Once Again, Rutgers-New Brunswick Is a Top Producer of Fulbright Recipients

Eleven undergraduates and recent graduates receive grants to study and teach abroad from the U.S. government's flagship educational exchange program

Rutgers University-New Brunswick once again has been named a top producer for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, with 11 undergraduate and recent graduates receiving the grants in the 2025-2026 academic year.

"Our students' ongoing success in earning Fulbright grants illustrates once again the Rutgers edge," said Rutgers President William F. Tate IV. "Again and again their grit and perseverance are matched by exceptional intellect and curiosity."

The Fulbright program is the U.S. government's flagship international educational exchange program. Grant recipients conduct research, work on projects, teach English and advance their education at host institutions throughout the world, including Austria, France, Poland and Taiwan.

The "top producer" distinction - shared by some of the nation's most elite institutions, including Princeton and Harvard - is given to colleges and universities in the United States that received the highest number of applicants selected for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program and requires schools to have at least 10 students or recent graduates who have been offered Fulbright grants.

Our students' ongoing success in earning Fulbright grants illustrates once again the Rutgers edge. Again and again their grit and perseverance are matched by exceptional intellect and curiosity.

William F. Tate IV

Rutgers president

"It's a recognition that our students are able to compete at the highest level - that we have really highly qualified students who can do these amazing kinds of experiences and take on these opportunities," said Anne Wallen, director of the Office of Distinguished Fellowshipsat Rutgers-New Brunswick. "They're benefiting a lot from the international experience that they'll have - and they will bring that experience to their future careers."

The university has been a top-producing Fulbright school 15 times in the past two decades, with more than 300 Rutgers-New Brunswick students honored since the scholarship began more than 75 years ago.

"The caliber of our students and our Fulbright distinction speak to Rutgers' commitment to access and excellence, an education built on rigor and a degree that's worth more today than ever before," said Rutgers-New Brunswick Chancellor Francine Conway.

Emily Trujillo: Tracing Aphasia in the Works of Noted Austrians

Rutgers-New Brunswick's latest round of Fulbright recipients includes Emily Trujillo. Since the fall, the Hillsborough, N.J., resident has been in Vienna, where she teaches English, engages in coursework and conducts research on a combined research and teaching grant - a Fulbright opportunity available only in Austria.

Between working as a teaching assistant for students ages 14 to 18, Trujillo attends the University of Vienna, where she takes coursework in theater, film and media studies.

"There's nothing like it," Trujillo said of her experience abroad. "There's just this intangible aura that comes with Vienna, which is a super historic but also modern, and there's a lot of experimental theater ... it's awesome."

Trujillo, who graduated from the Rutgers School of Arts and Sciencesin spring 2025 with a double major in philosophy and German literature, is busy with her Fulbright research project, tracing aphasia - the inability or impaired ability to understand or produce speech - in the works of two famed Austrians: psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and playwright and novelist Elfriede Jelinek.

There's just this intangible aura that comes with Vienna, which is a super historic but also modern, and there's a lot of experimental theater ... it's awesome.

Emily Trujillo

Rutgers graduate

"Freud's thought on the unconscious as structured, like writing, leads me to the relationship between aphasia and the scene of writing in Jelinek," said Trujillo, adding her project is affiliated with the Sigmund Freud Museumand an interuniversity research networkon Jelinek between the University of Vienna and the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna.

Trujillo, who speaks German and is learning French and Japanese, added she is "eternally grateful" to Wallen and the Office of Distinguished Fellowships for helping her prepare and submit a successful Fulbright application. She encouraged Rutgers students and graduates to apply for grants and academic awards through the office.

"So many people will be reading your application, helping you with it, thinking about ways that you can rephrase it, tone it," Trujillo said. "I really could not have done it without the Office of Distinguished Fellowships. There's just such a good network in place."

Administered by the Institute of International Education, each of the roughly 2,000 Fulbright grants issued annually cover the cost of a student's travel, housing and living expenses for a year in the nation where they will be teaching or studying.

Receiving a Fulbright grant "is really the one time for a lot of these students that they'll get a chance to just go do something completely different in another country for a year, fully funded and supported." Wallen said. "They get to go experience life in another country and see the world from a different perspective."

Rutgers-New Brunswick's Fulbright Grant Recipients

• Bennett Allen, School of Arts and Sciences, (Austria)

• Ana-Maria "Andi" Craciun, School of Arts and Sciences (Spain)

• Deepak Gopalakrishnan, School of Arts and Sciences (Taiwan)

• Evan Keeton, School of Arts and Sciences (Taiwan)

• Pauline Kung, School of Arts and Sciences (Taiwan)

• Victoria Richard, School of Arts and Sciences (Spain)

• Robert "Charlie" Scott, School of Arts and Sciences (Austria)

• Christopher Slipiec, School of Arts and Sciences (Poland)

• Vanessa Tirok, School of Arts and Sciences (France)

• Emily Trujillo, School of Arts and Sciences (Austria)

• John Woods, School of Arts and Sciences (Taiwan)

Undergraduate and recent graduates interested in applying for a Fulbright grant may contact the Rutgers-New Brunswick Office of Distinguished Fellowshipsfor more details and support. Graduate students may contact the Rutgers School of Graduate Studies.