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UnitedStates citizens who are currently enrolled in undergraduate or graduate degree programs are eligible to apply.If you are currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program at a U.S. college or university, you will apply through that institution, even if you are not currently a resident there. Find the Fulbright Program Adviser on your campus.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program welcomes applications in the creative and performing arts. Arts candidates for the U.S. Student Program should have relatively limited professional experience in the fields (typically 7 years or less) in which they are applying. Artists with more experience should consider applying for the Fulbright Scholar Program.

If you are a non-U.S. citizen interested in applying for a Fulbright Award to the United States, you will need to apply through the Fulbright Commission or U.S. Embassy in your home country. Find out more information on the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program or Fulbright Foreign Student Program.

The Fulbright Program and the National Geographic Society have partnered to provide a unique Fulbright opportunity, the Fulbright-National Geographic Award Program. This award makes available additional funding and resources to enhance the reach and impact of the Fulbright experience.

Fulbright U.S. Student Program applicants may apply for the Fulbright-National Geographic Award Program and propose up to $20,000 in additional grant funds from the National Geographic Society to expand their research and/or help bring their stories to life and, if selected, join the National Geographic Explorer community.

The Fulbright-National Geographic Award is an enhancement award to a Fulbright Open Study/Research proposal. Fulbright-National Geographic grantees must be selected for a Fulbright Study/Research Grant by the eligible country for which they applied and meet the criteria of the Fulbright Study/Research requirements of the host country.

Daun Lee, a sustainability consultant based in Boston, Massachusetts who received her B.A. in Anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis. Lee works toward equitable, holistic climate mitigation strategies. Lee will research the social impact of converting agricultural lands to solar farms on Jeju Island, South Korea, uncovering the cultural and heritage value disruptions which citrus farmers are facing due to the nation's greenhouse gas reduction goals. This research will provide insight into how to navigate future projects to ensure the longevity of important cultural values while progressing toward greenhouse gas reduction. Daun will share her findings through a journal article and short-form documentary film.

Alexandra Ashworth (she/they) is a Jewish, Filipinx-American filmmaker and writer who was adopted and who explores community, belonging, and identity. They often collaborate with artists and activists, approaching personal topics such as queerness, diaspora, and family from a communal lens. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, Alexandra will work alongside local researchers and community leaders in Cagayan Valley (Philippines) to preserve Ibanag and Itawit cultures. They will develop a collection of short documentary films as a record for future generations and an antithesis to monolithic perceptions of Filipino-ness and Asian-ness. Alexandra studied Spanish, magical realism, and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She has worked with HuffPost, the MET, MOMA, and Brooklyn Museum, and associate produced forthcoming films FIRE THROUGH DRY GRASS and WHAT THE PIER GAVE US.

Natachi will create a series of articles profiling at least 20 of these women, publishing some on the National Geographic Field Notes blog, and will eventually collect these narratives into a website and book.

Jordan Winters is a Filipino-American journalist exploring the revival of maritime traditions and its potential to deepen cultural ties to the ocean. For her Fulbright, Jordan will travel to the Philippines researching and filming the journey of Voyage of Balangay, an organization of explorers dedicated to rebuilding and sailing the balangay, a wooden sailing vessel used as early as 320 AD. Her documentary series will follow their expeditions across the Philippines and Asia as they perfect the art of sailing using this ancient technology. Winters grew up in San Francisco and earned a B.S. in journalism and political science from the University of Southern California. Prior to her Fulbright, she was an Associate Producer at NBC News covering the environment, the pandemic, racial justice, and other topics.

Chris Lett is a former CNN field producer and Emmy-nominated journalist. After reporting on and producing programs about breaking news in the United States, he freelanced as an international correspondent investigating environmental racism in Ghana and Ethiopia. As a Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism, he examined the impact of overfishing by industrial fleets in West African waters. His primary area of research focuses on the causes and effects of depleted fisheries. He will follow up this research to produce a documentary as a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow in Ghana. This feature-length documentary will convey the impact of fisheries policies and practices that endanger the health, sustainability, and resilience of African people globally.

Keerti Gopal is a multimedia storyteller studying the motivations and strategies of youth climate activists. On her Fulbright, she will travel to Taiwan to conduct narrative-based interviews with young people fighting climate change and use a combination of film, photography, and writing to highlight their stories. Originally from Yonkers, NY, Keerti received a BA in American Studies from Northwestern University, where she studied social movements and creative writing. She has conducted interview-based research on climate activism and participated in organizing as part of the national youth-led climate and economic justice collective, the Sunrise Movement. Keerti hopes to work at the intersection of organizing and storytelling, using written and visual media to uplift marginalized voices and provide platforms to those on the frontlines of the global climate crisis.

Emily Toner is a geographer and journalist studying soil carbon in Ireland's carbon-rich boglands. As a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow she will travel around Ireland to understand how climate change-driven policies to preserve peat bogs are impacting people and the soil. Though covering only 3% of the world's landmass, peat soil holds as much carbon as all vegetation combined. Preserving peat bogs and keeping that carbon in place is seen as a low hanging fruit of climate change policy. However, in Ireland, bogs have a rich history of use and are tied to Ireland's energy economy. Emily's stories will be available through the Fulbright-National Geographic blog and other media outlets. Emily earned a geography M.S. and journalism M.A. at University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Abby McBride

New Zeland

Sketch biologist Abby McBride once harbored aspirations of becoming a Victorian-era naturalist explorer. Adapting her career goals to the 21st century, she now travels globally to sketch wildlife and write multimedia stories about science and conservation. In New Zealand, home to the most diverse and endangered seabirds in the world, as a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, Ms. McBride will report on extraordinary efforts to reverse centuries of human-caused harm to penguins, prions, storm-petrels, shearwaters, shags, gulls, gannets, mollymawks, and more. Through art and digital media she aims to convey a visceral sense of the beauty, fascination, and importance of seabirds, which are quickly disappearing from seas and shores worldwide. Ms. McBride is based on the Maine coast and has degrees in biology and science writing from Williams College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Christiana Botic is a Serbian-American documentary photographer and filmmaker who, while traveling to Serbia to document her own family history, learned that, like many families in the former Yugoslavia, it was influenced by migration and impacted by the creation of borders. She will travel to Serbia and Croatia to document the impact of mass migration of Syrians and other refugees/migrants on the cultural landscape of these two countries, divided by the EU border. Christiana plans to travel the Balkan Route and create an interactive map featuring stories of those who are moving through or residing along this path. Currently based in New Orleans, she received her BA in Screen Arts and Cultures from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Lauren Ladov is a local food systems advocate and educator based in Atlanta, who received her BA from Emory University with a dual focus on Film and Media Studies and Philosophy. Through partnerships with local farms and nonprofits, Lauren facilitates food education programming, manages community gardens, and develops training and multimedia resources for educators. In working with youth in urban gardens, she witnessed how growing food has the power to heal communities, both physically and spiritually. For her Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling project, she will share stories of the seeds sown in India by connecting with those striving to create sustainable, community-centered food systems. This project will produce educational media materials and platforms to engage and empower youth as advocates for future generations of seeds, farmers, and diverse ecosystems.

Tim McDonnell is a digital multimedia journalist based in New York City. He will document how a changing climate is compounding longstanding problems with food insecurity and rural poverty in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda. These three countries are all exceptionally vulnerable to climate change, but host unique challenges and opportunities as a result of their distinct political and environmental climates. His reporting will address science, technology, economic development, public health, and other stories at the intersection of climate change and agriculture, using video, blogging, and other digital reporting tools. Tim has a BA in English and Ecology/Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona and is currently Associate Producer for Climate Desk, a collaboration of Mother Jones, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Slate, The Atlantic, Wired, Grist, Newsweek, and the Center for Investigative Reporting, which produces multimedia journalism on climate change.

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