Towson University is proud to announce that four Tigers are finalists for the 2026–27 Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

For this academic year, TU had 22 submissions, the most in school history.

Aside from their academics, all applicants worked tirelessly with the Office of Competitive Fellowships and Awards (OCFA) to not only finish the grueling application process but also complete mock interviews to prepare.

“Dr. Fran Botkin and I, have a unique role in the Office of Competitive Fellowships & Awards: preparing students for global careers by supporting them throughout the application process for some of the most prestigious academic awards in the world,” says Mary Sajini Devadas, professor of chemistry and director of competitive fellowships & awards. "We are extremely proud of our students and their efforts!"

English Teaching Assistant Award

Karina Balladares-Santos ’26

karina-balladares-santos
Karina Balladares-Santos

Karina Balladares-Santos graduated with a bachelor’s degree in elementary and special education. She will be working in Spain’s Canary Islands.

“Being a Fulbright finalist is amazing to me,” Balladares-Santos says. “I am a first-generation student, and no one in my family has ever been able to go abroad for an opportunity like this. They are all so proud of me for receiving this grant.”

When she returns, she will begin as a teacher with Montgomery County Public Schools.

Luis Rodriguez-Lecha ’26

TU Fulbright winner Luis Rodriguez-Lecha
Luis Rodriguez-Lecha

Luis Rodriguez-Lecha graduated with bachelor’s degrees in Spanish and English. He will be working in Spain at IE University’s writing centers in Madrid and Segovia.

“The Office of Competitive Fellowships and Awards was an invaluable resource during my application process,” he says. “All last summer, I met with Dr. Mary Devadas and Dr. Frances Botkin from the OCFA to go over my first, second and third drafts. Polishing my application was a lot of work; I don’t know if I could have followed the process through to the end without their support.”

Rodriguez-Lecha was not only a member of TU’s Honors College, he also worked in the Writing Center and in the OCFA. After completing his Fulbright assistantship, he will start a master’s degree in library and information science at Pratt Institute in New York City.

David Christian ‘24

David Christian is a second-year master’s degree student in the Human Resource Development Program. He graduated from TU with his bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2024. He applied to be an ETA in Taiwan to both grow as a teacher and cultural learner.

Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities Award

Ashley Hajimirsadeghi ’24

TU Fulbright winner Ashley Hajimirsadeghi
Ashley Hajimirsadeghi

Ashley Hajimirsadeghi graduated with a master’s degree in global humanities in 2024. She will travel to South Korea for a project on ethnographic and autoethnographic poetry created in Seoul and Busan.

Hajimirsadeghi was named a Fulbright Scholar in 2024 as well. The same year, she won the prestigious Critical Language Scholarship and was TU’s first recipient of the National Security Education Program’s David L. Boren Fellowship.

She chose her project based on previous experiences in Korea funded by the Critical Language Scholarship.

“I began asking more questions about what life was like as an immigrant to Korea, especially as I was a foreigner temporarily navigating that same space,” she says. “That created the idea behind my project: compiling the stories of West and South Asian immigrants in Korea through poetry and other multimedia forms.

“It’s been something I’ve been thinking about for years, and reapplying to the Fulbright in Korea grants me the chance to explore those liminal spaces even more.”

Fulbright alternate

TU Fulbright winner Jacob Rosenbloom
Jacob Rosenbloom

Towson University also has one Fulbright alternate. If a finalist position opens for any reason, alternates are first in line to be awarded a scholarship.

Jacob Rosenbloom ’25 was also named an alternate for the Fulbright’s master’s degree award program. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology, biochemistry and bioinformatics, and if awarded the Fulbright, he will be part of the master’s program in plant sciences at Tel Aviv University.

Regardless if Rosenbloom receives the award, he will attend Tel Aviv University thanks to a scholarship from the school.

“Going through this application process taught me how to put together a competitive application,” Rosenbloom says. “I applied what I learned to my summer internship search and landed a position at the National Institutes of Health.”

More about the Fulbright program

Administered by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright Program provides competitive, merit-based grants for individually designed study/research projects abroad or English Teaching Assistant (ETA) Programs outside the U.S. The program operates in more than 140 countries and awards grants in nearly all fields and disciplines, including the humanities, social sciences, STEM fields and creative and performing arts.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards just over 2,000 grants annually to American graduating college seniors, graduate students and young professionals to study, conduct research or teach English abroad.