a strong correlation between schools with low reading scores and those serving racially diverse, economically disadvantaged neighborhoods not only across the city but also across the U.S. She also observed similar trends in several other OECD nations including the UK.

While at UCL, Imani hopes to gain insight into how particular societal factors can improve literacy attainment to enhance the socioeconomic mobility of poor children in both the UK and US with a long-term goal of discovering social interventions and strategies that benefit children worldwide.

Rania Chehaitli

乐播传媒/Ulster University Award

Rania Chehaitli graduated in December 2024 from the Honors University Program at Florida State University with Bachelor of Science degrees in Political Science and International Affairs, a minor in Law & Philosophy, and a concentration in Religion. She is originally from Daytona Beach, Florida and will be studying at Ulster University鈥檚 Belfast campus to obtain a Master of Laws degree in Gender & Human Rights.

In her time at FSU, she worked in various positions in student government, extending to political and social advocacy work in her community, and conducted a research project on Female Sufism in the Medieval Abbasid Era. She hopes to continue to immerse her Lebanese identity in her interests in politics, human rights, and the law through research on Middle Eastern affairs while she pursues a career in International Human Rights Law.

 As a dancer and musician, she is looking forward to the UK鈥檚 thriving arts scene as the backdrop for her studies while obtaining her LLM. She hopes to achieve a deeper understanding of the socio-political history of Northern Ireland while attending school in Belfast, as well as the UK鈥檚 notable legal system and integral role in the production of international law.

Chloe Cleland

乐播传媒/University of Sussex Award

Chloe Cleland, of Medina, OH, graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Psychology, History, and Philosophy, and a minor in Women鈥檚 Studies from Converse University. She was a member of the Converse College for Women and the Nisbet Honors Program.

Chloe has engaged in multiple research projects, including studying the effects of a drug on temporal perception in rats, and implicit and explicit biases in humans. She was awarded a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at the University of Connecticut. Her psychology capstone project studied synesthesia, which led her to the University of Sussex and its MULTISENSE lab.

Chloe鈥檚 passion for Interfaith cooperation led her to co-found and co-lead the Converse Interfaith Club, with the goal to create a space for students from minority religions to feel heard and supported, and to focus on community education and connection. Chloe was a four year member of the Acrobatics and Tumbling team at Converse, earning her school, conference, and national recognition, including Academic All-American.

While at the University of Sussex, Chloe will be earning her MSc in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience from the University of Sussex, while conducting research with the MULTISENSE lab on synesthesia.

Maria Angelica Cornejo

乐播传媒/Queen's University Belfast Award in Global Security and Borders

Maria Angelica Cornejo grew up in the border towns of Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora, along the United States-Mexico border. Maria鈥檚 familiarity with the constant changes of the border landscape, led her to become interested in exploring how different border communities navigate their lived realities and challenge dominant security narratives by preserving their history.

During her freshman year, Maria was selected for the 乐播传媒 UK Summer Institutes Programme, where she explored how Northern Ireland has preserved its history through murals. This experience deepened her interest in incorporating art into her border research, leading her to apply for, and receive, the Killam Fellowship to study at the University of Toronto. There, she investigated how participatory art, workshops, art-based interventions, and visual ethnographies can be used to engage communities and reclaim narratives.

While studying at Arizona State University, Maria began volunteering at a migrant shelter in Agua Prieta, where she witnessed firsthand the impact of border policies on migrants. Her time there deepened her research interest in using art-based methods to create a collaborative space where migrants can share their stories and engage in analyzing the border experience.

Maria will pursue a Master鈥檚 in Global Security and Border Studies at Queen鈥檚 University Belfast, where she plans to explore the intersection of art, migration, and border policy. She intends to build on this research by pursuing a PhD in Migration Studies. Ultimately, her goal is to develop more inclusive migration frameworks by working with organizations such as the International Organization for Migration.

Conor Dailey

乐播传媒/Lancaster University Award in Faculty of Science and Technology

Conor Dailey is from Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. In 2025, he graduated with a MS in Geology and Natural Resources and a Masters in Public Administration from Ball State University. During his thesis research, Conor examined reforestation and carbon sequestration in Nepal鈥檚 Sagarmatha National Park (SNP) and completed three weeks of field study including physical site assessments and key informant interviews with local stakeholders throughout the SNP. As an undergraduate, Conor delivered his Senior Honors Recital exploring a story of loss and a yearning for wholeness through the traditional folk songs from the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Through the 乐播传媒 grant, Conor will complete the MSc in Environmental Management at Lancaster University, and hopes to examine changes in carbon sequestration in land remediated through reforestation efforts along with an examination of policies regulating urban forests in the United Kingdom compared to the United States. Additionally, Conor hopes to engage within the storied British brass band tradition and continue to explore the traditional music of the United Kingdom, while also engaging with local conservation efforts.

Sammy Deol

乐播传媒/University of Birmingham Award

Originally from Ithaca, New York, Sammy Deol graduated from the Rochester Institute of Technology with his B.S. in Biomedical Sciences and a minor in chemistry.

Through 乐播传媒, Sammy is pursuing his Master of Public Health at the University of Birmingham. He plans to write his dissertation on the prevalence of substance use disorders among Sikh populations in England鈥檚 West Midlands. His interest stems from addiction research that he pursued as an undergraduate, when he investigated the effects of parental addiction on youth behavioral development. Sammy also wishes to explore how accessible interventions can be implemented in communities where discussions about substance use disorders and mental health are stigmatized.

Outside of his addiction research, Sammy is passionate about neuroscience. He has conducted medulloblastoma and spinal cord injury research in labs at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Rochester, respectively. While in college, he was also a writer and editor for RIT鈥檚 student magazine, Reporter, and a senator in Student Government. His favorite pastime is playing basketball.

Following his year in Birmingham, Sammy hopes to attend medical school and become a physician.

AKeera Ford

乐播传媒/University of Leicester Award

A native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, AKeera Ford recently earned a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in criminology and a B.A. in Black Studies, from Kennesaw State University. A long-standing interest in the criminal justice system guided her to an internship with her county鈥檚 District Attorney鈥檚 Office, which helped her gain clarity on a meaning professional pathway in victim advocacy. There, she supported victims of crime and saw the critical need for systems that center healing, support, and long-term recovery.

With the 乐播传媒, she is now pursuing a Master of Science in Crime, Justice, and Psychology to explore restorative justice principles and develop strategies that reduce recidivism and promote equitable outcomes. While in the UK, she hopes to deepen her understanding of coercive control, human trafficking, and the unique challenges faced by women and marginalized communities as victims of crime. Her long-term goal is to work in federal policy, contributing to the design of national frameworks that prioritize rehabilitation, victim advocacy, and trauma-informed reform across the justice system.

Outside of her professional and academic pursuits, she enjoys reading, singing, music, and exploring new experiences that bring joy and connection to everyday life.

Jake Gehrung

乐播传媒/University of Strathclyde Award

Jake Gehrung is an energy engineer from Walpole, New Hampshire, and holds a BS in Environmental Science from the University of New Hampshire. He works in Concord at Resilient Buildings Group, supporting municipalities, nonprofits, and institutions across New England in reducing energy use and carbon emissions in their buildings. With a background in environmental research and growing expertise in building science, Jake aims to become a research scientist and professor in sustainable energy systems.

As a 乐播传媒 Scholar, Jake will pursue an MSc in Sustainable Engineering: Renewable Energy Systems and the Environment at the University of Strathclyde. His research will focus on optimizing microgrid design for underserved communities by developing machine-learning-based methods to simulate energy use in regions with limited data. He hopes to create open-source tools that support rural energy system planning and promote energy access.

With experience mentoring students and serving on professional training boards, Jake looks forward to working with organizations like Strathclyde鈥檚 Engineering Without Borders UK chapter to share knowledge and exchange international perspectives on energy systems. He is also excited to immerse himself in Scotland鈥檚 outdoor culture through the Surf and Mountaineering Club, building meaningful connections while appreciating the region鈥檚 beautiful landscapes.

Grace Gibbs

乐播传媒/Northumbria University Award in Art & Design

Originally from Annapolis, Maryland, Grace graduated from Juniata College with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in studio art and environmental science. Growing up on the Chesapeake Bay, she developed a love for ecology and the arts, leading her to pursue both fields throughout her education.

Grace鈥檚 combined undergraduate studies allowed her to engage in a wide array of environmental research and artistic projects, with a particular focus on feminine experiences. She developed a deep interest in studying the relationship between gender, the environment, and traditional art during a semester abroad at the University of Leeds. 

At Northumbria University, Grace is excited to continue to pursue her interdisciplinary passions. Her master鈥檚 work will examine the evolving art of Arthurian Legend through an ecofeminist lens and explore how these depictions can be applied to analyze modern environmental and gender struggles in North East England. To complement this research, Grace will also create a series of mixed media paintings inspired by Pre-Raphaelite aesthetics and techniques.

Outside of her studies, Grace enjoys hiking, running, and longboarding, and is eager to explore the northern English countryside and coast. She also looks forward to volunteering for Northumberland National Park and joining a local climbing gym.

Arjun Govind

乐播传媒/University College London Entrepreneurship Award

Arjun Govind is a graduate of Pomona College in California, where he majored in Computer Science and minored in Philosophy. Originally from New York City, Arjun鈥檚 academic and professional interests lie at the intersection of artificial intelligence, ethics, and entrepreneurship. He has led projects that apply machine learning to social challenges, including addressing food waste at his college and launching a tool called  to make college more affordable.

As a 乐播传媒 Scholar at University College London, Arjun will pursue an MSc in Entrepreneurship at the UCL School of Management. His focus will be on exploring how to build sustainable entrepreneurial ventures that are socially impactful. He looks forward to immersing himself in London鈥檚 vibrant startup ecosystem, film and theatre scene, and soccer community, while also reconnecting with his family鈥檚 roots in the UK.

During his time in the UK, Arjun hopes to build relationships across disciplines and communities, developing a global perspective on innovation. He aims to return to the U.S. equipped with the skills, knowledge, and networks to launch ventures that prioritize social impact.

Darby Hanes

乐播传媒/Durham University Award

Darby Hanes grew up in southern Texas and earned a dual degree in Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering from Texas Tech University at the age of nineteen. She will continue her studies at Durham University, where she鈥檒l pursue an MSc in Bioengineering. Darby first discovered bioengineering during her freshman year and quickly realized it was the perfect intersection of her love for engineering and her desire to help people. Her research at Durham will focus on improving the performance of cardiac assist devices, which currently face high failure rates within just a few years.

At Texas Tech, Darby served in multiple student organizations. As President of the Society of Physics Students and Avionics Director for the Raider Aerospace Society, she led hands-on workshops, mentored new STEM majors, and fostered a welcoming, inclusive community. In her free time, she is currently developing a dual-stage sounding rocket and beginning to explore remotely operated vehicle (ROV) technology. She is also learning violin and enjoys finding new ways to fill her sketchbooks.
Darby looks forward to exploring museums and rural landscapes across the UK. She鈥檚 especially excited to study at a Russell Group university and immerse herself in the UK鈥檚 academic and cultural life.

Annabelle Harris

乐播传媒/University of St. Andrews Award in Arts & Humanities

Annabelle graduated from Tulane University magna cum laude in Spring of 2024 with a BA in Classical Studies and Latin and a BS in Mathematics. As an undergrad, she studied various languages: Latin, Greek, Italian, Kaqchikel, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Etruscan, and Mayan Hieroglyphics. Tulane granted her the Judah Touro Medal for outstanding excellence in ancient languages. She also spent her summers in college excavating at archaeological sites in Pompeii and Mongolia. After graduating, she joined the professional world of archaeology as a field technician and lithic analyst on a Native American site in Virginia.

Annabelle will pursue a Master of Letters in Classical Studies at St. Andrews, where she will research Greek perceptions of bilingual people before and after the rise of Rome. She intends to integrate literature, archaeology, and linguistics to understand the difference between perception and reality for bilingual Greeks. In Scotland, she hopes to draw comparisons between modern language death and ancient linguistic discrimination through ethnographic research.

Annabelle will also engage with Scotland through her passions for archaeology, glassblowing, language, and dance. She intends to volunteer to conserve and restore archaeological sites along the Scottish coast, travel to Edinburgh to learn from glass masters following a centuries-old tradition, and take Scottish Gaelic language and Country Dance classes.

Jazmine Harris

乐播传媒/University College London Award

Jazmine Harris is a visual artist from Chicago's South Side who has worked for the Obama Foundation on the Museum Collections team, supporting the building of the Obama Presidential Center Museum over the last four years. A graduate of the University of Chicago's MFA program in Visual Arts and Florida A&M University's School of Business & Industry, Jazmine's artistic practice explores the intersection of language, place, and community through photography, video, and text.

As a 乐播传媒 Scholar, she will pursue an MRes in Anthropology at University College London, investigating Material and Visual Culture studies and Social and Cultural ethnography to trace the uses of Black British English in London as it intersects with class and identity formations under late-stage capitalism. Working with research advisor, Dr. Haidy Geismar, Jazmine hopes to contribute to the Memory Workshop at UCL Urban Room.

She also looks forward to engaging with London's art scene, connecting with local Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority members, and creating discussion-based art that explores local photo archives with everyday Londoners. When not making art or engaging in anthropology research, Jazmine hopes to run with a local run club and squeeze in a couple of yoga classes.

Rebecca Heintzelman

乐播传媒/University of East Anglia Award

Originally from Durham, North Carolina, Rebecca Heintzelman graduated from Bucknell University in 2024 with a B.A. in English - Creative Writing, French and Francophone Studies, and Psychology. She will be continuing her academic career at the University of East Anglia, working towards an M.A. in Creative Writing - Poetry.

Rebecca鈥檚 lifelong interest in poetry, specifically documentary poetry, was cemented during her time as an undergraduate at Bucknell. Among her classes in creative nonfiction and novel-writing, her work in poetry workshops centered on a documentary poetry project about Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. The chapbook which resulted from this work centered on themes such as parenthood, imperialism, and masculinity.

At UEA, she plans to write documentary poetry about the Strangers of Norwich. Her goal is to highlight the experiences of individual Strangers who contributed to the cultural, social, and literary development of Norwich but whose stories have otherwise been lost to history. She expects themes of her work to focus on the cultural enrichment that immigration fosters, with a particular interest in the contributions of women and children. Rebecca looks forward to researching the Strangers in local archives and exploring the hiking trails in and around Norwich.

Abigail Hong

乐播传媒/Ulster University Award

Abby graduated summa cum laude from Temple University with a B.S. in Public Health in 2023. During her undergraduate studies, she developed a passion for connecting people to community resources and using the power of relationship-building to improve wellness. She spent her time as a peer educator for the university鈥檚 Wellness Resource Center, a peer mentor for incoming students, and an intern at the City of Philadelphia鈥檚 Office of Homeless Services.

She also served as a leader for Temple鈥檚 Service Immersion Program, where she collaborated with local organizations to teach fellow students about activism in Philadelphia and help them become active participants in their communities. Since graduating, she has worked to reduce health inequities and medical mistrust in minority communities by connecting patients in primary care clinics to community health workers.

While at Ulster University, she will examine the impact conflict has on a country鈥檚 healthcare system and investigate the role of community-based programming in the reconciliation process and prevention of conflict. In her future work, she plans to promote peace and reduce harm through public health programs and policies. She鈥檚 excited to spend her free time volunteering at local art organizations, finding new cafes to read in, and going on runs throughout the city.

Thinzar Htwe

乐播传媒/University of Reading Award in Food Security

Thinzar graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Science, Technology, and Society (STS). Her research experience began in high school at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine studying cell mechanics and the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute understanding animal models for cardiothoracic research. Additionally, at the Stanford Surgeons Writing About Trauma (SWAT) Group, she published papers on pediatric and trauma medicine, and science literature.

She also studied abroad at the University of Oxford Magdalen College, completing a tutorial in Medical Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology. At the University of Reading, Thinzar will pursue an MSc in Nutrition and Food Science. Interest in food reformulation research of staples like bread and cured meat was sparked during her experience at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and University of Maryland Shock Trauma noticing a trend in marginalized patients being inflicted with diet-induced yet preventable illnesses. Her global travels indicated that nutrition disparities are a worldwide issue. At Reading, Thinzar will participate in the Food SEqual project and Fresh Street Initiative, combining research, community service, and local immersion.

Thinzar鈥檚 hobbies include collecting vintage Reader鈥檚 Digests, cooking, traveling, and fragrance collecting. She鈥檚 particularly interested in the art scene: Art Basel, the Smithsonian, the Architectural Biennale, and Technicolor films.

Mary Cate Hyde

乐播传媒/University of Kent Award

Mary Cate Hyde graduated cum laude with a BA in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University in 2023. She has conducted ecological field research across three continents, on projects ranging from monitoring a giant tortoise reintroduction to assessing the impacts of wildfire on large mammal habitat use. For the past year, she has worked at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C., where she has been involved in research using next-generation sequencing of ancient DNA to understand past population dynamics of wildlife in the face of disease and environmental change.

At the University of Kent, Mary Cate will be pursuing a Masters in Conservation Science and plans to study methods for tracking the wildlife trade, one of the most widespread threats to biodiversity. She looks forward to engaging with conservation practitioners from around the world and developing a better understanding of integrating the social and natural sciences for ethical and effective wildlife conservation.

In her free time, Mary Cate enjoys singing, hiking, cooking, and participating in science outreach, whether through volunteering at community events or writing articles for online publications. She looks forward to getting involved in local conservation organizations in Canterbury and exploring all the natural spaces the UK has to offer.

Haanya Ijaz

乐播传媒/University of Edinburgh Award

Haanya Ijaz is a graduating senior at The Ohio State University, majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in History. Her academic path is at the intersection of science and the humanities. At OSU, Haanya conducted research under Dr. Ruth Barrientos, a behavioral neuroscientist studying the role of neuroinflammation in age-related cognitive impairments. In the realm of public health, she also contributed to the Columbus Muslim Mental Health Project with Dr. Hyder, focusing on faith-based approaches to mental wellness Beyond the lab, Haanya served as President of the Muslim Students Association, leading a 5,000+ member community in faith-based advocacy, service, and leadership.

She co-founded Nasiha, an initiative focused on Muslim mental health education and outreach, and interned at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with Dr. Bushra Sabri, supporting research on intimate partner violence and trauma-informed care. In the community, her service includes work with CRIS-Ohio working with an Afghan family as a translator and community connector, a weekly volunteer at My Family Pantry, and the Noor Community Clinic.

Inspired by medical humanities, she is drawn to the stories patients carry, the moral and emotional demands of caregiving, and the complex human terrain that lies beyond a diagnosis. Through the 乐播传媒 UK Award in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Haanya seeks to explore the historical and contemporary intersections of Islamic thought, community health, and cultural resilience. She aims to bridge her scientific background with a deeper understanding of the cultural frameworks that shape Muslim experiences of wellness and care.

Robert Lang II

乐播传媒/Loughborough University PhD Award

Robert Lang, a native Californian, has been a lifelong storyteller. As a second generation immigrant, he learned first-hand the importance of using stories to communicate across cultural divides which would fuel his interest in mental health. After receiving a BSc in Psychology, his experiences and time in the field of mental healthcare informed his decision to return to storytelling as a means to help the communities he worked with.

Since 2022, he attended San Diego State University to receive an MFA in Creative Writing, with an emphasis on using art to combat stigma and generate empathy. With the 乐播传媒 PhD Award, Robert will be going to Loughborough University to research through their School of Design and Creative Arts' 'Storytelling Academy'. He intends to create programs that pairs artists with under-represented, misunderstood populations, such as the neurodivergent, to help them tell their stories and directly combat stigma.

When he's not studying or creating, Robert promotes the arts as a social good and brings artists out to their community. Be it eco-poetry workshops for children, staging plays in the park, or elaborate student art showcases, He strives to be an agent of creative placemaking and can't wait to bring that to Loughborough.

Ramsden Madeus

乐播传媒/John Wood LAMDA Award in Classical Acting

Born in Trenton, NJ, to Haitian immigrant parents, Ramsden Madeus was raised with a deep respect for perseverance and purpose. A passionate multi-sport athlete with a creative spirit, he first discovered his love for storytelling during a 48-hour film festival sponsored by AT&T, where his team won first place; an experience that redirected his path toward the performing arts.

After six years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps, he studied in New York City with the Atlantic Theater Company, where a workshop with LAMDA鈥檚 Rodney Cottier ignited his fascination with classical theater. This led him to pursue the 乐播传媒/John Wood Award to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, aiming to bridge classical texts with contemporary voices and deepen his craft as an actor and storyteller.
Following his time at Atlantic, Madeus starred in the short film "Eden River"鈥攁 prequel to the upcoming film adaptation of Peter Matthiessen鈥檚 acclaimed novel "Far Tortuga"鈥攚hich premiered at major festivals including Cannes and Berlin.

He is also the founder of Arkhouse Films, an independent production company dedicated to crafting thought-provoking stories that explore the full spectrum of the human experience through the themes of love, identity, heritage, and social/environmental justice. Through Arkhouse and the 乐播传媒 experience, Madeus is committed to using storytelling as a transformative force to inspire dialogue, amplify underrepresented voices, and build cultural bridges through the arts.

Cristina Mariné

乐播传媒/University of Exeter Award

Cristina Marin茅 is a 乐播传媒 scholar at the University of Exeter who will be working towards a Master's in Creative Industries. She is originally from Venezuela but has lived most of her life in South Florida. She attended Elon University, where she received degrees in Cinema & TV Arts and Strategic Communications. Cristina is passionate about uplifting unheard voices through filmmaking and digital content. 

During her 乐播传媒 year, she hopes to learn more about the UK's public service media industry, complete an internship with a creative agency, and engage with the community by participating in the Two Short Nights Film Festival's 48-hour film challenge. Additionally, she is also curious to learn more about the Venezuelan community present in the UK, and she plans on exploring this by becoming a member of InterNations and connecting with other Venezuelans in the area. Cristina is extremely excited to spend the next year across the pond and looks forward to meeting new people and places!

Madison McKnight

乐播传媒/University of Glasgow Award

Madison recently graduated with a B.A. in International Studies and History from the College of Charleston. Her passion for Scottish history deepened during her undergraduate studies, where she pursued independent research and spent an exchange year at the University of Stirling, culminating in her Bachelor鈥檚 Essay titled The Scottish Perspective: Popular Protest during the Anglo-Scottish Union, 1603鈥�1707. While in Stirling, Scotland transformed from a subject of academic interest into a lived experience and second home, deepening Madison鈥檚 passion for the country and its culture.

As a 乐播传媒 grantee, Madison will pursue a master鈥檚 in Scottish History at the University of Glasgow. Her research will explore the aftermath of the 1707 Anglo-Scottish Union and its influence on Scotland鈥檚 colonial ventures in the Caribbean and North America, particularly in her home region of the Carolinas. She aims to examine how political and economic developments fueled transatlantic trade and entrenched systems of slavery and expropriation. During her time in Scotland, Madison looks forward to working with expert faculty, volunteering in local museums, and exploring Scotland鈥檚 landscapes. She hopes her time in Glasgow will deepen her understanding of the legacy of colonialism and reparative justice, informing her future work in academia.

Kierra Morris

乐播传媒/King's College London Award

Kierra graduated with an MSc in Health Psychology from University College London in 2022 shortly after completing her undergraduate degrees at the University of Texas at Austin (UT). She has since worked at UT Dell Medical School coordinating research studies investigating memory consolidation in men and women with PTSD.

Kierra has a passion for trauma research and aims to investigate the links between psychiatric disorders and physical disease. She hopes to use her research to showcase the detrimental impact sexual and physical violence can have on an individual鈥檚 mental and physical health. In turn, she seeks to advocate for improved health policy measures for survivors of interpersonal violence.

With this 乐播传媒 award, Kierra will earn her PhD in Psychological Medicine at KCL and investigate the relationship between depression, trauma exposure, and subsequent cancer risk. Further, she will study how UK cultural and social measures impact chronic disease risk in individuals with mental health disorders.

Kierra loves the outdoors and looks forward to hiking the British countryside. While in London, she is eager to join policy discussion groups and contribute to research dissemination efforts such as publishing with 鈥淚nspire the Mind鈥�, an online magazine partnered with the Psychiatry Research Trust.

Ethan Muckerheide

乐播传媒/University of Stirling Award in Health, Well-being and Sport

Ethan Muckerheide, of Dayton, Ohio, graduated with a BS in Psychology from High Point University in North Carolina. Growing up around sport, Ethan found his greatest interest to be the mental aspect of athletics. He remains passionate about helping athletes perform and live their best.

While at High Point, Ethan participated in the Honors Scholar Program and was active in undergraduate research in the areas of clinical and cognitive psychology. He helped write a published book chapter on self-criticism's relation to anger, aggression, and violence, won a state-wide grant for a project investigating nonsuicidal self-injury, and presented at numerous national conferences. After graduating, he has also gained valuable applied experience working as a mental health technician in an inpatient psychiatric setting.

While at Stirling, Ethan will pursue an MSc in Psychology of Sport and hopes to conduct research to investigate how athletes in both the UK and the US can be better supported as they transition to higher levels of play in their careers.

Erin Mulvey

乐播传媒/University of Southampton Award

Erin recently graduated from Villanova University with a B.S. in Biochemistry and minors in Disability Studies and Medical Ethics. Growing up alongside a brother with multiple food allergies and autoimmune conditions who underwent a decade of oral immunotherapy, Erin knew from a young age the importance of translational research for developing treatments of long-term conditions. As an undergraduate, Erin researched ubiquitin-proteasome system shuttle proteins associated with neurodegenerative disease.

Erin recognized the power of international collaboration when she presented at the 2024 Protein Society Annual Symposium in Vancouver, Canada, as a Flash Talk Speaker and Poster Presenter, for which she won an Undergraduate Poster Award. As a 乐播传媒er, Erin will pursue an MRes in Advanced Biological Sciences and conduct research in Dr. Emily Gwyer Findlay鈥檚 lab. Her project will analyze how immune cells interact in individuals with autoimmune conditions like MS and IBD. Erin hopes to further the understanding of autoimmune conditions to improve treatment worldwide.

Erin also served as the Human Resources Director for Fall Festival at Villanova, the largest student-run Special Olympics event in the world. Erin is excited to partner with disability advocacy organizations in the UK, like Portsmouth Down Syndrome Association and Special Olympics Great Britain.

Gabriel Paynter

乐播传媒/University of York Award

Gabriel graduated with a BS in Physics and Astrophysics with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Cincinnati. Gabriel developed his interests in plasma physics and fusion energy while interning at General Atomics in San Diego, where he worked on metrology for inertial confinement fusion targets.

Gabriel has since worked on experimental condensed matter physics at the University of Cincinnati. He worked on materials with interesting electrical properties when subjected to large magnetic fields. Gabriel鈥檚 primary academic interest is in plasmas and fusion energy, specifically magnetic confinement fusion devices. Gabriel will pursue the MSc in Fusion Energy at the University of York where he will develop his knowledge of plasmas and fusion energy and complete a research project at a leading institution in the field. The 乐播传媒 will allow Gabriel to develop his research interests and skills while developing connections with the international fusion community.

Outside of academics, Gabriel has volunteered with different groups focusing on access to historical and scientific records and community scientific outreach, and he looks forward to further work on scientific outreach in York. Gabriel also plays the alto saxophone and looks forward to performing in a group and exploring music in the UK.

Rory Quist

Open Study/Research Award

Rory Quist earned his BA in Theatre with a minor in Musical Theatre from Eastern Michigan University. He discovered a passion for Shakespeare during an intensive year-long course at EMU, which led to his casting as the title role in Richard III. The production, staged virtually for at-home audiences during the pandemic, became a pivotal experience鈥攄emonstrating not only the resilience of live theatre, but also the untapped potential of digital platforms to share classical works with wider audiences.

As a 乐播传媒er, Rory will pursue an MFA in Acting at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in Birmingham, where he will train in the British technique, study Shakespeare with renowned professionals, and explore how classical performance can be reimagined for digital stages in both the UK and the US.

When not on stage, Rory enjoys reading science fiction, running, and engaging in thoughtful conversations about philosophy and current events. Over the past few years, he has worked as a substitute teacher and takes pride in his ability to make learning enjoyable鈥攗sing roleplay, storytelling, and improv to connect with students and foster curiosity in the classroom.

Jennifer Rivas

乐播传媒/University of Sheffield Award

Jennifer is a healthcare professional with over eight years of experience spanning healthcare analytics, operations, and public health. She holds a Master of Public Health in Healthcare Management from Emory University and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Georgia. As a first-generation Salvadoran American, Jennifer is committed to advancing health equity by integrating diverse perspectives into evidence-based decision-making.

Her work has focused on using data to better understand healthcare costs, improve care delivery, and promote patient access. She previously supported clinical operations and research finance at an academic medical center, gaining insight into the challenges of both frontline care and broader health system management. These experiences motivated her to pursue health economics as a tool to analyze complex healthcare challenges and develop practical solutions that advance equity and access.

At the University of Sheffield, Jennifer will pursue an MSc in Health Economics and Decision Modelling. Her research will focus on evaluating the cost-effectiveness of cancer prevention interventions and exploring how Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is applied within the NHS. She looks forward to connecting with peers, staying active through community Pilates classes, and exploring the natural beauty of the Peak District National Park.

Abe Rubin

乐播传媒/University of Warwick Award

Abe graduated from Northwestern University in June 2025 with a BA in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences (MMSS) and Economics and a minor in Political Science. Abe鈥檚 interest in political science stemmed from a project in his first year applying spatial modeling to U.S. Supreme Court decision-making. Since this initial experience, Abe has sought to better understand voter knowledge and behavior. In 2023, he received a research grant to study voter perceptions of political ideology. His subsequent honors thesis examined the drivers of moderate ideological identification.
 
Abe will pursue a MA at the University of Warwick in the Department of Politics and International Studies. In his MA dissertation, he plans to investigate the dynamics of political nostalgia in contemporary political behavior and policy. After returning to the US, Abe intends to pursue a PhD in Economics or Political Science, preparing for a career in policy research. Ultimately, he aspires to contribute to policy research aimed at improving voter knowledge, information access, and decision-making.
 
Outside of academics, Abe enjoys hiking, cooking, and playing music. He is looking forward to joining the local music scene in Coventry and exploring the UK鈥檚 natural landscapes.

Anya Shah

Open Study/Research Award

Anya Shah, originally from Whittier, California, is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where she earned a B.S. in Global Health and an M.S. in Narrative Medicine. As a childhood leukemia survivor, Anya brings a deeply personal perspective to her academic and professional focus: improving cancer diagnostics through patient-centered, translational research.

At the University of Manchester, Anya will work under the mentorship of Dr. Dominic Rothwell at Cancer Research UK鈥檚 National Biomarker Centre. Her 乐播传媒 research investigates early lung cancer detection by integrating circulating tumor cell (CTC) and cell-free DNA (cfDNA) analysis through minimally invasive liquid biopsies. Building on her three years of experience at USC鈥檚 Convergent Science Institute in Cancer, Anya will help refine diagnostic models that aim to reduce health disparities and improve timely, accurate care for at-risk populations.

Outside the lab, Anya is eager to contribute to the UK community through her parallel passion for dance. She hopes to collaborate with the Move Dance Feel initiative, exploring dance as a tool for emotional healing, cultural exchange, and patient empowerment. She also hopes to engage youth and community members through science communication efforts, drawing from her work as a cancer advocate and grant reviewer for the U.S. Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program.

Through this 乐播传媒 Award, Anya aims to deepen her understanding of international cancer care models and lay the groundwork for a future as a physician-scientist. Outside the lab, she is excited to cheer for Manchester United and hear Wonderwall in its birthplace鈥攍earning day by day how to thrive somewhere new.

Michaela Shelton

乐播传媒/University of Bristol Award

Michaela Shelton, a native of New York, NY and a graduate of Pomona College, is a community organizer and political strategist whose work lies at the intersection of racial justice, education equity, and civic empowerment.

With a BA in Politics and research experience across South Africa and the United States, Michaela鈥檚 interests center on comparative race studies, Black feminist theory, and social movements. She has led grassroots campaigns and legislative advocacy efforts with organizations such as the ACLU of Georgia, Equity in Education, and Fair Fight Action, mobilizing thousands of voters and policy supporters across the South.

As a 乐播传媒 Awardee, Michaela will pursue an MA in Anthropology at the University of Bristol where she will research the political significance of Black hair and beauty in Afro-Caribbean and West African communities. Her project explores how Black hair salons function as cultural and democratic spaces that shape collective identity, resistance, and belonging.

During her time in the UK, Michaela looks forward to immersing herself in Black British cultural archives, participating in scholarly exchanges on diasporic feminism, and building community with women whose stories reflect shared struggles and aspirations. She hopes her research will bridge transatlantic conversations on race, aesthetics, and liberation, informing future work in academia, cultural policy, and global justice movements.

Sacha Sims

乐播传媒/Royal Veterinary College Award

Sacha Sims is from Atlanta, Georgia, and recently graduated from Baylor University with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Economics. Her academic interests lie at the intersection of infectious disease, health policy, and health system strengthening. As a 乐播传媒 Postgraduate Scholar, she will pursue an MSc in One Health at the Royal Veterinary College in London, a programme that integrates human, animal, and environmental health sciences.

Sacha鈥檚 passion for global health was shaped by her undergraduate thesis on the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, where she analyzed how systemic healthcare infrastructure failures intensified the crisis. She also interned at a clinical-stage biotechnology company, contributing to drug development and clinical operations for rare cancers.

During her 乐播传媒 year, Sacha is eager to explore the intersections of research and policy by attending public health seminars at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and engaging directly with UK and international health policymakers. She looks forward to exchanging ideas with scholars from around the world, exploring London鈥檚 vibrant arts and cultural scene, and participating in community health outreach. She hopes to use this experience to pursue a career in health investment and infrastructure, focused on improving access and resilience in global healthcare systems.

Elana Skeers

乐播传媒/University of Roehampton Award in Music & Dance

Elana Skeers received her Baccalaureate in Arts with College Honors from the University of Washington, majoring in Dance and minoring in Applied Mathematics and Data Science. She has trained, performed, and taught in Southern California, San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, and Salt Lake City, primarily in Western theatrical dance forms including ballet, contemporary, and modern.

She completed additional arts education training through the Seattle Dance Institute for Teachers and the Teaching Artist Training Lab, incorporating Brain-Compatible Dance Education and Universal Design for Learning into her teaching. Elana鈥檚 pedagogy emphasizes student agency, creativity, and community building.

Her research investigates gender disparities and social stereotypes within Western theatrical dance, with a focus on expanding access and challenging traditional norms. Through her integrated work as an educator, artist, and scholar, Elana strives to create inclusive, community-centered dance experiences and is committed to using dance as a platform for empowerment and social change.

During her time at the University of Roehampton as a 乐播传媒 scholar, she aims to deepen her understanding of culturally relevant community dance education by engaging with artists from diverse backgrounds and practices, continuing to develop approaches that amplify underrepresented perspectives within and beyond the dance field.

Rachel Swym

乐播传媒/University of Manchester Award

Rachel Swym graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English and Creative Writing. During her degree, she gained minors in consumer psychology and environmental humanities, creating the interdisciplinary background that would support her 乐播传媒.

As her undergraduate capstone, she created lesson plans that shared science communication techniques with high school students and examined whether this knowledge helped relieve their environmental anxiety. At the University of Manchester, Rachel will be studying Science and Health Communication, with a continued interest in the relationship between emotion and how information and misinformation are received. She aims to explore how emotion from artistic work鈥攑articularly invoking positive emotions鈥攃an create persuasive public science media that dampens misinformation. She is eager to spend her 乐播传媒 studying alongside professionals in a country renowned for its science communicators, examining her area of interest through a transatlantic lens.

A staunch supporter of elective education, Rachel has worked in libraries, museums, and public research, as well as digital security analysis. She is excited to tour Manchester and learn more about its musical, natural, and industrial history. She also hopes to continue her volunteer work in clothing reuse and urban farming.

Sarah Titcombe

乐播传媒/Imperial College London Award

Sarah Titcombe graduated from Occidental College with a BA in biochemistry. At Occidental, she researched metal-centered compounds for their application in flow batteries. During an internship with 乐播传媒 Canada-Mitacs Globalink, she developed a passion for internationally collaborative research and an interest in microbiology. Sarah validated this interest by studying proteins essential for anthrax virulence at the National Institutes of Health, and she now aspires to a career combating resistant infectious diseases as a physician scientist.

This 乐播传媒 award will support Sarah to study bacterial pathogenesis and infection as a Biomedical Research MRes student at Imperial College London. She aims to undertake two projects at Imperial鈥檚 Centre for Bacterial Resistance Biology that explore different angles of resistance, one researching how resistant pathogens interact with their host and the other researching how antibiotics target them.

In addition to her work in the laboratory, Sarah plans to join Imperial鈥檚 Medical Humanities Society and volunteer with Imperial Health Charity. As a former field captain for the rugby team at Occidental, she also hopes to play and watch rugby in London.

Sherece Turner

乐播传媒/Manchester Metropolitan University Award in Creative Writing

Sherece Turner is a proud Baltimore native with an A.B. in English from Brown University. She will pursue an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she plans to work on a novel loosely inspired by her experiences as a former corrections officer. Her writing explores themes of resilience, identity, and the invisible systems that shape everyday lives.

Sherece鈥檚 interests extend beyond the page and include a love of singing, acting, reading, and finding new ways to engage creatively with the world around her. During her 乐播传媒 Award, she looks forward to immersing herself in both the academic and cultural life of the UK. She鈥檚 especially excited to visit literary landmarks like the British Library, Bath, and Stratford-upon-Avon, and to participate in the vibrant local arts scene.

Sherece is eager to experience British pub culture for its role as a communal gathering space where people share stories, debate, laugh, and connect. She hopes to join local writing groups, attend storytelling nights, and maybe even take on a pub quiz or two. Through these experiences, she aims to grow as both a writer and a global citizen.

Jayanth Uppaluri

乐播传媒/University of Leeds Award

Jayanth Uppaluri graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College in 2024 with a B.A in Government (high honors) and Music. His research mainly focuses on public opinion on disability in the United States, an understudied part of the field. His senior honors thesis focused on public opinion of disability policy, and he is also working on papers involving discrimination against disabled politicians and college applicants. Outside the classroom, Jayanth has worked in disability activism in multiple ways: working to revitalize the disability activism club at his college, working at a disability policy think tank in Washington D.C, and interning at the Middlesex County District Attorney鈥檚 Office in the elder and disabled care unit. At the University of Leeds, Jayanth will be pursuing an MSc in Political Science, where he hopes to conduct research on differential public opinion on disability policy between the US and UK and continue the long history of disability studies at the university.

Outside of politics, Jayanth is an avid musician and multi-instrumentalist who hopes to find musicians to gig around the city of Leeds with. He鈥檚 also excited to be in a country with a large South Asian population, and will be traveling around in search of the best dosa in the United Kingdom.

James Waltman

乐播传媒/Trinity Laban Award in Music & Dance

Jimmy Waltman is a composer, songwriter, singer, and guitarist originally from Hopewell, New Jersey. He first encountered music in his elementary school orchestra and choir. He continued singing in choirs through high school, where he also began to study jazz performance and improvisation through private study and his high school's jazz ensembles. He graduated in 2023 from Princeton University with a degree in Music Composition and minors in Jazz Performance and African American Studies. His studies culminated in an album of original music titled "The Blossom," which he wrote, arranged, and recorded in Princeton with a 9 piece band.

After graduating Princeton, he moved to Philadelphia where he has worked as a freelance composer, performer, artist manager, and recording engineer. In Philly, he started an indie rock band called Cicada Killer with three friends, and they play regularly in the city. In the last 6 months, he has also been composing and performing music for a project called "Layers of Obscurity," a collaboration with visual artist and poet Tammy Sands that explores the connection between human health and the health of the environment.

Jimmy's music and lyrics take inspiration from nature and deal with themes of spirituality, self-actualization, and environmental conservation. Coming from a background primarily in jazz and rock music, Jimmy will study orchestration as a Professional Diploma student in the Composition department at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London.

Ellis Walton

乐播传媒/London School of Economics and Political Science Award

Ellis Walton, of Atlanta, Georgia, graduated from Morehouse College with a B.A. in Political Science and earned his J.D. from Howard University School of Law. At both institutions, he was deeply engaged in public service and environmental advocacy, serving in student government, interning for Congressman John Lewis, and founding Howard鈥檚 "Student Green Fund." He also presented research on equitable climate resilience strategies at the International Sustainable Development Research Conference and worked on numerous Environmental Justice matters with the Environmental Law Institute and Howard Law Environmental Justice Center.

Now an environmental attorney in Chicago, Ellis works to expand access to clean energy, protect clean air and water, and advance environmental justice policies. At LSE, he will pursue an MSc in Environmental Policy & Regulation, focusing on equitable governance and sustainable development. He looks forward to learning from global perspectives, exploring the UK鈥檚 green spaces, and volunteering with local sustainability and food justice projects through the Sustainable LSE program and other London initiatives. After 乐播传媒, Ellis plans to continue shaping and implementing policies that advance environmental justice while mentoring the next generation of environmental leaders.

Sophia Westfall

乐播传媒/Cardiff University Award

Sophia R. Westfall graduated with a BA in English and Digital Studies with a minor in writing from Rutgers University-Camden. During her undergraduate career, she pursued interdisciplinary research, combining her interests in environmentalism, ancient history, beekeeping, printmaking, and literature.

Sophia studied the influence materials have on written content and the concept of the aliveness of literature as a way to document history and nature. She has since expanded this research into a series of hands-on workshops and lectures which she has implemented into various academic communities, as well as at her universities鈥� makerspace. Her research aims to redefine the material aspect of literature and the uniqueness of storytelling. This 乐播传媒 will allow Sophia to further explore the intersection of environmentalism and creative writing in a diverse and historically situated ecosystem by teaching, writing, and immersing herself within the rich culture of the surrounding city.

Aside from her research, Sophia voluntarily manages The Secret Society of Poetry, a community of international writers, specifically aimed at celebrating young and emerging writers through the form of publications and poetry readings. She is excited to diversify both her writing community and her research during her time at Cardiff University.

Sunvy Yalamarthy

乐播传媒/University of Nottingham Award

Sunvy Yalamarthy graduated with a BA in Psychology and Political Science from Temple University. His interest in Organizational Behavior developed through years of public service experience, from interning at the White House to serving in the Pennsylvania State House. He most recently served as a Special Assistant at NASA, where he supported the agency鈥檚 leadership and deepened his understanding of how organizational culture impacts public institutions.

At Temple, Sunvy explored the intersection of mental health and public service, studying how stress, motivation, and institutional structure influence the well-being of civil servants. His academic and professional experiences have prepared him to pursue an MSc in Work and Organisational Psychology at the University of Nottingham. During his time at Nottingham, Sunvy will research how leadership and workplace design can improve employee resilience and performance, particularly in government settings.

Outside of school and work, Sunvy is an avid pickleball and tennis player and a volunteer coach at the DC Jail, where he teaches pickleball to residents. While at Nottingham, he is excited to volunteer in the community while also learning how to play badminton and padel.

Christy Avery

乐播传媒-University of Leeds Distinguished Scholar Award

Christy Avery is a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Christy is an identical twin and has always been interested in genetics. Being a global leader in genetic medicine, the UK is the ideal place for Christy to pursue this research interest.

As a 乐播传媒 Scholar, Christy will study polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and giant cell arthritis (GCA), two debilitating immune-mediated inflammatory disease with major unmet clinical needs. She will examine whether genetic data can help identify PMR and GCA patients at highest risk of glucocorticoid-induced cardiovascular disease. If Christy and her University of Leeds partners can identify high risk patient subgroups, these patients can be prioritized for alternative therapies that may be cardioprotective but are rarely used in the UK or US due to their cost.

Christy鈥檚 husband, Justin, and their two daughters, Bryn and Logan, will join her in this adventure. They are excited to explore Yorkshire and beyond, enjoy great local music, and squeeze in a tennis match or two on the UK鈥檚 fabled grass courts.

Jacob Boswell

Scotland Distinguished Scholar at the University of Edinburgh, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Jake Boswell is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at The Ohio State University. His work centers on the entanglement of cultural, technological, and natural systems in the production of designed and vernacular landscapes, with a focus on climate modification, climate change, and energy. Jake pursues this work through a hybrid practice centered on historical inquiry and design speculation. His writing has been published globally and his design works have received recognition in numerous international design competitions.

Jake鈥檚 乐播传媒 project will investigate and document the wide variety of community-based distributed energy resource (DER) projects that have been built in Scotland since the creation of the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) Act in 2010. While in Scotland he will document a cross section of these energy projects to better understand the forms they have taken and decision making around their design. Currently, we know very little about the physical form these projects take, or how that form can be understood in relation to their specific social and environmental context. Jake seeks to produce a series of case studies on exemplary models that situate the functional and economic aspects of each project within its discrete social and environmental context.

This award is sponsored by the US-UK 乐播传媒.

Victoria Bradbury

Glasgow School of Art Distinguished Scholar Award

Dr. Victoria Bradbury specializes in interactive and immersive media storytelling. Associate Professor and Chair of New Media at UNC Asheville, she received an Epic MegaGrant in 2020 and an NEH Connections grant in 2022 to increase digital humanities capacity at UNC Asheville. With Dr. Suzy O鈥橦ara, she co-edited Art Hack Practice: Critical Intersections of Art, Innovation and the Maker Movement, which examines case studies of co-creation events.

She co-taught The Glass Electric: Glassblowing, Electroforming, Interactive Electronics at Pilchuck Glass School in 2019. Her artworks have been shown in exhibitions worldwide including at IEEE-GEM, xCoAx, the {Re}Happening, Harvestworks, The Albright Knox, Future Bodies, and The New Britain Museum of American Art. Victoria holds a PhD with CRUMB at the University of Sunderland and an MFA from Alfred University.

This award is sponsored by the US-UK 乐播传媒.

Stephanie Carey

Cardiff University Scholar Award

Stephanie Carey is an Associate Research Professor at the University of South Florida in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Medical Engineering. As Research Coordinator of USF鈥檚 Center for Assistive, Rehabilitation & Robotics Technologies (CARRT), she leads multi-disciplinary projects integrating research, education and service to enhance the quality of life of individuals with functional limitations.

As a Scholar at Cardiff University, Stephanie will collaborate with the School of Engineering and the School of Healthcare Sciences to advance human performance technologies including tools and systems designed to enhance, measure, and optimize physical and cognitive capabilities in real-world environments. Collaborating with researchers in biomechanics and sensorimotor science she will explore low-cost, wearable solutions for tracking movement and performance in contexts ranging from rehabilitation and sports to the military and spaceflight. Stephanie will also lecture in biomechanics and mentor student design teams, integrating research and teaching to prepare the next generation of globally engaged engineers.

This award is sponsored by the US-UK 乐播传媒.

Juliet Carlisle

University of Exeter Scholar Award

Juliet Carlisle (PhD, UC Santa Barbara) holds a joint appointment as Professor in the Department of Political Science and the School for Environment, Society & Sustainability at the University of Utah. Her research explores the intersection of political behavior, public opinion, and environmental policy, with a particular focus on how emotions and generational dynamics shape public engagement on climate issues. She is co-author of The Politics of Energy Crises (Oxford University Press, 2017) and is currently working on a co-authored book analyzing two decades of longitudinal data on environmental attitudes in the United States. This project focuses on the nature of generational differences in environmental attitudes.

As a 2025鈥�26 scholar at the University of Exeter, Dr. Carlisle joins a vibrant community of climate researchers. Her research at Exeter examines how climate-related emotions鈥攑articularly anxiety and hope鈥攕hape collective action across generations in the UK.

A recipient of the Francis D. Wormuth Esteemed Scholar Award, Dr. Carlisle serves on the editorial board of Political Behavior and co-founded the Environmental Politics Virtual Group. Dr. Carlisle鈥檚 work has appeared in Political Psychology, Environmental Politics, Energy Research & Social Science, and PLOS Medicine. She is a dedicated mentor to first-generation and women scholars in environmental leadership.

This award is sponsored by the US-UK 乐播传媒.

Lucy Dunne

Loughborough University Scholar Award

Lucy Dunne is a Professor of Apparel Design at the University of Minnesota, where she founded and co-directs the Wearable Technology Lab. Her research addresses the future of what we wear: what it can do, how we will make it, and what impacts it has on the world around us. Clothes keep us comfortable, connected, and capable, and emerging technologies add new capacities and strengthen existing functions.

At Loughborough University, Lucy will collaborate with the Environmental Ergonomics Research Centre to understand how on-body heating can mediate indoor thermal comfort and help us reduce energy waste in climate control. She'll also be working on a book about the ways in which clothing can protect us from the ever-increasing hazards of our current world.

This award is sponsored by the US-UK 乐播传媒.

Pablo Garcia

乐播传媒-University of Dundee Scholar Award (Art and Design)

Pablo Garcia is a Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where his research-based creative practice explores and reframes historical artistic processes for a 21st-century audience. His work examines the intersection of forgotten analog methods and cutting-edge digital technologies, paying homage to centuries of human-machine collaboration in art and design. Through a multidisciplinary approach, he investigates art-and-technology relationships across site-specific installations, machine-assisted drawings, kinetic sculptures, optical illusions, speculative architectures, and original scholarship.

While at the University of Dundee, Prof. Garcia will be working on his ongoing research project, 鈥淎n Interactive Guide to Drawing Machines from the Renaissance to Artificial Intelligence.鈥� Humans have used machines to draw for over 600 years. Sophisticated digital imaging technologies have all but erased centuries of analog artistic and scientific invention from public consciousness. What does it mean to put pencil to paper in an age of artificially intelligent imaging platforms? Prof. Garcia will ask students, teachers, and public audiences to use his physical reconstructions of historical drawing machines to explore how forgotten art-technology collaborations might influence the future of creativity.

Kaitlin Holt

British Library Eccles Institute Scholar Award in Library and Information Studies

Kaitlin Holt is the Associate Director of New York Public Library鈥檚 Center for Educators & Schools. Prior to joining NYPL, Kaitlin served as an educator and leader in esteemed NYC cultural institutions, including Brooklyn Public Library's Center for Brooklyn History where she grew the impact and reach of its archives education programs. Kaitlin鈥檚 expertise shines through her numerous publications and presentations on best practices for teaching with primary sources.

Her work has been recognized with awards from the Society of American Archivists and Archivist Roundtable of Metropolitan New York. She co-authored What Primary Sources Teach: Lessons for Every Classroom (Bloomsbury, 2022).

This award is sponsored by the US-UK 乐播传媒.

Shawn Hutchinson

乐播传媒-University of Nottingham Scholar Award (All Disciplines)

Shawn Hutchinson is a professor of geography at Kansas State University, where he also serves as director of the Geographic Information Systems Spatial Analysis Laboratory and founding co-director of the Institute for Digital Agriculture and Advanced Analytics (ID3A).

His career has been driven by a passion for leveraging geospatial technologies to deepen our understanding of human-environment interactions and to enhance decision-making in areas such as sustainable ecosystem management, water resources, and food security.

As a scholar at the University of Nottingham, Shawn will focus on exploring data, methodologies, and workflows aimed at improving ecosystem service assessments, particularly carbon sequestration in grassland environments. His goals during this experience include contributing to impactful interdisciplinary research, fostering long-term institutional partnerships that advance the fields of geography and digital agriculture, and engaging with students in the classroom.

Beyond his academic work, Shawn enjoys fly-fishing, sports, and travel. He looks forward to connecting with new colleagues, discovering the UK鈥檚 rich and varied physical landscapes, enjoying traditional cuisine and the vibrant pub culture, and attending both Premier League and local football matches.

Jessica Martell

乐播传媒-Queen's University Belfast Scholar Award (Irish Literature)

Northern Ireland and the U.S. South share complicated and contested agricultural histories. Who owns and works the land, and who gets to enjoy and profit from the food it yields? In this project, Dr. Jessica Martell explores what historical plantations in Ulster and the South can teach us about how societies are segregated by global systems, how plantations still structure our habits of perceiving the world, and how we can overcome divisive thinking through intercultural exchange.

Martell is Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Appalachian State University. She is the author of Farm to Form: Modernist Literature and Ecologies of Food in the British Empire (2020) and the co-editor of Modernism and Food Studies: Politics, Aesthetics, and the Avant Garde (2019). Her essays on literature, food, and the environment have appeared in many scholarly books and journals like Modernist Cultures and Gastronomica.

Martell lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina with some chickens, a huge garden, and her dog Turnip.

Ryan Martin

乐播传媒-University of Birmingham Scholar Award (All Disciplines)

Ryan Martin graduated with a PhD in Mathematics from Rutgers University but began studying extremal graph theory as an undergraduate at the University of Delaware, where he graduated with a BSc. After earning his PhD, Ryan was a postdoctoral scholar at Carnegie Mellon University.

Since 2003, Ryan Martin has been on the faculty of Iowa State University and has had several long-term visits, including a 乐播传媒 to Hungary jointly sponsored by the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics and the R茅nyi Institute for Mathematics. While at the University of Birmingham, Ryan plans to collaborate extensively with the faculty and students in the research group in Combinatorics, Probability and Algorithms, studying the extremal properties of graphs and of partially-ordered sets. With this 乐播传媒, he will have the opportunity to bridge the gap between researchers and the general public on the role of discrete mathematical models. He will also facilitate comparison between the roles of US 鈥渓and grant鈥� and UK 鈥渞ed brick鈥� universities.

As editor-in-chief of the journal Order, Ryan Martin is interested in connecting mathematical communities and harnessing the expertise of researchers from around the world and across disciplines. He is looking forward to expanding this work in Birmingham.

Jessica McCaughey

乐播传媒-Queen's University Belfast Scholar Award (Creative Writing)

Jessica McCaughey, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Writing at the George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, DC, where she teaches and studies professional writing. Her interest in workplace writing was sparked during her early, post-college years as she watched professionals across organizations struggle with written communication. Her upcoming book looks at writing development during moments of career change.

Jessica co-founded the Archive of Workplace Writing Experiences, a collection of audio interviews and resources about workplace writing in the United States. While at Queen鈥檚 University Belfast, Jessica will develop a new archive, called Belfast Writers at Work鈥攁 public scholarship project that will allow her to draw insights about workplace writing development in Northern Ireland.

Jessica also writes and publishes creative writing, and her essays and fiction have appeared in publications like The Best American Travel Writing, The Fourth Genre, The Colorado Review, Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and the Fine Arts, and The Rumpus, among many others. At Queen鈥檚, Jessica will teach creative nonfiction at the Seamus Heaney Centre.
She is delighted to bring her family to Belfast and make a temporary home in Northern Ireland.

Amy Montz

乐播传媒-University of Manchester Distinguished Scholar Award (Humanities)

A New Orleans native, Dr. Amy L. Montz is Professor of English at the University of Southern Indiana where she teaches and researches eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literatures and material culture, young adult literatures, and Neo-Victorian literatures. Her 乐播传媒 will take her to her favorite city in the UK, Manchester, to work at the University of Manchester researching local Victorian novelist Elizabeth Gaskell. She is an avid reader and writer, and is currently shopping her creative project, the novel A Hundred Storyvilles.

In her academic work, she is anticipating the publication of her monograph Dressing for England: Fashion and Nationalism in Victorian Novels later this year with SUNY Press. As she looks ahead to her next project, she will combine her creative and academic writings into one monograph, Two Lived Lives: An Autobiographical Survey of Elizabeth Gaskell and Her Works, to explore how the concerns of the twenty-first century echo the same concerns of inequality of wealth, women鈥檚 rights, and industrialization that Gaskell wrote about in the 1850s and 1860s. She is looking forward to meeting the faculty and students at the University of Manchester and working with them to bring love of the Victorian era to contemporary England and America.

Zoe Pearson

乐播传媒-Durham University Scholar Award (All Disciplines)

Zoe Pearson is a human-environment geographer and Associate Professor of Geography and International Studies in the School of Politics, Public Affairs, and International Studies at the University of Wyoming, USA. Her research centers on challenges surrounding the control, trade, and use of natural resources.

As a 乐播传媒 Scholar at Durham University, Zoe will study the cultural importance and decline of haaf net fishing鈥攐ne of the oldest forms of fishing in the UK. She aims to investigate why and how this form of fishing is disappearing, and also to gather oral histories and other materials for an archive to preserve the traditional ecological and knowledge systems, place-based understandings of local heritage, and ways of life that will be lost when haaf net fishing does disappear.

Zoe looks forward to exploring the cities and countryside of northern England and the Scotland/England borderlands on adventures with her family during their time in the UK.

Lisa Pennington

乐播传媒-British Virgin Islands Scholar Award at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College

Dr. Lisa K. Pennington is an Associate Professor in the College of Education and Human Development at Governors State University in University Park, Illinois. She taught middle and high school history and World Geography in Virginia prior to earning her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction at Virginia Tech. Her teaching and research interests include the use of children鈥檚 literature to teach social studies, pairing primary sources with children鈥檚 literature, and teaching history accurately and honestly at the elementary level. She is passionate about helping future teachers learn how to make social studies engaging, exciting, and hands-on.

Dr. Pennington had the opportunity to participate in a 乐播传媒-Hays Program as a classroom teacher and is excited to be a 乐播传媒 US Scholar. While at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College, she will provide support to the teacher education program and will have the opportunity to teach, collaborate on curriculum development, and facilitate workshops for faculty and teachers on Tortola.

Paul Reiter

乐播传媒-Queen Mary University of London Scholar Award

Paul Reiter is a Professor in the College of Public Health at The Ohio State University. His research addresses cancer prevention and control through two main thematic areas, cancer screening and vaccination. Both health behaviors are effective strategies for reducing disease burden, yet remain underutilized. He is particularly interested in examining the determinants of engaging in these behaviors and then using that information to design and implement programs to increase their use. His past work has been funded by several organizations, including the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

As a 乐播传媒 Scholar at Queen Mary University of London, he will conduct research examining healthcare providers鈥� perspectives on and acceptability of multi-cancer early detection testing. This work will focus on healthcare providers in both the US and the UK. He is excited for the opportunity to conduct this research and establish collaborations with researchers in the UK.

Melissa Craven

乐播传媒 Distinguished Teacher - University College London (UCL) - Institute of Education

After an early career in engineering design, Melissa Craven pivoted her focus toward elementary education. She has devoted the past 13 years to teaching second grade in the Little Miami Local district, outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. Melissa welcomes a large placement of ESOL students into her class each year and enjoys the challenge of guiding students from multiple home-language backgrounds within the same classroom. She earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Evansville in 1997 and a master鈥檚 degree in early childhood education from Xavier University in 2011, as well as specialized postgraduate credits in the years since.

Her 乐播传媒 research will center around innovative practices employed in multilingual classrooms and organizations throughout the UK. She plans to use her findings to develop practical tools for U.S. teachers serving growing ESOL populations and to optimize student intake procedures for local districts.

Outside of work, Melissa enjoys design projects, flower gardening, and travel. She looks forward to exploring small villages throughout the UK, as well as taking advantage of London鈥檚 renowned theatre productions and museums while in the city.

Fio Lazarte

Distinguished Teacher - University of Glasgow

Fio Lazarte is a Peruvian-American bilingual educator based in Jackson, Wyoming, and a third-grade Spanish teacher at Munger Mountain Elementary. With more than a decade of classroom and leadership experience and an Instructional Leadership Certificate from Harvard, she leads her grade-level PLC, mentors new teachers. She designs culturally responsive, dual-language instruction that centers around equity, language acquisition, and family engagement.

Selected for a US-UK Commission-sponsored Teaching Research Award and hosted by the University of Glasgow, Fio will study school-level approaches that support early-career teachers, build leadership capacity, and strengthen retention in linguistically and culturally diverse settings. She plans to partner with university faculty and local schools to observe practice, pilot practical strategies, and translate findings into teacher supports that can be implemented back home.

Fio looks forward to the academic collaboration and professional learning opportunities in Glasgow, and to sharing cultural exchange with host communities. During her award period, she aims to produce actionable recommendations and ready-to-use tools to enhance induction, mentoring, and professional learning, ensuring that teachers鈥攁nd the students they serve鈥攅xperience greater stability and instructional continuity.

This award is sponsored by the US-UK 乐播传媒.

Kate Thompson

乐播传媒 Distinguished Teacher - University of Strathclyde

Katherine 鈥淜ate鈥� Thompson has over a decade of experience teaching secondary science and holds a Master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction. While she did not initially plan on becoming a teacher, her adventures working with youth and schools during her time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica prompted her to pursue this challenging but rewarding field. She currently teaches Anatomy and Physiology to juniors and seniors, and has served in various leadership roles. She has also taught double classes of up to sixty students and coached volleyball, basketball, track, and robotics.

Although Kate moved all over the United States in her early years, she has spent most of her life in Texas and now resides outside Austin with her husband, Matt, and their three children, Max, Leelu, and Sam. Kate and her family are eager to explore Scottish culture, parks, castles, and the real Diagon Alley during their time in the United Kingdom. She is elated to have the opportunity to study best practices in supporting adolescent parents as students, and hopes to use her findings to enhance the program her district offers and create resources to be used nationwide.

Julia Cantzler

University of San Diego - Global Challenges Teaching Award

Dr. Julia Cantzler is Professor of Sociology at the University of San Diego. She holds a law degree and Masters degree in Sociology from the University of Colorado and a PhD in Sociology from the Ohio State University. Her research examines colonization, mobilization, and environmental problems, focusing specifically on environmental and climate advocacy among youth and Indigenous peoples. She is the co-Director of USD鈥檚 Environmental Integration Lab and the author of the book Environmental Justice as Decolonization: Political Contention, Innovation and Resistance over Indigenous Fishing Rights in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.

Julia is passionate about environmental education and its ability to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to take action on climate change and other urgent challenges. Recognizing that climate change is a global issue that transcends geographic and disciplinary boundaries, Julia designs courses that are experiential, interdisciplinary, and globally oriented. What excites her most about the 乐播传媒 Global Challenges Teaching Award is the opportunity to develop a collaborative, internationally focused course that unites students in the U.S. and U.K. in a dynamic learning environment to collectively generate meaningful climate action.

Julia is joined by her institutional team: James Bolender and Jeff Simmons.

Perpetua Kirby

University of Sussex - Global Challenges Teaching Award

Perpetua Kirby is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education, University of Sussex, and the Co-Deputy Director of the Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth.

Perpetua has extensive experience researching children and young people's participation, voice and agency. Her PhD explored children鈥檚 agency in school, using ethnographic and creative multimodal approaches. Her current primary research interests are democratic schooling, and transformative pedagogies and practice, particularly related to environmental sustainability education. Working with interdisciplinary teams, her focus is on how to reconfigure education in ways that might embrace a creative engagement with the existential and uncertain dimensions of climate change and biodiversity loss. She conducts research in the Global South and North, in schools, informal education contexts and higher education.

Perpetua鈥檚 teaching includes an interdisciplinary undergraduate module in which students design, grow and harvest a campus forest food garden, as a means to consider sustainable and just responses to climate change and ecological disturbance. 乐播传媒 offers the opportunity to explore how to foster trans-Atlantic dialogue so that students might respond to global challenges from a global perspective, while being attentive to local and regional impacts.

Perpetua is joined by her institutional team: Anke Schwittay and Charlie Crouch.

Kathryn Quissell

University of Virginia - Global Challenges Teaching Award

Jennifer Creese

University of Leicester - Global Challenges Teaching Award

Dr Jennifer Creese is a social anthropologist with a focus on healthcare, particularly organisational cultures of healthcare work, health worker migration, health inequalities and ethnic minority experiences in healthcare. She holds a PhD in Social Science from The University of Queensland, Australia (2020), in which she explored experiences of religious minorities within Australian multiculturalism. She held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland (2020-2022) where her work explored emigration of Irish doctors and experiences of medical working conditions during Covid-19.

As a Lecturer in Health Services Research at the University of Leicester since 2022, her research interests include inclusive in maternity, respiratory and autism & learning disability healthcare provision, workplace wellbeing of healthcare staff, and ethnically-diverse staff involvement in patient safety. She teaches Population and Social Science at Leicester Medical School, and is passionate about equipping students with critical social insights behind biomedicine for holistic patient-focused healthcare and health promotion. She has a strong interest in increasing diversity and inclusion within the healthcare workforce, and fostering empathy and cultural humility. This 乐播传媒 will give her the opportunity to empower students as critically aware global health advocates and build relationships between the UK and USA.

Jennifer is joined by her institutional team: Peter Hough and Terese Bird.

Stefanie Demetriades

DePaul University - Global Challenges Teaching Award

Stefanie Z. Demetriades is an Assistant Professor in the College of Communication at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, where she teaches courses on misinformation and polarization, intercultural communication, health communication, and the relationship between technology and society. Her research examines how people process and respond to challenging or uncomfortable information in health, science, and political contexts, drawing on an interdisciplinary approach that bridges communication, political science, and psychology.

She holds a Master鈥檚 degree in Public Diplomacy and a PhD in Communication from the University of Southern California. A scholar of misinformation studies, digital communication, and media effects, Dr. Demetriades is deeply committed to fostering critical thinking, intercultural dialogue, and public engagement.

As a 乐播传媒 Global Challenges Teaching awardee, she will integrate a virtual exchange into her course Misinformation in Times of Upheaval, connecting students across borders to examine how misinformation spreads, how it is understood, and how communities can work together to counter its effects.

Stefanie is joined by her institutional team: Rosita Leon and Bridget Wagner.

Rachel-Ann Charles

Birmingham City University - Global Challenges Teaching Award

Rachel-Ann brings a range of experience from her work in news media across the Caribbean and Europe. Her teaching expertise spans all undergraduate media courses, ensuring students receive a comprehensive and well-rounded education in journalism.

As a member of the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research (BCMCR), Dr Charles is keen on advancing journalism education. Her current research focuses on developing innovative teaching methods in Higher Education, aiming to prepare the next generation of journalists for the evolving media landscape.

Rachel-Ann is joined by her institutional team: Lucy Stubbs and Adrian Banting.

Sandy Marshall

Elon University - Global Challenges Teaching Award

Dr. David Jones (Sandy) Marshall is a Human Geographer specializing in political and cultural geography, with expertise in the Middle East, Islam, migration, refugees, and the geographies of children, youth, and families. He is an Associate Professor of Geography at Elon University, where he also teaches in International and Global Studies and Peace and Conflict Studies.

Dr. Marshall has supervised numerous undergraduate research projects on refugees, migration, and public memory, and is the author of more than three dozen articles and book chapters. His research explores topics including everyday spaces of childhood in Palestinian refugee camps, youth civic engagement in post-conflict societies, and intergenerational memory of sacred sites in Palestine.

Employing community-based methods such as mental mapping, photovoice, digital storytelling, and oral history, he prioritizes ethical community collaboration in his research and teaching. His commitment to community-based teaching and learning drives his work as a founding member of the Power+Place Collaborative, a campus-community digital storytelling and oral history initiative. As Faculty Director of Residence in Elon鈥檚 Global Neighborhood, he lives on campus with his wife, two children, and dog.

Sandy is joined by his institutional team: Nick Gozik and Becky Kloeper.

Peter Manning

University of Bath - Global Challenges Teaching Award

Peter Manning is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences. His research and teaching explores the connections between human rights, transitional justice, and memory in contexts of violence and atrocities. He is increasingly concerned with the intersections of environmental issues with these issues.

Peter has held a number of UKRI grants as PI and Co-I and in 2023 won an ISRF Mid-Career Fellowship to explore the role (and absence) of questions of ecology in post-atrocity social order.

He is also working on research explores the opportunities and challenges in the delivery of genocide education; network analysis of transitional justice actors and their relationships; and a new book that explores the life trajectories and meaning making practices among ex-combatants after Cambodia's civil war.

Peter is joined by his institutional team: Emily Richards and Marie Salter.

Regan Bowering

乐播传媒 Postgraduate All Disciplines Award, Visiting PhD Student in Music – Columbia University

As a deeply personal, yet highly communicative art form, music unites disparate people, places, and historical moments and can articulate the most elusive aspects of human experience. These qualities inspired Regan to pursue a multi-faceted career of music performance, event management, academic study and teaching. Her current PhD research in Musicology (Goldsmiths, University of London) and practice as a percussionist, improviser and sound artist grapple with music's elusive qualities through a study of the relationships between rhythm, technology, and lived experiences of time in avant-garde music since 1960.

Regan graduated from Goldsmiths, University of London with a first-class Undergraduate degree in Music in 2019, and a Masters with distinction in 2020. Prior to beginning her academic studies as a mature student, she worked for eight years in music event management. Since then, Regan has used this experience to connect academia with the wider arts community through events, conferences, and the co-founding of an online journal for research and practice on audiovisual cultures.

During her 乐播传媒 year as a visiting student at Columbia, Regan will complete her PhD archival research and develop two new practical projects under the supervision of Professor Seth Cluett, Director of the Columbia Computer Music Centre. This incredible opportunity will enable Regan to foster an international network of scholars, musicians, and sound artists and immerse herself in the unique creative histories and contemporary happenings of New York City.

Jasmine Brittan

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, Masters of Transportation Systems - NYU

Jasmine Brittan, from Derby, is an ambitious engineering graduate of the University of Warwick.

During her undergraduate career, Jasmine worked on the sensor experiments team at the European Space Agency and was selected as a youth delegate to COP27. She also was involved in fundraising for the Warwick Boring Team, global finalists in Elon Musk鈥檚 Not-a-Boring Competition. Through this work, she was selected as an Engineering Leaders Scholar by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

In the US, Jasmine will pursue a degree combining her technical engineering background with policy. Her specific research ambitions pertain to the integration of urban air mobility transport within society.

Alongside her academics, Jasmine hopes to become involved in sport and entrepreneurship. More specifically, having already run the London Marathon she hopes to achieve the same feat in New York. She further hopes to become involved in dance as one of the passions she has followed since the age of three.

Amy Campbell

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, Masters in Climate and Society - Columbia University

Amy is in the UK negotiations team to the UNFCCC COP, working in climate diplomacy, following a climate policy track in the UK's Civil Service Fast Stream stream for high potential graduates in government policy. Whilst on the Fast Stream, Amy led a climate and environment network that set up a climate and environment career anchor which is being rolled out across UK government.

The 乐播传媒 in climate policy will give Amy skills and knowledge across adaptation and mitigation policy; she hopes to specialise in climate disaster preparedness at Columbia University. She applied to 乐播传媒 to embed climate disaster preparedness in government policy and multilateralism. Amy hopes to work closely with Columbia's National Centre for Disaster Preparedness on climate vulnerable country disaster response. More recently, inspired by Laurie Laybourn, Amy was selected for the programme 'Cohort 2040' and has become interested in policy approaches to the polycrisis and derailment risk. Amy sees the climate crisis as a nexus - the most pressing threat implicating development, conflict, health, politics and migration.

Outside of climate policy, Amy is passionate about equal opportunity - having gotten onto the Fast Stream with the help of UpReach. She launched a mentoring scheme for public servants from disadvantaged backgrounds with a friend, and is a mentor for the Access: Climate and Environment project. During her undergraduate degree, she was funded to conduct research in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel and published a paper with Columbia University. Having grown up in Cornwall, she loves connecting with nature through surfing and long distance running.

Eleanor Clark

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, MA in Humanities - University of Chicago

Eleanor Clark is in her final year studying English at Merton College, Oxford. After three years reading and performing literary analysis on everything from Old English poetry to twenty-first century advertising campaigns, she is excited to study for a Master's degree in the US, specialising particularly in modern women's writing and rural modernity studies. Her research considers how conflicts of gender and nation interact with investments in land and place, and how these conflicts operate differently between modern Britain and North America. As an undergraduate, Eleanor met (online) some wonderful American scholars in this field through the International Virginia Woolf Society, for whom she wrote a prizewinning essay, and the Stanford-Berkeley Graduate Conference, where she presented on hallucinations as visions of authorship in mid-20th century British women's novels. She looks forward to continuing conversations like these in person.

As a writer of fiction and literary journalism, and outgoing Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Review of Books, Eleanor hopes to get involved with the US's great tradition of student writing. Having grown up in rural South West England, where she enjoys hiking and outdoor swimming, she is also keen to continue these activities in the dramatically different scale and variety of the US landscape.

Mattie Denison

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, Physics PhD - University of Pennsylvania

On the back of 4 years at Durham University, graduating this year with a MSc in Particles, Strings, and Cosmology; Mattie is looking forward to exploring the bigger and busier city of Philadelphia while studying for a PhD in Physics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mattie will be joining the Center for Particle Cosmology studying how the smallest things in the Universe affect the structure of the Universe as a whole. She is very grateful for the opportunity 乐播传媒 has granted her to work with leading researchers in this relatively young field, as well as the adventures she hopes to have travelling the beautiful natural parks of the US.

In parallel with her studies, Mattie aims to show how small actions make a big difference in increasing participation of women in Physics. With this in mind she is keen to continue her outreach efforts and volunteer with the Access Science programme at Penn, working with local schools to encourage science engagement.

Beyond the world of Physics, she is excited to see how the US lives up to the American literature she enjoys, and how easily her love of cricket and rugby will transfer to baseball and American football.

Rebs Fisher-Jackson

乐播传媒-BAFTA Award, MFA Screenwriting - UCLA

Working in a Cornish pasty shop as a teenager, Rebs would spend her shifts dreaming about studying in the USA and creating stories for film and television. Growing up surrounded by American media, Rebs fell in love with the lives she saw on screen; her greatest wish as a child was to try candy corn at Halloween.

Rebs became the first person in her family to attend university. Whilst studying English Literature at Cardiff University, her late introduction to LGBTQ+ films pivoted Rebs towards a career creating positive representation on-screen. She听knew from the moment she first stepped foot on a film set that she was home. Starting out as a locations trainee and in production, Rebs re-trained as a script supervisor with Screen Alliance Wales. She has since worked on more than 21 productions for the likes of Lucasfilm and the BBC, and on social film projects for the Iris Prize and International Youth Media Summit.

As a storyteller, Rebs is interested in telling stories about human connection and LGBTQ+ characters. She鈥檚 secured BFI Film Academy funding and made multiple award-winning shorts that have led her to obtain BAFTA Connect membership and achieve her first broadcast credit directing a short for BBC Wales. Rebs is thrilled to train at film school in the USA as a writer/director, a far cry away from the Cornish coastlines near where she grew up. She鈥檚 excited to make new friends on campus and learn about the industry from an American perspective. With mentoring from BAFTA and the new connections she鈥檒l make, Rebs can鈥檛 wait to put her newfound knowledge towards diversifying the film and television industry.

Gidon Gautel

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, MS Electrical and Computer Engineering - Boston University

Gidon Gautel is a passionate member of the global space community. He holds a BSc in Government and Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an MSc in Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Management from Imperial College Business School.

Gidon began his career at LSE IDEAS, LSE鈥檚 foreign policy think tank. Since 2019, he has worked at BryceTech, conducting industry analysis and project management across a range of space projects. He has also trained as a reservist for Air and Space Operations with the Royal Auxiliary Air Force since 2021.

Gidon is particularly interested in commercial human spaceflight and lunar development. He previously co-chaired the Moon Village Association鈥檚 Lunar Commerce Working Group and, in 2023, commanded Meili-1, an analogue astronaut mission in Scotland. In 2024, he will join the crew of the CHILL-ICE III mission in an Icelandic lunar lava tube analogue.

With the support of 乐播传媒, Gidon will pursue an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University. Using his multidisciplinary skillset, he aims to lead future UK space missions and support US-UK space collaboration. Gidon is excited to engage with the US space community and apply his new technical skills at BU and in industry.

Ravi Ghosh

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, Masters in Modern and Contemporary Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies - Columbia University

Ravi Ghosh is a London-based art critic and editor. He is deputy editor at the听British Journal of Photography听and formerly worked at the听Financial Times听补苍诲听Elephant, a contemporary art magazine. His writing has also appeared in听The Guardian, The Economist, Tribune, i-D, Verso, ArtReview, RA Magazine, The Baffler听and many more publications. He has presented on photography and journalism at LCC, LSE, and at festivals including PhotoIreland, Fotografia Europea and Fotofestiwal 艁贸d藕. He has also collaborated with artists on monographs and other projects.

He studied English at the University of Oxford, graduating with a BA in 2018, and will build on this theoretical background at Columbia, capitalising on the full breadth of expertise within the Department of Art History & Archeology. His research will focus on photographic dialogues between the UK and US, the history of conceptual and video art, and art in South Asia. He will also engage with New York City鈥檚 rich critical and magazine culture, continuing his writing and mentoring with a new set of cultural prompts.

Ifan Jenkin

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, Master's of Science in Translational Research and Applied Medicine - Stanford University

Born and raised in South Wales, Ifan graduated from Oxford University Medical School amid the COVID-19 pandemic and has since worked as a Doctor in London, undertaking roles such as Clinical Fellow in Cardiac Surgery at St Thomas鈥� Hospital and, most recently, Clinical Research Fellow in Pulmonary Hypertension at the Royal Brompton Hospital. Whilst these roles on the clinical frontline have been immensely rewarding, Ifan's roles at both a biotechnology startup and life sciences investment fund, alongside multiple prize-winning research projects, have kindled his interest in the many challenges associated with delivering emerging therapies to their intended patients.

During his time at Stanford University, Ifan intends to hone a practical skill set in translational medicine and commercialisation which, combined with his clinical background, he hopes will enable his contribution to the efficient evaluation and harnessing of novel therapeutic potential, ultimately better enabling their timely integration into routine clinical practice.

Beyond academia, Ifan is keenly invested in a diverse array of activities, having placed third on Britain鈥檚 Got Talent with a Welsh boys鈥� choir, faced Mongolia鈥檚 national rugby team, performed with virtuoso pianist Lang Lang, and participated in Ironman triathlons. At Stanford, he hopes to continue in this vein by performing a piano concerto and attempting the renowned 鈥楨scape from Alcatraz鈥� triathlon.

Pavandeep Josan

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, MA International Studies - South Asian Studies - University of Washington

Pavandeep graduated from the University of Exeter in 2022 with a degree in History. He subsequently undertook an internship at the Index on Censorship, before beginning a role in government as a policy advisor at the Department for Education.

Navigating the first stage of his career, he has maintained his passion for South Asian history. In particular, he has nurtured his interest in exploring the influence of the Partition of India upon South Asian diasporic communities, the subject of his undergraduate dissertation.

This continued passion has led to a 乐播传媒 Award to study for an MA in South Asian Studies at the University of Washington, in which he will be able to build on his interests by researching the influence of Partition upon the development of the South Asian community in the United States.

He鈥檚 excited to learn more about one of the most fascinating diasporic groups in the world, alongside experiencing the unique nature of US college life the Pacific Northwest. A huge sports fan and supporter of the Kansas City Chiefs, he also looks forward to immersing himself in American sport, although he fears that exposure to cricket, his favourite sport, will be hard to come by!

Aimée Lister

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, MA in Arab Studies - Georgetown University

Aim茅e graduated with a BA in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Cambridge, UK in 2020. On graduating, she moved to Japan, completed a postgraduate law conversion remotely at the University of Law, and founded a copywriting business that supports global tech startups.

Her experiences through her own business, living in 3 continents over the past 5 years, as well as roles at the Asia Society in Japan and Jamal Khashoggi鈥檚 DAWN MENA, made her appreciate the role that cultural dialogue plays within broader spaces of foreign policy and international relations. This fully crystallised whilst living in Lebanon and working on the media and editorial team at afikra, a global media and community organization dedicated to reframing dominant understandings of the Arab world by promoting the region鈥檚 cultures and histories.

With the support of the 乐播传媒 scholarship, she is delighted to be pursuing an MA in Arab Studies at Georgetown University鈥檚 School of Foreign Service. She is looking forward to building out an interdisciplinary course of study through which she will gain greater understandings of the Arab world, particularly through a cultural and societal lens. Beyond academics, Aim茅e is also excited by the prospect of exploring DC and involving herself in the city鈥檚 vibrant Asian-American community.

Alaya Rathore Mathur

乐播传媒 Postgraduate Student Award, LLM at Indiana Maurer School of Law

Graduating from the University of Nottingham with an undergraduate degree in Law & Chinese Law, Alaya understood the importance of cultural exchange whilst studying abroad at the University of Hong Kong.听 Falling in love with the city, she returned to Hong Kong in 2023 to work for a local education charity, where she gained a ground-level perspective of the importance of cross-cultural communication and community building through cultural barriers.

Looking to gain a similar level of insight in the commercial and entrepreneurial spaces, Alaya has gained a place in Maurer鈥檚 unique Learning and Working LLM. Intending to build on her European and Asian legal experiences, Alaya hopes to learn from her placement with the Elmore Entrepreneurship Law Clinic at IU, where she can gain strong practical experience in high impact areas of law whilst working with early stage high-potential companies as they look for expansion opportunities. Ground up understanding of the practical issues facing these entrepreneurial companies will provide her with a strong head start in her post-graduate career as an aspiring lawyer.

Outside of academics, Alaya is an avid reader and a (semi-talented) amateur creative writer. Loving to share her passion, she took the responsibility of running a successful community creative writing class while living in Hong Kong. She plans to run a creative writing class in Bloomington and to discover the charms of the midwest, all whilst working her way through her Google Maps list of Indiana bookmarked restaurants!

Lewis McClenaghan

乐播传媒 Postgraduate All Disciplines Award, Masters of Arts Administration - Columbia University

Lewis McClenaghan graduated from the University of Warwick with a BA in Film and Literature in 2019. Whilst at Warwick his research interests gravitated towards Queer cinema and Aesthetics, Adaptation Theory, Representations of AIDS and illness onscreen, and Global/National Cinemas. He then completed the Wellcome Trust's 2-year Graduate Development program, where he completed placements across a wide range of cultural projects, such as the Wellcome Collections research and development team, The Hub residency with LandBodyEcologies and the program Mindscapes.

He also completed a 6-month placement with the UK Civil Services Department for Health and Social Care Global Health Team. After this, he opted for a slight change and moved to Colombia for two years to work as an English teacher with the British Council and translator.

He will go to the USA to complete a Masters's program in an inter-disciplinary arts, culture and policy program that will equip him with the skills to continue advancing in his career.

Ella McCoshan

乐播传媒 Elsevier Award in Data Analytics, PhD in Environment - Yale University

Ella McCoshan is a Spatial Data Scientist and Urban Planner with a keen interest in tackling the complex challenges associated with urban change, from enhanced hazard exposure to public health crises. She holds an MA in Economics from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Space Syntax from the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.

Since 2021, Ella has contributed to urban development projects across several continents, engaging with diverse topics including containing unsustainable urban sprawl, monitoring street network and land use change, and promoting walkable urban environments. These experiences have reinforced her awareness of the growing data and knowledge gaps surrounding processes of urban change, particularly in the Global South.

As a doctoral student in the Seto Lab for Urbanisation and Global Change at Yale University, Ella will have a unique opportunity to develop novel research and methods to support equitable and resilient urban change across global contexts. She is excited to explore the dynamics of urban change, particularly in informal areas, and collaborate with international organisations, governments and communities.

Alongside her research, Ella hopes to continue playing the French horn and engaging with community and charity initiatives. She can鈥檛 wait to embrace life across the pond!

Simran Mohnani

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Postgraduate Award, MBA - Stanford University

Simran is a Chemical Engineer, Industry 4.0 Consultant, and Climate Intrapreneur driving the Net Zero transition across hard-to-abate sectors. Growing up as a Maltese-Indian, she has witnessed the effects of rising sea levels in the Mediterranean and the disproportionate impact on women鈥檚 education in times of catastrophe. As a brown, female engineer this has translated to working at the forefront of innovation in combatting our world鈥檚 biggest crisis 鈥� climate change 鈥� while in parallel advocating to close the gender STEM skills gap.

Since graduating from the University of Bath, she has worked in designing bioreactors for cultured meat, reducing waste at the Cadbury chocolate factory, and digitising COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing. Simran now leads Circular Economy Innovation for Deloitte UK, building green ventures with startups, industry and academia. Innovating across R&D, manufacturing and consulting has enabled her to see the extent to which UK engineering and business are entwined in scaling climate tech. Simran will be studying for her MBA at Stanford鈥檚 Graduate School of Business 鈥� with a focus on advancing CleanTech solutions through academic spinouts. She plans to work in impact investing before then starting her own female-focused deeptech fund.

Outside her role, Sim is passionate about empowering youth and intersectional voices for a just and equitable transition. She runs a diversity network across the UK, US and India as well as serving as a One Young World ambassador, World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and UN Women volunteer in championing youth voices on climate action and educational access. She is a Stanford BOLD Fellow and Sainsbury Management Fellow, and is particularly excited about exploring the California dance scene as a Bollywood and Bhangra choreographer.

Jonathan Rampley-Sturgeon

乐播传媒 Alistair Cooke Award in Journalism, Columbia University

Johnny is a boatbuilder and maritime storyteller from Yorkshire. He grew up sailing with his Grandpa and has been captivated by the wild and watery rogues of the High Seas ever since.听听

After graduating from the University of Oxford in 2022 with a degree in History & Politics, he pursued an atypical post-graduate route by deciding to spend 20 months back North working in a boatyard. Living in a rural fishing village with a population of just 9 others, he single-handedly renovated a former oil-rig lifeboat into a floating tiny home to an audience of millions online. He has since moved 鈥極rla鈥� to London where he lives onboard and continues to make videos about life afloat.听听

Professionally, he hopes to one day combine this digital platform with his new position as a 乐播传媒er to raise awareness of the vast swathes of maritime conflict oft overlooked in traditional journalism. From piracy and sea slavery to overfishing and environmental activism, Johnny hopes to use his time at Columbia Journalism School to improve his writing and be schooled in formal ethical and conflict-based procedures. As a student of the Documentary Specialization programme, he is also excited to gain further hands-on camera experience.听

Ella Robinson

乐播传媒-American University Award, MA in Journalism and Public Affairs: Investigative Journalism - American University

Ella will graduate with a BA in Social Sciences (Politics and Sociology) from the University of Manchester in 2024. During her placement year, Ella was Editor-in-Chief of The Mancunion, the biggest student newspaper in the UK, leading the team to win four national awards.

Ella鈥檚 award-winning journalism consistently focuses on amplifying the voices of those who are too often ignored by the mainstream media. Named 鈥楤est Journalist in the North鈥� and highly commended nationally for her collaborative investigative reporting with Manchester鈥檚 Disabled Students鈥� Society, she was subsequently invited to judge Amnesty Media鈥檚 Student Journalist of the Year Award. She looks forward to learning new investigative skills during her Masters at American University, and to putting them into practice through the Investigative Journalism Practicum.

Ella has consistently sought to make the journalism industry more accessible. At Manchester, she co-organised the largest ever Women in Media Conference, and launched The Mancunion鈥檚 mentor scheme, connecting current students with alumni. In 2023 she was elected as Training and Opportunities Officer for the Student Publication Association, supporting 200 student publications across the UK and Ireland. She hopes to bring this ethos of supportive knowledge sharing to her American University studies and to the 乐播传媒ers鈥� network.

Eleanor Tack

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Award, Masters of Law - Columbia University

Eleanor left school and moved to France to work in a Red Cross emergency housing centre where she supported asylum seekers and families in crisis. Inspired by the people she worked with, Eleanor went on to study International Relations at King's College London, with a focus on public international law. Upon graduation Eleanor returned to France to continue working with the Red Cross, this time in Paris but regularly deployed to informal migrant camps across the country. She worked in the Family Tracing department, reconnecting families who had lost contact with one another during conflict or migration. This experience cemented Eleanor's desire to use the law to create change and protect the vulnerable; she returned to the UK to complete her Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) with a view to becoming a barrister.

After completing her GDL, Eleanor moved to Johannesburg to clerk at the Constitutional Court of South Africa under Justice Leona Theron, where she began to understand how differing constitutional structures effect the capacity of the law to protect vulnerable people such as migrants. This is the theme Eleanor hopes to explore through her Masters of Law programme in the USA, selecting modules which focus on comparative constitutional law and the rights of migrants with a view to combining these two discrete areas of practice in a way which will help lawyers better understand how to harness the law to protect vulnerable migrants. Outside of her work and studies, Eleanor is a Trustee at The Society of Mediators, training people across the world in mediation and also sits on the Board of Directors at Bridging the Bar, a charity she launched in 2020 with a group of barristers to diversify the profession.

Pragya Agarwal

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - CUNY Graduate Center

Professor Pragya Agarwal is a behavioural and data scientist, and founder of a research think-tank 'The 50 Percent Project'. Born in India, Agarwal came to the UK almost twenty-one years on a British Council fellowship to study for a Masters and stayed on to do a PhD. Following a PhD from the University of Nottingham, Pragya held the prestigious Leverhulme Fellowship and has held senior academic positions and visiting fellowships around the globe.

She is currently a visiting professor of social inequities and injustice in the UK, and holds fellowships from University of Oxford, Newnham College (Cambridge), Churchill Trust, British Library/Eccles Center for The Americas, and Royal Literary Foundation. She is the author of four widely acclaimed non-fiction books including Sway (which was Guardian 'Book of the Week'), Hysterical and (M)otherhood, and her writing has also appeared widely in The Guardian, New Scientist, Wired, Scientific American, Times Literary Supplement, Literary Hub, amongst others. Pragya has been awarded the Transmission Prize for 'making complex scientific ideas accessible' and Crucible NESTA award for 'innovative inter-disciplinary work', and funding from Royal Society, Leverhulme Trust, British Academy, Society of Authors, and Royal Society of Literature.

As part of the 乐播传媒 Scholar award, Agarwal will be researching bias in legal systems, specifically in the areas of immigration and reproductive justice. She is also interested in studying the role of maps and data in judicial decision-making.

More information on Pragya's research and writing can be found on her Twitter and Instagram: @drpragyaagarwal and her website drpragyaagarwal.com

Hilary Bishop

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - NYU

Hilary Bishop will be based at Glucksman Ireland House, New York University where she will be working with Irish and Irish Americans to record their narratives in relation to the living heritage associated with Ireland鈥檚 Mass paths. Mass paths are an intimate part of the Irish landscape and provide a tangible link to Irish history and heritage, yet they have no official definition, status or protection. Many are being lost due to house building, infrastructure projects or changing farming practices. Bishop aims to find new innovative ways of measuring and managing living heritage that can support future policy making and better protect these historic pathways.听

Bishop has secured a reputation as a leading practitioner in her field, recognised through Chartered Geographer status awarded by the Royal Geographical Society and she is also listed on the directory of experts of the British Association of Irish Studies. Her research into Catholic Mass sites and Mass paths in Ireland has provided one of the most comprehensive and multidimensional critical analyses of their significance in the retention of Catholic identity.听

Bishop is most proud of her public website www.findamassrock.com which provides a free community resource and lists many of the Mass sites that she has visited and researched. She is most excited about the opportunities that the 乐播传媒 offers to immerse herself in the culture that New York has to offer and plans to make an initial beeline to Central Park which was modelled on a park in Birkenhead where she was born.

Jeff Davies

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - Salk Institute (San Diego, CA)

Jeff Davies graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Physiology from Cardiff University. Jeff鈥檚 passion for neuroscience research was crystalised during his doctoral research project where he worked in collaboration with endocrinologists and neuroscientists to better understand how the brain controls growth and metabolism.听听

Since 2013, he has been an associate professor at the School of Medicine at Swansea University. Jeff has identified new roles for old hormones, in projects linking factors in the blood with brain function that is impaired in Parkinson鈥檚 disease and dementia. While at the Salk Institute, Jeff aims to investigate the connection between the endocrine, immune and nervous systems from the perspective of older age and disease.听

This 乐播传媒 will give Jeff the opportunity to integrate learning from the laboratory and community settings to encourage better dialogue between scientists, people diagnosed with neurodegenerative disorders, study participants, policymakers, and the general public.听

Outside of the laboratory, Jeff volunteers with multiple organisations promoting the STEM field to听under-represented groups 鈥� whether mentoring school children through the听Nuffield Foundation Research Placement scheme; or celebrating science at the Urdd National Eisteddfod鈥檚 science pavilion - and is excited to expand this work within San Diego.听

Peter Gogalniceanu

乐播传媒-Lloyds Scholar Award - Harvard University

Dr Petrut Gogalniceanu (Peter) is a consultant transplant surgeon at Guy鈥檚 Hospital in London with 24 years of experience working in the UK鈥檚 National Health System. He holds a PhD in crisis management and human factors from King鈥檚 College London and a Master's in Education from Imperial College London. His research focuses on high performance in safety-critical environments, healthcare security and health systems design. He leads the Executive Fellowship in Surgical Leadership at King鈥檚 Health Partners.听

Peter will join the International Security Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government (Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs). His work will focus on developing frameworks for health systems鈥� security and intelligence in the context of armed conflict and other critical disruptions to business continuity.听

Anthony Harris

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - Harvard University

Anthony co-founded a successful U.K. software business, sold it in 2007, and returned to university to pursue a second career in academia. He completed a foundation certificate in humanities at CONTED (Oxford), an MA (Oxon) in English, MA (Res) in Medieval Studies, and PhD (Cantab) in early mathematics, astronomy, and philology.听

He teaches Academic Writing and Digital Researching, and supervises for e-commerce, e-business, and optimising compilers at Clare Hall (Cambridge) where he is a research fellow, and teaches and tutors for Shakespeare and Chaucer at Oxford. His research interests lie at the intersection of science, humanities, and the digital humanities. He is excited to be researching early manuscripts of science at the Houghton Library (Harvard University) in early 2025 where he also hopes to do some guest teaching and lecturing, and plans to volunteer in the local rowing community.听

Anthony has discovered that being a mature student is not easy but being a mature academic in the humanities is much harder because the area is so competitive. As a 鈥樌植ゴ�媒er鈥� he hopes to act as a role model for other mature students and mature academics to demonstrate that it is never too late to succeed in life as long as you are persistent and go where your interests take you.听

Fusako Innami

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - University of California, Berkeley

Dr. Fusako Innami is Associate Professor in Japanese and Performance Studies at Durham University, and author of Touching the Unreachable: Writing, Skinship, Modern Japan (Michigan, 2021). She lives according to an ethos of intercultural understanding, knowledge exchange, and community building through arts and cultures with her embodied experience in Japan, Italy, the US, and the UK. Since her childhood study of classical ballet and music, she has reflected on what it means to integrate gestures, movements, and rhythms migrating from different continents to enter her body.听听

As an academic, dance reviewer, and practitioner, Fusako conducts dance workshops in Japan, 鈥淭ouch,鈥� to translate touch in literature back to moving bodies; and an ongoing international symposium, 鈥淭ranslating Embodiedness,鈥� to develop new methodologies for translating embodied practices across media.听

Fusako鈥檚 乐播传媒 project, Gestural Writing: Performance, Topography, Trace, concerns performance which by its very nature disappears. How do we recollect live performances that are not available in recordings, but only remain in the form of reviews, scores, pictures, or digitized archives? Her project gathers traces of dancers鈥� transcultural movements, contacts, and memoirs. Based in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, she will explore new methods of reconstructing past performances.听

Amy Lawton

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - Villanova University

Amy is a Senior Lecturer in Tax Law at the University of Edinburgh and is passionate about community engagement and pro bono in tax. Her clinic, the Scottish Tax Clinic, has saved over a hundred thousand pounds for people in Scotland. As a 乐播传媒 Scholar, Amy is keen to learn how her clinic can grow from one of the most experienced tax clinic countries in the world: the United States.听

While at Villanova University, Amy will be immersing herself in one of the oldest tax clinics in the United States. The Villanova Federal Tax Clinic represents, litigates for and provides a voice for low-income taxpayers. It plays a crucial role in making sure the US tax system is fair for individuals who may otherwise not have a voice.听

Beyond learning from this clinic, Amy鈥檚 乐播传媒 project seeks to explore the impact of legal representation in the tax court in both the US and the UK. Are taxpayers more likely to succeed if they can afford to pay for this representation? It is important to identify the voices that are being heard in the shaping of our tax law.听

Fiona McNeill

乐播传媒-Rita Allen Scholar Award - University of California, San Diego

Fiona McNeill is a Reader in Computing Education at the University of Edinburgh.听 She is passionate about access to computing and STEM education, especially for groups that are often excluded, such as women and girls, and people from economically deprived backgrounds.听 A key focus of her research is inclusive computing education, which aims not only to support and develop a broad range of students beyond those who conform to stereotypes of computer scientists, but also to embed ethical and social issues in the computing curriculum to create graduates who are equipped for the modern world, where technology increasingly drives all our lives.听

The 乐播传媒 scholarship gives her the opportunity for collaborative research in this area with the University of California, San Diego.听 Both UCSD and UoE have been developing inclusive student support programmes over the past two years. The focus of the scholarship is to share experience in implementing these programmes to develop a broader understanding of how to do this effectively in different contexts, and specifically to explore how lessons learnt from an initiative designed in a US university can be implemented in the very different context of a UK university, and vice versa.听

Ben Quail

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - University of Texas - Austin

Why leave the rain of Glasgow for the sunshine of Texas? Well, besides the obvious improvement in the weather, Austin is where any researcher interested in the 1960s, and in Pacific-American relations, should be. The University of Texas at Austin hosts not only the archives of President Lyndon Johnson - the first sitting US President to visit Australia - but also one of the only dedicated centers for the study of Australia and New Zealand in North America.听

Johnson and Australia are at the heart of Ben Quail's project, which examines how interpersonal relations evolved between Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt. The two men made fast friends, formed an advantageous political relationship for both countries, and set the tone for future US-Australian relations from the 1960s to the trilateral AUKUS agreement of the 2020s. This research asks key questions: did Johnson鈥檚 friendship with Holt affect relations between Australia and America, or did diplomacy affect Johnson鈥檚 relationship with Holt? Which is more important in the development of policy between the two countries?听

The work builds on Ben's previous research and teaching in the area. Having completed a master's degree researching US post-war foreign policy in Europe, Ben became interested in the relationship between President Johnson, Vietnam, and foreign policy. This research led to a PhD at the University of Strathclyde reviewing the administration's attempts to sell foreign and domestic policies to the American people which was adapted into a research monograph in 2019. Ben is excited to further this research by focusing on a key military ally in Australia, and to be able to spend time attending concerts in Austin, which, like Glasgow, is well-known for live music!听

Alan Rice

乐播传媒 All Disciplines Scholar Award - University of Michigan

Alan Rice is Professor in English and American Studies at UCLan, Preston. He has been working on the interdisciplinary study of Transatlantic Black Cultures for forty years. For his 乐播传媒 Fellowship, to be held at one of the oldest African American Studies programmes at the University of Michigan, Rice will undertake new research in military archives and present his long-running project on the Battle of Bamber Bridge (1943) where in a small Lancashire town the imposition of Jim Crow segregation led to pushback both from local residents and the Black GIs. The tensions culminated in oppression by the American military police and a violent stand-off that led to the death of one of the Black soldiers and expressions of solidarity against racism from many of the locals. My project will, for the first time, investigate the incident through the voices of the working class civilians and the perspective of the troops themselves rather than the partial testimonies from court martial records. Apart from University audiences, Rice will engage with Veterans and local community groups to disseminate knowledge about these little known European events which were a contributing factor to the development of the American Civil Rights Movement.听

Glyn Robbins

乐播传媒-Rutgers Newark Scholar Award - Rutgers University

Glyn Robbins has worked in, written about and campaigned on housing for over 30 years. From 2011 to 2021, he managed a council estate in Islington, before embarking on a 乐播传媒 Scholarship, when he was attached to the CUNY Graduate Centre, lived in the Bronx and got involved in local housing activism. Since returning, Glyn has worked in academia, first at the University of Sheffield, where he carried out research into the links between UK housing policy and racism and the history of community-led planning. Since January 2024, he has been a senior lecturer at London Metroplitan University, where he completed his PhD in planning and urban policy a decade earlier. His writing has been published in numerous places, including The Guardian and Jacobin. In 2017, he published a book, "There's No Place", comparing US and UK housing policy. He is currently researching a biography of Abraham Kazan, the founding father of co-op housing for working class people in New York City. Glyn is an active anti-racist campaigner and trade unionist. He is currently the Secretary of Tower Hamlets Trades Council.

Matthew Wilcox

乐播传媒 Royal College Surgeons Scholar Award - Havard University

Dr. Matt Wilcox is an incoming trainee surgeon within the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Deanery. He is also the lead for Clinical Translational Research at the University College London, Centre for Nerve Engineering ().听听

Dr. Wilcox became fascinated with nerve injury medicine as a medical student after he was caught up in the 2017 Borough Market terrorist attacks. He encountered patients with nerve injuries often leaving them with permanent loss of movement and chronic pain. This lived experience has motivated Dr. Wilcox to focus his clinical and research efforts on restoring function to nerve injured patients.听听

His research focuses on developing blood tests which monitor nerve injuries to identifying imaging methods to track muscles as they recover after a nerve injury. It is hoped this will encourage clinical trials of therapies which lead to improved patient outcomes.听听

His 乐播传媒 scholarship marks the establishment of an important collaboration between a major centre for nerve injury based within Harvard University, USA (led by Dr. Justin Brown and Dr. Ross Mandeville) and Dr. Wilcox鈥檚 team in London. This will bring together a diverse range of clinical and scientific expertise to accelerate this programme of clinical research.听

Ava Arteaga

乐播传媒/University of Leicester Award

Ava Arteaga graduated with Latin Honors, achieving a BA in Communication and Social Influence from Temple University. Ava鈥檚 passion for researching addiction in the media stemmed from her personal recovery journey and through her work in addiction treatment facilities, having worked as both a Behavioral Health Technician for inpatient treatment and as a Health Promotion Intern at an LGBTQIA+ center.听
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Since 2023, Ava has been participating in a cooperative education program as a Corporate Communication Coordinator with Independence Blue Cross, the leading health insurance company in the Philadelphia region. Part of her role includes creating communications on collegiate recovery in Pennsylvania, a topic Ava works closely with outside of the office. In April 2023, she served as a panel speaker at the Research to Recovery conference to discuss collegiate recovery and the navigation of recovery as a BIPOC student. While at the University of Leicester, Ava aims to investigate digital news media portrayals of drug use/users in the UK. This 乐播传媒 will give her the opportunity to integrate learning from the classroom, laboratory, and community settings to inform interventions to combat stigma and promote more accurate and compassionate representations of those struggling with substance use. 听
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Outside of the laboratory, Ava volunteers with several nonprofits that serve under-represented groups or health initiatives, whether it鈥檚 providing career development resources with the National Urban League, organizing fundraising events for UNICEF, or writing blogs for the American Red Cross. She is excited to expand this work in Leicester, UK.听

Katy Ayers

乐播传媒/University of Exeter Award

Katy Ayers graduated in May 2024 with a BSc in Bioengineering from Washington State University. Katy is most recognizable as a Guinness World Record holder for growing the World鈥檚 Largest Fungal Mycelium Boat. This achievement was funded by the Nebraska State Fair Sustainability Pavilion and can still be viewed during the Nebraska State Fair. 听
Katy鈥檚 early research focused on the correlation between honeybees and fungal extracts as an antiviral treatment for colony collapse disorder. She pioneered a project to grow fungal bee hotels for solitary bees to investigate similar correlations in endemic species. Katy joined a protein engineering lab in 2023 to study human cardiac proteins, aiming to later apply these skills to fungal research. 听

Eager to begin her studies at the University of Exeter, Katy will work toward a MSc in Advanced Biological Sciences. Learning from experiences in the 乐播传媒 program, Katy aims to become a global scientist, traveling to address fungal pathogen outbreaks and contributing to safety regulations for antifungal pharmaceuticals. Katy is especially excited to collaborate with leading experts at the Centre for Medicinal Mycology, driving her closer to her research career dedicated to solving critical health and environmental challenges.听

Samhitha Balaji

乐播传媒/University of Sheffield Award

Samhitha graduated with a BS in Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience and a minor in Computer Science. Samhitha鈥檚 interest in research piqued when she was awarded the Frances Velay Fellowship, investigating the photoreduction of chemical warfare agent simulants. She later found her niche in neurological research during her senior project, involving spinal cord axon regeneration through novel protein inhibition.听
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Upon entering Temple University (TU), Samhitha explored the interdisciplinarity of medicine and research by studying various fields including catalytic chemistry, computer programming, and neurocognition. Along with her academic background, Samhitha鈥檚 time as a medical assistant and undergraduate researcher have prepared her to pursue an MSc in Translational Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield. During her 乐播传媒, Samhitha aims to explore the intersection of clinical and laboratory studies to better understand and treat neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, Parkinson鈥檚 disease, or dementia.听
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Beyond the lab environment, Samhitha has spent time as a computer science teacher鈥檚 assistant and as a volunteer at the local hospital and underdeveloped communities of Philadelphia. Both experiences have allowed her to discover the importance of giving back to the community one is surrounded by, something she is looking forward to continuing in Sheffield.听

Kayla Berg

乐播传媒/King's College London Award

Kayla holds an MA in International Relations from American University where she built a foundation of understanding individual actors within the global arena and how larger concepts in national security were driven by individual people. Her dissertation examined how the Stasi used individual representations of self in the case of Romeo Spies. During her undergraduate studies in psychology, Kayla explored how emotions and perceptions can shape the lens through which individuals see their environment and make decisions. She was also a Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace at Middlebury College (German). 听
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After university, Kayla built a career in public service connecting and navigating the complexities of the relationship between people, politics and government. As a PhD student at King鈥檚 College London Department of War Studies, her research will focus on how the GDR Ministry for State Security used psychology in the collection of personal information of foreign adversaries during the Cold War. This 乐播传媒 will give Kayla the opportunity to help develop new dimensions when exploring the contemporary relevance of Cold War history. She looks forward to connecting with others in her community by volunteering with the Scouts, mountain biking and exploring the many landscapes of the United Kingdom.

Sanjit Beriwal

乐播传媒/Royal Holloway, University of London Award

Sanjit Beriwal graduated from Duke University with a BS in Economics and BA in Political Science. He was born and raised in Pennsylvania. Through the 乐播传媒 Scholarship, he aims to receive an MSc in International Relations from Royal Holloway, University of London. 听
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Sanjit's academic and research interests include peacebuilding, post-conflict reconstruction, global violence prevention, and armed conflict resolution. After graduation, he ultimately seeks to work for NGOs or the US government in aid work related to conflict prevention and resolution. He also aspires to pursue a law degree to open up opportunities to participate in peace negotiations.听
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Outside of school, Sanjit enjoys stand-up comedy, reading, and watching movies!

Emily Bischoff

乐播传媒/Lancaster University Award in Faculty of Science and Technology

Emily is a passionate advocate for environmental justice and is excited about channeling this into an MA in Political Ecology from Lancaster University. Emily graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in Biology and Environmental Studies with highest honors. During her time in school Emily studied abroad in Panama with the School for Field Studies (SFS) and completed a research project analyzing the relationship local stakeholders have with mangrove ecosystems which she continued to expand on for her senior thesis.听

Emily also led a student organization pushing for fossil fuel divestment and led actions around other climate justice causes, along with participating in a mutual aid organization and several other social justice campaigns. After graduating, Emily moved to Australia to work with SFS. In her role, Emily mentored students while they studied abroad in Australia, assisted with fieldwork, engaged in community service initiatives, and more. While there, Emily also volunteered at a social services organization connecting clients with resources and providing direct aid to address systemic poverty. 听

Emily is excited about continuing her education at Lancaster and aspires to engage in justice-oriented research rooted in feminist political ecology and involve herself in local organizations addressing systemic poverty and environmental justice.听听

Adrienne Chaparro

乐播传媒/University of York Award

Adrienne Chaparro served as the Curatorial Assistant for Exhibitions at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA from 2022 until the start of her 乐播传媒 program in 2024. She curated two exhibitions that opened in the summer of 2024 featuring contemporary photography celebrating and affirming multifaceted LGBTQIA+听 experiences through portraiture. 听
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Adrienne received a Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from Tufts University in 2013. Her classroom experience and internship at the Harvard Art Museums affirmed her aspiration for a career in museums. Paired with her interest in Western European medieval art, Adrienne鈥檚 goal is to serve her community using art by developing exhibitions and conducting innovative research as a museum curator. 听
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As a student in the University of York鈥檚 MA in Art History (Medieval Art and Medievalisms), made possible through the 乐播传媒 Special Study/Research award, Adrienne will build foundational knowledge of Western European medieval art based within the context of a global Middle Ages. She will also explore the modern and contemporary uses of the Middle Ages that can inspire or harm society. Ultimately, she hopes to show how diverse the Middle Ages were through art, and its relevance to our lives today.

Jaemon Crosby

乐播传媒/John Wood LAMDA Award in Classical Acting

Jaemon Crosby is a recent graduate from Syracuse University. He graduated with a BFA in acting and a concentration in vocal performance. Jaemon began his acting career in high school where he quickly realized the power, influence, and important of live theatre.听

In his time at SU he had the opportunity to be in many shows and work the professional theatre Syracuse Stage. Through exploration of many plays during college, he developed a passion for language in a play, which drove him to the world of classical theatre, which has historically been written and performed by white men. With this 乐播传媒, Jaemon will study classical acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, where he hopes to help diversify this world and aid in the movement of bringing these messages to today鈥檚 world and exploring the messages through a modern lens. Representation within theatre is very important topic to Jaemon and he wants to help young Black youth see themselves represented on the stage and on the screen.听

While in London, Jaemon also hopes to volunteer at Shakespeare鈥檚 Globe and to learn about Black culture in the UK by exploring spaces such as the Black cultural archives.

Kristin Daniel

乐播传媒/University of Birmingham Award

Kristin graduated with a BS in Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. She developed her passion for infant and maternal health through work on preeclampsia in the Wayne Macrophage Lab. While at the University of Birmingham, Kristin will continue her work on preeclampsia, expanding research on diagnostics and preventative treatments. By combining learning experiences in community and academic settings, she hopes to provide important research that will expand our understanding of the disease. Outside the laboratory, Kristin volunteers with groups working to improve health outcomes during and after pregnancy through community care and support.听

Richa Desai

乐播传媒/University of Leeds Award

Richa Desai is from Metuchen, New Jersey. She graduated with a BS in Computational Biology and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh in April 2024.听
As an undergraduate, Richa wrote a thesis studying British colonial public health data production in India, examining the conceptual foundations of evidence-based public health science and policy. Richa is also passionate about air quality in Pittsburgh and examined citizen science data practices through an internship with the nonprofit GASP. On campus, she was also Vice President of the Anthropology Club at Pitt.听

Richa is excited to begin her MA by Research in History at the University of Leeds. She intends to study how international actors produced and used data for the shared purpose of eradicating smallpox. Overall, she hopes to study the histories and politics of scientific development by thoughtfully challenging assumptions around objectivity, data, and computing. After returning to the US, she will pursue a Ph.D. in the History and Sociology of Science. Outside the classroom, Richa hopes to consider the similarities of post-industrial landscapes and environments between Yorkshire and Southwestern Pennsylvania. She looks forward to enjoying museums, live music, and bookshops in the UK.

Claire Ellis

乐播传媒/London School of Economics and Political Science Award

Claire graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University with a B.A. in History in 2024. In her junior year, she studied history at Pembroke College, the University of Oxford, as a visiting student. For her senior thesis, she wrote about the impact of Afro-Caribbean British protest in London onto changes to British public policy in the late twentieth century. As a member of the Tufts community, she coordinated and participated in a community service program facilitating volunteer opportunities in the Greater Boston Area for fellow students.听

At LSE, Claire will pursue a MSc in Empires, Colonialism, and Globalisation within the Department of International History. She will continue her research on the second generation of Windrush migrants and, in addition to social and political history, is interested in learning more about forms of economic resistance under empire.听听

In her free time, Claire is interested in working as a volunteer student consultant at LSE to promote inclusion and access. She is excited to immerse herself in London鈥檚 multicultural cuisine and to explore the UK via train. Claire hopes to apply her study of social and political history to public policy work and post-graduate studies.听

Athena Hay

乐播传媒/University of Strathclyde Award

Athena Hay earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architecture from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, with a core belief that architecture is inherently a social service. She's committed to creating equitable housing and climate-resilient designs by integrating renewable energies and passive strategies.听
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Following her studies, Athena worked as an architectural designer in small Boston firms, specializing in local affordable housing, private residences, and educational facilities. She's drawn to the opportunity to study architecture at the University of Strathclyde in the UK, immersing herself in its robust social work and sustainable design research programs. During her time in Glasgow, Athena plans to explore Scotland's long-established public housing initiatives.听
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The 乐播传媒 scholarship not only offers Athena educational resources to advance her architectural expertise but also nurtures a broader global perspective, crucial for her aspirations in service to the greater public.听
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Outside of architecture, Athena actively volunteers with various organizations, from voter registration drives, to park clean-ups, to supporting children grieving parental loss. During her time abroad, she intends to continue volunteering with local Glasgow organizations.听

Morgan Holder

乐播传媒/University of Roehampton Award in Dance

Morgan Holder, of Scottsboro, AL, recently graduated summa cum laude from The University of Alabama with a BA with honors in dance and English and a minor in The Blount Scholars Program. Morgan is excited to continue her education at The University of Roehampton, where she will earn an MFA in Dance and Embodied Practice. While at Roehampton, she plans to research the intersection between neurodiversity and dance.听
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At UA, Morgan engaged in interdisciplinary research within the fields of dance and English. Her English honors thesis critiqued representations of hysteria in the ballet Giselle. In 2022, she founded Ripple Arts Review, a digital magazine for arts criticism. Morgan was also an active dancer and choreographer and had the honor of being a member of Yonder Contemporary Dance Company, Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre, and the inaugural Emerging Choreographers鈥� Showcase while at UA. Through Yonder, Morgan has presented choreography and performed at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe.听
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Morgan is looking forward to returning to the UK after participating in the Fringe and studying abroad at Oxford University. She is excited to dive back into the UK arts scene, explore London鈥檚 many bookshops, and simply get lost in London.

Nate Johnson

乐播传媒/Ulster University Award

Nate Johnson works as a Staff Attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group, a legal nonprofit, where he preserves housing for New York tenants. Before working at NYLAG, Nate graduated cum laude from Fordham Law School in May 2022. As a member of Fordham鈥檚 International Human Rights Clinic, Nate researched carceral abolitionist movements, comparing their goals and practices to those of the international human rights regime. This research culminated in "Anti-Carceral Human Rights Advocacy," an article published in the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Journal for Law and Social Change in July 2023. 听
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Through the 乐播传媒, Nate will continue his human rights education by pursuing a Master of Laws in Human Rights and Transitional Justice from Ulster University in Belfast. While at Ulster, Nate will conduct independent research into potential anti-carceral remedies for recent human rights abuses within the context of Northern Ireland and beyond. 听
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Additionally, Nate hopes to volunteer at PeacePlayers, an organization that uses sports to bridge the gap between Catholic and Protestant youth, combining his interest in affirmative community-based programs with his lifelong love of basketball.

Winter Johnson

乐播传媒/University of Kent Award

Winter graduated from DePaul University with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in Anthropology and a minor in Irish Studies. She received the 2024 Outstanding Graduate in Anthropology Award from DePaul鈥檚 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and multiple departmental awards for her undergraduate research in cultural anthropology. Winter was also published twice in DePaul鈥檚 peer-reviewed academic journal Creating Knowledge, where she wrote about the impact of communal memory and group identity in Northern Ireland and the effect of neoliberal conditions on virtual community participation. She also served as a teaching assistant within the anthropology department, where she co-managed the archaeology lab and acted as a guest lecturer. 听
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During her undergraduate career, Winter developed a love for studying theoretical frameworks and research methodologies and has used this background to explore her interests in identity politics and the driving factors behind group participation, including radicalization processes and ideology dissemination. By pursuing an MA in Sociology at the University of Kent, she plans to further explore the intersection between far-right ideologies and online misogynistic communities. She hopes that this research will contribute to preventative and proactive initiatives that offer alternatives to radicalization and deradicalization methods.

Lindsay Keiser

乐播传媒/University of Warwick Award

Keiser graduated with a BSc in Chemistry (American Chemical Society accredited) and a minor in history from Lebanon Valley College (LVC). As a chemist and a historian, Keiser has been long enthralled with the history of preserving the heritage of diverse cultures and communities. 听
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For most of her undergraduate experience, Keiser participated in student-faculty research, leading to three poster presentations at LVC's annual Inquiry Symposium and one poster presentation at an American Chemical Society National Conference. Keiser combined her love for museums and chemistry in her undergraduate thesis, conducted in collaboration with scientists at the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library in Delaware, which examined the degradation of a nitrocellulose lacquer used to protect silver and silver-plated objects. 听
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While at the University of Warwick, Keiser is excited to gain a deeper understanding of the materials and analytical techniques studied and used by cultural heritage scientists across the world. Beyond the laboratory, Keiser looks forward to engaging with history and culture in the many cultural heritage institutions of the Warwickshire region while learning about the past from a new historical perspective.听听

Lindsay Kernen

乐播传媒/University of Strathclyde Award

Lindsay Kernen, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduated from Syracuse University in 2023 with a B.A. in Psychology and Citizenship & Civic Engagement.听
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Lindsay's undergraduate studies combined perspectives from the psychology field and community-based research to inform her passion for learning about interpersonal relationships in the workplace. She interned with on-campus research organizations focused on exploring the relationship between work and life satisfaction, as well as the role of behavioral-focused policy in promoting healthy choices. These experiences inspired Lindsay's senior capstone project, which measured the presence of burnout and level of employee voice among Syracuse University Maxwell School staff members through a series of interviews and surveys. The study helped inform organizational policy recommendations and gave Lindsay a glimpse into the kind of work a Master's in Organizational Psychology can lead to. 听
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Lindsay will be earning her MSc in Work & Organisational Psychology from the University of Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow, Scotland. The program focuses on connecting psychological insights with human resources management to promote employee wellbeing and productivity. The dissertation component of the program will provide Lindsay an opportunity to build on her community engagement skills and apply her knowledge in collaborating with a local organization in Glasgow.

Jasmine Kiley

Open Study/Research Award

Jasmine graduated summa cum laude with a BS in Biological Chemistry from Tulane University in 2024 as a Stamps Scholar and Goldwater Scholar. Throughout her undergraduate years, she researched the biomechanics of the female reproductive system as they relate to maternal aging, postpartum healing, and elastic fiber disruption. She also conducted biophysical research as an Amgen Scholar at the National University of Singapore. Additionally, Jasmine鈥檚 team won the 2022 Tulane Novel Tech Challenge, in which her team of four students designed and prototyped a home-use endometriosis diagnostic test utilizing lateral flow technology. 听
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At Cambridge, Jasmine will continue conducting women鈥檚 health research under the mentorship of Dr. Catherine Aiken while pursuing a Master of Philosophy in Medical Science. With the support of the 乐播传媒 Award, she looks forward to gaining a comprehensive understanding of the female patient experience in the National Health Service and broadening her perspectives on maternal healthcare. She plans to address inequities in female healthcare throughout her future career as a physician. Outside of academics and research, Jasmine enjoys playing the violin, staying active through yoga and weightlifting, attending concerts, and trying new foods.

Justin Kipness

乐播传媒/Imperial College London Award

Justin Kipness graduated from Brown University in 2024 with an ScB in Biology with honors and received the Elizabeth Leduc Prize in Cell Biology. As an undergraduate, Justin conducted astrobiology research with the Rothschild Lab at NASA Ames Research Center on topics spanning from endosymbiosis, eukaryogenesis, extremophiles, to the potential for life on Venus. His honors senior thesis was titled Endosymbiosis and Investigating the Phagotrophic Model of Eukaryogenesis. This work was conducted during an eighth month period in the Rothschild Lab at NASA Ames and supported by the NASA RI Space Grant.听
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Justin鈥檚 interest in synthetic biology began in the Build-a-Cell community where he attended seminar series and the Build-a-Cell Workshop in Minneapolis. In Minneapolis, he was inspired by the immense potential synthetic biology held to answer origin of life and astrobiological questions. This 乐播传媒 will give Justin the opportunity to study Systems and Synthetic Biology at Imperial College London. Specifically, he will be conducting research with the Ellis Lab on a synthetic nucleus project, a part of a larger synthetic eukaryote project.听
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Outside of science, Justin enjoys hiking, cycling, cooking, reading, and spending time with his three dogs Bodhi, Skyler and Kelsey.

Hailey Kremenek

乐播传媒/University of Glasgow Award

Hailey Kremenek graduated from the University of Delaware with a BA in art conservation and art history. Over her undergraduate career she treated objects ranging from a grass basket from western Alaska to a shattered porcelain plate, but the preservation and history of textile objects ultimately became her focus. Outside of the classroom, she worked within the textile conservation laboratory at Winterthur Museum as a technician for one and a half years to prepare twentieth century evening gowns for exhibition.听
In early 2023, Hailey was awarded funding for travel through Ireland, Belgium and France as part of an independent study on the history of textile art and women鈥檚 work that she felt was absent from her formal art history education. Over four weeks, she attended workshops taught by female textile artists and immersed herself in locations of textile production from the Renaissance to the Industrial period.

This 乐播传媒 will support Hailey鈥檚 education at the University of Glasgow where she will earn a Masters of Philosophy in Textile Conservation. Along with exploring the chemical principles of fiber degradation and the ideal climate for collections storage, she also looks forward to engaging with Scotland鈥檚 traditional craft history and contemporary art culture.

Josh Lastimoso

乐播传媒/Newcastle University Award

Josh graduated with a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of South Carolina in 2022.听听 Growing up in Sumter, South Carolina, he found his passion in biomedical research from his mentors.听 During his early undergraduate years, he learned about current research topics in data science with Dr. Sher Chhetri from USC Sumter.听 Later on, he would eventually join a lab at USC Columbia under Dr. Alissa Armstrong where he studied stem cell and developmental biology.听 After graduating, he worked in various clinical departments, from ophthalmology to surgical pathology.听 From his experiences working in both research and healthcare, he decided to combine the two and pursue a career in clinical research.听
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At Newcastle University, Josh will pursue a Master of Research degree in Cardiovascular Sciences.听 There, he will study the heart and the systems surrounding cardiac tissues using biomolecular lab techniques.听 听
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During his free time, Josh likes to lift, write music, and spend time with his friends.听 Outside of his studies at Newcastle, he plans to connect with the community by volunteering at local organizations.听 After the 乐播传媒 program, he plans to enroll in a physician-scientist program to develop and further specialize his education on heart health.听

Zachary Lewis

乐播传媒/Royal Veterinary College Award

Zachary Lewis graduated from Carleton College with a BA (with Distinction) in biology and a biochemistry minor. At Carleton, he researched female sexual dysfunction with the Meerts Lab. He then joined the Hale Lab at OSU鈥檚 College of Veterinary Medicine, where he is completing his master鈥檚 degree in Comparative Biomedical Science. At OSU, Zach studies host-associated microbiota in a canine model of bladder cancer, uses bioinformatics to identify pathogens affecting American alligators, and investigates how bacteria modify carcinogens contaminating the environment. 听
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Zach is fascinated by wild animals, their connections to humans and the environment, and the scientific movement to improve the health of all three. As a 乐播传媒er at RVC, Zach will research how genomic architecture enables certain bacteria to infect multiple host species, wild birds, domestic swine, poultry, and humans. Zach is excited to collaborate with UK stakeholders, researchers, and students to maximize scientific and cultural exchange. 听
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When he鈥檚 not researching animals, Zach likes talking about animals: he鈥檚 an educator with a primate conservation nonprofit and a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. In his spare time, Zach enjoys reading, running, and rock climbing. In London, he looks forward to volunteering with a local nature center and joining a queer climbing group.听

Britney Mayorga

乐播传媒/University of Reading Award in Food Security

Born and raised near Atlanta, Georgia, Britney received the full-ride QuestBridge National College Match Scholarship and Gates Scholarship to graduate from Emory University with a BS in Biology and Human Health.听
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Britney鈥檚 interest in nutrition began as an NIH/ NIDDK STEP-UP intern when she worked with Dr. Jessica Alvarez to compare data from various clinical populations to assess differences among machines used to obtain anthropometric measurements. Her passion for nutrition crystallized upon taking Dr. Myra Woodworth-Hobbs鈥� nutrition classes at Emory University and realizing the importance of food in preventing chronic diseases and ensuring a healthy lifestyle.听

At Emory, she served in various leadership roles, such as the President of Emory Questbridge Scholars Network, Vice President at Large for Omicron Delta Kappa, Senior Resident Advisor of Aladobbs, and Vice President of Crochet at Emory. Britney also dedicated her time as an undergraduate mentor for high school students through Emory Pipeline Collaborative and Matriculate. As a native Spanish speaker with her family from Hidalgo, Mexico, she also volunteered as a qualified Spanish medical interpreter at local free clinics.听

Through volunteering in clinics and working as an emergency medicine medical scribe, Britney鈥檚 passion for serving low-income communities as a Spanish-speaking physician to eliminate language and cultural barriers has grown. This 乐播传媒 will give her the opportunity to pursue an MSc in Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Reading to equip her with the nutritional knowledge and experience to support better low-income communities burdened with chronic diseases when she returns to the United States to attend medical school. In the UK, she will utilize the research skills she has learned to contribute to a meaningful project.听

Ally McCarthy

乐播传媒/University of Bristol Award

Ally McCarthy graduated with a B.A. in Arabic Studies and a B.A. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland at College Park. Ally spent a subsequent year abroad on the David L. Boren Scholarship studying Arabic at the Arab-American Language Institute in Morocco (AALIM) where she also became involved in women鈥檚 empowerment initiatives through sports. 听
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Since returning from Morocco in 2018, Ally served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army Reserve on multiple overseas postings focused on various strategic defense initiatives in Africa. Most recently, Ally deployed to Djibouti where one of her primary responsibilities included implementing Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) strategic objectives within Civil Affairs Operations in West Africa. While at the University of Bristol, Ally aims to further examine various international WPS initiatives through a defense and security lens. This 乐播传媒 will give her the opportunity to gain foundational understanding on international security concepts to establish an improved framework for the implementation of WPS policies with the Department of Defense.听
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Everywhere Ally has lived she volunteers with organizations promoting the empowerment of women and girls through scouting or youth sports programs. Ally is excited to continue this community involvement during her time in Bristol.

Georgeann McLemore

乐播传媒/Ulster University Award

Georgeann McLemore, originally from St. Louis, Missouri, is a recent graduate with a BS in Information Systems and a minor in Fine Arts. She recently served as a design intern at the White House. Art has been one of her lifelong passion, fueling her desire to build a career in this field. Her academic journey was enriched by her study abroad experiences in South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Amsterdam, broadening her cultural perspectives.听
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For her senior seminar project, she developed an app designed to alleviate the stress faced by immigrant parents in the United States as they navigate the English language barrier. This project exemplifies her commitment to creating solutions that positively impact underserved communities. Driven by a deep-rooted motivation to utilize her skills in design and technology to address societal challenges, Georgeann views the 乐播传媒 Program as an invaluable opportunity to further her knowledge and collaborate with like-minded individuals globally. Through this program, she aspires to develop an app that caters to the specific needs of a niche demographic, providing them with innovative tools to overcome their unique obstacles.听
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Ultimately, her goal is to create inclusive and accessible solutions that empower marginalized communities, fostering a more equitable society. She is confident that the 乐播传媒 Program will equip her with the necessary resources and guidance to turn her vision into a tangible reality. One thing she looks forward to is making new friends and meeting new people within her program and perfecting her Irish accent during her time abroad.听

Rebecca Mesonjnik

乐播传媒/University of St. Andrews Award in Arts & Humanities

Rebecca Mesonjnik has dreamt of living inside a museum since she first read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler when she was seven years old. Since then, she has visited countless museums across the United States and around the globe.听
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Rebecca graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York City with a BFA in Communication Design. During her time there, she began working at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, where she discovered her passion for fostering inclusivity within arts and cultural institutions.听
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After initiating the inaugural artist-in-residency program at the Bruce and co-founding the Mother of Pearl Art Collective in New York City, Rebecca continues to craft programs that make art accessible to the public. She now looks forward to working on a PhD in Museum and Heritage Studies at the University of St. Andrews, where she will research best practices for rescuing cultural heritage during times of conflict, safeguarding arts and cultural institutions for future generations.听
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During her time in the UK, Rebecca plans to visit as many cultural and heritage sites as possible and looks forward to sharing her love of museums with others.

Amelia Miller

乐播传媒/University of Nottingham Award

Amelia Miller graduated in 2023 from Tufts University with a B.A. in International Relations and a B.A. in Arabic Language and Cultural Studies. While at Tufts, she volunteered and interned with numerous organizations, including Lawyers Without Borders, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Massachusetts Trial Court. She also participated in the Oslo Scholars program and Tufts in Rwanda Fellowship, both of which solidified her interest in international human rights work. She has spent the last year serving as an Americorps Legal Advocate in Massachusetts, a role in which she has worked on legal advocacy in the fields of poverty law and welfare law. 听
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Amelia will be pursuing an LLM in International Human Rights Law at the University of Nottingham. She is particularly interested in the rights of rural communities and women's rights. Her experiences growing up in a small rural community and transitioning from rural life to urban life have driven her passion for these subjects. She is excited to continue researching rural access to education on an international scale. 听
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Outside of academics, Amelia enjoys birdwatching, gardening, and reading. She has never traveled abroad and is eager to explore the UK and learn more about the Nottingham community.听听

Yasmin Nayrouz

乐播传媒/University of Sussex Award

Yasmin Nayrouz graduated with a dual Bachelors in English & Textual Studies and Public Relations with a minor in Global Security Studies from Syracuse University. Yasmin鈥檚 passion for migration comes from her own family鈥檚 background as her parents immigrated from Egypt to America. Volunteering at a resettlement agency gave her a fuller picture of migration policy and the obstacles newcomers face. 听
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Yasmin鈥檚 experiences have prepared her for a career in advocacy for refugees and immigrants. She interned with Airbnb.org, assisting the non-profit鈥檚 mission of helping individuals impacted by large-scale crises secure temporary housing. She has also interned at an immigration law firm in Italy, learning the various migration processes. Plus, she worked on a data journalism project, analyzing and visualizing how migration policy can have a profound impact on families. 听
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She aims to learn more about and research how educational policies, particularly those related to language acquisition, can be improved for newcomers. She hopes to take an intersectional approach to her work instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. While addressing misconceptions surrounding migration, she strives to help newcomers integrate successfully to improve their social, economic, and mental well-being.

Sam Paul

乐播传媒/Queen Mary, University of London Award

Sam Paul is a current medical student at The Ohio State University鈥檚 College of Medicine. In his early years of medical school, Sam realized a passion for critical care medicine after observing and taking part in the care of critically ill patients. He will be furthering this passion for critical care at the Queen Mary University of London, where he will gain insight into a global perspective of the field as he pursues his master鈥檚 degree in Critical Care Medicine.听
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Throughout his medical education, Sam has sought out opportunities for growth in his interprofessional and leadership skills. He founded a student group to create formative assessment material for his peers and participated in advanced classes on optimizing performance in the interprofessional setting. When he saw these very skills being put to vital use in the ICU, he knew that he had found a home for his passions and developing skills. While receiving his degree from QMUL, Sam will also be participating in ongoing research projects at the university with the goal of optimizing quality of life outcomes in post-ICU patients.

Lila Raouf

乐播传媒/IOE-Faculty of Education and Society at University College London

Lila Raouf brings a decade of professional expertise in international development, refugee resettlement, and emergency management to her 乐播传媒 fellowship. Lila began her career with United States Peace Corps in Jordan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington, DC to implement various education and youth development projects. Slowly she developed an interest in humanitarian aid, and so she transitioned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a Program Specialist in 2021. Within this role, she delivered training and technical assistance to disaster survivors to support recovery initiatives. In addition, she has over five years of experience dedicated to aiding local refugee resettlement agencies through teaching and curriculum development.听
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Lila holds a bachelor's degree in international studies and Near Eastern languages and cultures from Indiana University. Lila hopes to work with international organizations or federal agencies that provide disaster relief and humanitarian assistance to vulnerable communities in the United States or abroad. Originally from Mobile, Alabama, USA, Lila hopes to bring a diverse perspective to her studies and work.

Maximillian Renfro

乐播传媒/University of Southampton Award

Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Second Lieutenant Maximillian Renfro is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Recognizing the fragile, yet enduring peace and prosperity America鈥檚 government guarantees for its citizens, Maximillian has dedicated his life to its preservation. That mission drove him to West Point, the nation鈥檚 premier institution for public service. During the summer of his sophomore year, Maximillian attended a NATO military exercise hosted by the Italian Army.

That experience demonstrated to him the importance of America鈥檚 international partners and the baffling complexity of working across cultural and linguistic barriers. Those twin realizations drove him to focus his undergraduate academic research on nationalism, translation, and cross-cultural communication. Maximillian will expand on this work while studying Languages and Cultures at the University of Southampton. There, he will study the effectiveness of the cultural engagement techniques used by America鈥檚 Provincial Reconstruction Teams during the Iraq War. In addition to this scholarly opportunity, Maximillian will take part in a military exchange with the Outreach Group of the British Army鈥檚 11th Security Forces Assistance Brigade. Following graduate school, Maximillian will serve in the United States Army as a Military Intelligence officer at Fort Lewis, Washington.听

Saif Salim

乐播传媒/Durham University Award

Saif graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Physics from Amherst College. Saif鈥檚 interest in philosophy and mathematics attracted him to research in fundamental physics. Plagued with questions about the nature of the universe, he found a passion for experiments that precisely controlled well-understood physics to uncover the signatures of undiscovered phenomena.听
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He has advanced many experiments in fundamental physics using atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) techniques. His work has contributed to the world鈥檚 most precise measurement of the electron鈥檚 magnetic and electric dipole moments, which serve as some of the most sensitive probes of physics beyond our current understanding. At Amherst College, he wrote a senior honors thesis describing how to control a host of systematic effects in an experiment searching for a fifth fundamental force. His research experiences have resolved him to pursue a career as a professor to develop his passion for teaching.听
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Outside the laboratory, Saif spends most of his time involved with jazz music. He is the music director of the Amherst College Zumbyes, a jazz-inspired acapella group with a penchant for mischief. He also serves as the President of Jazz@Amherst and plays piano in various small jazz ensembles.

Andie Sheinbaum

乐播传媒/University of Manchester Award

Hailing from Aurora, Colorado, Andie graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Brandeis University in 2024. Her passion for Green Infrastructure stems from a summer-long internship she held at the Charles River Watershed Association, where she researched Green Infrastructure's uses in reducing Combined Sewer Overflows across the United States.听
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Andie has been greatly interested in the idea of solving numerous issues with environmental-based solutions since coming to colleges. Internships at the Office of United States Senator Michael F. Bennet and the Earth Law Center, as well as a multi-term undergraduate Teaching Assistantship for an oceanography course, have given her ample opportunity to explore and delve into the best ways to address multifaceted issues. At the University of Manchester, Andie hopes to continue this investigation by focusing on the different ways that Green Infrastructure can address issues ranging from the urban heat island effect to air pollution. She is excited to learn from her international peers and expert professors in order to tackle the climate crisis in the most effective and equitable way possible.听
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Beyond academics, Andie loves comedy, and has been honored to serve as the president of an improv troupe for the past several years. She has a deep passion for the legal system, music, and books, and looks forward to continuing these pursuits in Manchester.

Frankie Shelton

乐播传媒/University College London Entrepreneurship Award

Frankie Shelton completed her masters degree in Healthcare Administration in 2024 from the University of Washington, where she focused on gender equity and research for the advancement of women's health. A clinical nutritionist by training and owner of a women's digital health clinic, she is passionate about creating sex specific healthcare options that address the significance of women's hormonal timeline. During her time at the University of Washington, she cofounded HerHeartCo, a healthcare technology to听
reduce women鈥檚 risk of cardiovascular disease through perimenopausal intervention.听
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Since her own health crisis in 2012, she has devoted her career to advancing the role of integrative health and close monitoring to develop better ways to care for women's health throughout their lifetime. Her pursuit of the University College London Entrepreneurship Award is to further develop HerHeartCo, with the primary objective of bringing to life a new approach for delivering diet and lifestyle recommendations in women's healthcare. The platform aims to improve women's quality of life by responding to their biometrics in real time with easy to follow advice on their mobile device and access to a team of women鈥檚 health specialists. This 乐播传媒 will give Frankie the opportunity to learn from and engage in healthcare solutions on a global scale that not only improve women's quality of life but simultaneously contribute to the gap in data around women's physiology. 听
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Outside of her innovation leadership in women's health, Frankie is an avid traveler, exploring culture through food systems and locality.

Shreya Tellur

乐播传媒/University of Stirling Award in Health, Well-being and Sport

Shreya Tellur, of Greenville, SC, graduated with a BSc in Psychology from Clemson University. Shreya's passion for mental health research was catalyzed through her journey volunteering in diverse healthcare clinics in India, France, and the US. 听
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While at Clemson, Shreya had been part of different research projects understanding well-being factors and mental health stressors to contribute towards creating more comprehensive patient care. Specifically, her honors thesis focused on how diversity in the workplace impacts nurses鈥� job attitudes and burnout. Her work was chosen to be presented at the American Psychological Association conference. 听
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Outside of research, Shreya's passion to advocate for mental health had led her to create a Suicide Awareness advocacy program at Clemson University, and join Clemson Student Government to create awareness for mental health resources. 听
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While at the University of Stirling, Shreya aims to investigate the transition of behavior from the pre-pregnancy to pregnancy population in collaboration with NHS Scotland. Her goal is to to deepen understanding of physician diagnostic patterns, clinical guidelines, and cultural factors, vital for addressing policy implications.

Josie Tidmore

乐播传媒/Cardiff University Award

Josie Tidmore graduated from Bowdoin College with a B.A. in Neuroscience and English. As an undergraduate, she developed a foundation in stem cell and molecular biology through her research in the Rubin lab at Harvard University and in the Powell lab at Bowdoin, where she completed her senior thesis.听听

As a 乐播传媒 postgraduate, Josie will study sex-specific kidney disease phenotypes in kidney epithelial cells as an M.Phil. student in the Fraser lab at Cardiff University. Using stem cells from patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), Josie aims to develop a human model of kidney cells in order to identify sex-specific differences in disease pathology, work which may contribute to the development of more targeted therapies for CKD. After 乐播传媒, she intends to earn an MD-PhD and eventually start her own lab dedicated to studying kidney regeneration. Her goal is to lead a lab that emphasizes multicultural collaboration in pursuit of scientific advances in kidney health.听听

Outside of the laboratory, Josie is involved in patient advocacy for rare kidney diseases. She is eager to share her experiences in the rare disease space with a larger community of patient advocates and healthcare professionals as a volunteer with local kidney health organizations in Wales.听

Alisa Tom

乐播传媒/University of Edinburgh Award

Alisa is an accomplished interior designer dedicated to creating spaces that enhance well-being and promote sustainability. Growing up in San Francisco, she learned early on the profound impact of the built environment on well-being, sparking a lifelong fascination with how spaces shape human behavior.听
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Alisa pursued her undergraduate studies in Interior Design, Art, and English Literature as a Presidential Scholar at San Francisco State University. She further developed her creative leadership skills with a Master鈥檚 in Design Management and Communications from Georgetown University, where she was elected graduate student senator.听
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Professionally, Alisa has led teams in crafting innovative workplaces for sustainability-minded clients such as Salesforce and Google. She holds WELL AP and LEED AP ID+C credentials, highlighting her expertise in enhancing sustainability and well-being through design.听
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As a 乐播传媒er, Alisa aims to leverage design to address the systemic challenges outlined in the UN鈥檚 Global Goals for Sustainable Development. While pursuing a Master鈥檚 in Design for Change at the University of Edinburgh, she is eager to explore how multisensory environments transform the human experience.听
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When not dreaming up her next designs, Alisa enjoys doing improv, exploring nature, or striking a pose in yoga class. She looks forward to immersing herself in Edinburgh鈥檚 vibrant arts scene and Scotland鈥檚 great outdoors.听

Andrea Valentini

乐播传媒/Trinity Laban Award in Music & Dance

Andrea Valentini graduated with degrees in Dance and Anthropology and minors in Digital Art and Economics from the University of California, Irvine. She is pursuing a certificate in Pre-Medical and General Science Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles Extension School. 听
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Valentini completed 4 Dance Science research projects during her undergraduate career, which she presented at undergraduate research symposiums at UCI and at the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science鈥檚 annual conference in 2023. She also received the Hamilton Dance Wellness Symposium鈥檚 scholarship for her project analyzing the physical and mental impact of remote learning on collegiate dance students. Her undergraduate Anthropology honors thesis explored the gender binary's impact on collegiate dance education. The 乐播传媒 will allow her to continue analyzing the intersection of dance and gender theory via implicit bias testing and dancer-specific outcome measures. She aims to help establish social science research as a subset of dance medicine while advocating for inclusivity in the dance world. 听
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Valentini has been a dancer for 21 years and most recently was a member of the competitive hip hop team The G.O.O.D. Project. She looks forward to expanding her academic knowledge and dance practice while residing in the United Kingdom.

Shanelle Villegas

Open Study/Research Award

Shanelle Chloe Villegas (she/they) graduated with a BFA in Contemporary Theatre from Boston Conservatory at Berklee. She is a highly awarded actor, writer, arts educator and experimental theatre artist who was recognized in September 2022 as one of fifteen artists of color leaving an imprint on Massachusetts in WBUR鈥橲 鈥淭he Makers鈥�. In March of 2023, Shanelle ended her playwrighting residency at The Boston Center for the Arts where she has been developing a devised memoir play about the coexistence of grief and love at the intersection of parental emotional absence, oppressive institutions of patriarchy and racism, and intergenerational trauma within her dysfunctional family of color. This 乐播传媒 opportunity will give her the opportunity to research Ghanaian-British community members and incorporate their perspective on intergenerational trauma into the finished version of this play, in affiliation with Talawa Theatre Company. 听
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Outside of theatre, Shanelle is most well-known for being an arts educator throughout the City of Boston - mentoring young people who wish to pursue careers in the arts and championing their creative genius and visionary talents.听听听

Leonard Wang

乐播传媒/University of Strathclyde Award

Leonard is a fourth-year MD/MPH student at the University of Texas Medical Branch. He completed a bachelor鈥檚 degree in Honors Biomedical Sciences at the University of Houston through an accelerated BS/MD program. In medical school, Leonard worked as the Health Policy Research Coordinator for the Department of Family Medicine and collaborated on research-to-policy projects with over $1.1 million in funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With a passion for public health and health equity, Leonard is an Albert Schweitzer Senior Fellow and TYLENOL庐 Future Care Scholar. 听
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At the University of Strathclyde, Leonard will pursue an MSc in Health and Social Policy. Through 乐播传媒, Leonard will gain valuable professional and personal experiences to support his future career as a physician working at the intersection of clinical practice, policy, and healthcare leadership to alleviate health inequities and provide compassionate care to the underserved.听听

Emily Woodruff

乐播传媒/Queen's University Belfast Award in Global Security and Borders

Emily Woodruff of St. Peters, Missouri, graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a B.A. in Global Studies. As an undergraduate student she served as a research assistant on projects examining historic Irish nationalist women鈥檚 religious beliefs and national disbarment patterns in the U.S. Emily developed a passion for studying nationalism and migration after spending a semester in the Basque Country in Spain where she conducted a research project analyzing the Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ-PNV) and the Scottish National Party鈥檚 (SNP) social policies towards asylum seekers and refugees. She continued this research in her senior honors thesis by using migration to compare the nationalisms espoused by the EAJ-PNV and the SNP. In college Emily also interned at the ACLU of Missouri, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Labor and was involved with Sigma Iota Rho, WashU Votes, and the Washington University Political Review.听 听
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Emily will attend the Global Security and Borders M.A. program at Queens University Belfast. In this program she intends to analyze how migration impacts ethno-sectarian divided communities in Northern Ireland. After completing her degree Emily plans to join the federal government and work to find solutions to address the worldwide migration crisis.听听听

Grace Xu

乐播传媒/Manchester Metropolitan University Award in Creative Writing

Grace graduated from Princeton University in 2022 with a Bachelor鈥檚 degree in Politics and a minor in Creative Writing, for which she wrote a poetry anthology about her family鈥檚 experience immigrating to the United States. 听
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At Manchester Metropolitan University, Grace hopes to continue to explore her interdisciplinary interests in creative writing and political science. Grace鈥檚 乐播传媒 project will be a fantasy novel about a Chinese immigrant to Manchester, who, after she dies, traces her life鈥檚 journey in reverse as she tries to return to her ancestral home- and in the process, interacts with other ghosts and different notions of the afterlife.听
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Grace is excited to explore more of Manchester- especially the rich history of literature, theater, and music the city has to offer- and also to attend a lot of Manchester United games.

Lisa Avalos

乐播传媒-Queen Mary University of London Scholar Award (Multiple Disciplines)

Lisa Avalos joined the Louisiana State University Law Center faculty in 2018. Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of criminal law and procedure, with an emphasis on sexual offenses and gender-based violence. Professor Avalos鈥檚 articles have appeared in the University of Illinois Law Review, Connecticut Law Review, Case Western Reserve Law Review, Brooklyn Law Review, Nevada Law Journal, Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Fordham International Law Journal, and others. She earned a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University.听

As a 乐播传媒 Scholar at Queen Mary University of London, Professor Avalos will complete research and write a book with the aim of changing laws and policies around the prosecution of sexual assault survivors.听

Ryan Berke

乐播传媒-University of Sheffield Scholar Award (All Disciplines)

Ryan Berke is an Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Utah State University. His research focus is experimental solid mechanics for extreme temperature environments including: spacecraft re-entry, hypersonic flight, jet engines, rocket nozzles, and next-generation nuclear reactors. He is especially interested in the role that environment plays in damage accumulation across extreme temperature, time, and length scales. His work has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation, US Department of Energy, Air Force Research Lab, and NASA, among others.听

While at the University of Sheffield, he will employ novel vibration-based methods to more quickly characterize fatigue damage accumulation in fiber-reinforced composites. By enabling the more widespread safe use of composites, engineers will be better able to design more robust systems at reduced weight and cost without sacrificing safety or performance.听

Miriam Boeri

乐播传媒-Scotland Distinguished Scholar at the University of Edinburgh, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (All Disciplines)

Jillian Conrad

乐播传媒-Cardiff University Scholar Award (All Disciplines)

Jillian Conrad is an artist who 鈥媔ntertwines the practices of sculpture and drawing to reshape and re-see the world around her. Her work looks to landscape as a threshold connecting the visible and the invisible. As a 乐播传媒 Scholar at Cardiff University, Jillian will work with colleagues in the School of History, Archeology and Religion to develop 鈥渉oly-hole鈥�, a group of map-drawings of holy wells across Wales. 鈥淗oly-hole鈥� investigates what makes the holy wells in Wales holy, as well as the sculpturally 鈥榟ole-y鈥� transition of water as it moves from below to above ground.听听

Jillian has exhibited her work in galleries and museums both nationally and internationally. Her work has been reviewed and discussed in Artforum, Hyperallergic, Art Lies, The New York Times, and others. She is Associate Professor of Sculpture at the University of Houston.听听

In addition to searching out holy wells around Wales, Jillian looks forward to engaging with the Welsh language, mythology, and weather.听

Alana Dagenhart-Calvo

乐播传媒-Queen's University Belfast Scholar Award (Irish Literature)

Belfast poet Ciaran Carson asks the question in his poem, "Belfast Confetti," "What is / my name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going?" and in this project, Dagenhart-Calvo asks the same. She also asks; Do Northern Irish Poetics still influence North Carolina poetry and music? How do ancient chants and speech patterns serve as a base in modern lyricism in Appalachia? She wants to know if her own poems, grown from the watershed of Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina really have ties to the hills of Northern Ireland? In this hybrid project blending poetry, place studies, and pedagogy, Dagenhart-Calvo will study and teach at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen's University Belfast. Most of all, she wants to walk the roads and be "in place," to hear tales of The Troubles, feel the wind blow cold off of the Irish Sea and begin to know the place she鈥檚 only read about. She wants to see the lights of Belfast at night, hear the singing, and write it all into a book of poems.听

Lydia Dixon

乐播传媒-Edinburgh Napier University Scholar Award (Nursing)

Dr. Lydia Dixon is a medical anthropologist and Associate Professor of Health Science at California State University, Channel Islands. She has conducted extensive ethnographic research on topics related to midwifery, childbirth, and healthcare in Mexico and the United States.听

As a 乐播传媒 Scholar at Edinburgh Napier University, Dr. Dixon will study rural midwifery education in Scotland with a focus on how midwifery degrees can address gaps in rural maternal healthcare through online training.听