Twenty-two Notre Dame students selected for 2025-26 Fulbright U.S. Student Program
Twenty-two University of Notre Dame students have been named finalists for the 2025-26 Fulbright U.S. Student Program, with another seven singled out as alternates for the award. The finalists include 18 undergraduate students and four graduate students.
Established in 1946, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers students and young professionals from all backgrounds the opportunity to study or teach abroad with support from the U.S. government.
In applying for the award, undergraduate students work closely with the Flatley Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE) and graduate students with the Graduate School’s Office of Grants and Fellowships.
"Given the headwinds of this year's Fulbright cycle, including funding uncertainty and later final notifications, Mathilda Nassar, Emily Buika Hunt and I are incredibly proud of our students for their grit and ultimate success,” said Elise Rudt-Moorthy, associate director of national fellowships at CUSE. “It was an honor working with everyone throughout the summer and fall, and we would like to thank all the faculty and alumni who helped with advising.”
Michael Skalski, associate program director in the Office of Grants and Fellowships, said, “We are very proud of and congratulate all our Fulbrighters this year. Our fellows worked hard and diligently on their applications, so we have the utmost confidence that they will represent Notre Dame and the U.S. in the best way possible in their host countries.”
The finalists are:
Undergraduate
• Aria Bossone, American studies and peace studies (supplemental), English teaching assistantship to Spain
• Charlotte Cardarella, honors anthropology and Arabic, English teaching assistantship to Spain
• Mary Kate Cashman, political science and peace studies (supplemental), English teaching assistantship to Kosovo
• Eva Garces-Foley, anthropology, peace studies (supplemental) and Spanish (supplemental), English teaching assistantship to Spain
• Juliet Hare, political science, global affairs (supplemental with a concentration in international peace studies) and French (supplemental), English teaching assistantship to Luxembourg
• Ethan Harned, psychology and pre-health studies (supplemental), Fulbright-Nehru open study/research award to India
• Sarah Hui, program of liberal studies and theology, open study/research award to Italy
• Joseph Kositzke, American studies, English teaching assistantship to Spain
• Joseph Lufti, American studies and Arabic, English teaching assistantship to Georgia
• Leslie Martin, global affairs and Latino studies (supplemental), English teaching assistantship to Colombia
• Matthew McCollum, honors international economics, English teaching assistantship to Germany
• Maria Murinova, program of liberal studies, English teaching assistantship to the Slovak Republic
• Margaret O’Brien, political science and Italian (supplemental with a concentration in Irish studies), English teaching assistantship to Italy
• Jasmine Peña Ramirez, political science and Latino studies (supplemental), English teaching assistantship to South Korea
• Theresa Salazar, preprofessional studies and theology (supplemental), English teaching assistantship to Spain
• Alexandra Sutton, political science, English teaching assistantship to Lithuania
• Sarah Van Hollebeke, political science and German, English teaching assistantship to Germany
• Juliet Webb, anthropology and peace studies (supplemental), English teaching assistantship to Senegal
Graduate
• Christopher Cirelli, master of education (Alliance for Catholic Education) English teaching assistantship to Italy
• Montana Garcia, master of education (Alliance for Catholic Education), English teaching assistantship to Malta
• Nicholas Herrud, history, open study/research award to Lithuania
• Natasha Rodgers, French and Francophone studies, English teaching assistantship to Mauritius
Latest ND News Wire
- Internationally recognized physician Tom Catena to visit Notre DamePhysician, humanitarian and medical missionary Dr. Tom Catena will visit the University of Notre Dame on Nov. 12 (Wednesday) to deliver the 2025 Rev. Bernie Clark, C.S.C., Lecture at 5 p.m. in the Eck Visitors Center Auditorium. Catena’s lecture, titled “Hope and Healing,” is also part of the 2025-26 Notre Dame Forum, which is organized around the theme “Cultivating Hope.”
- Karen Deak named executive director of Notre Dame’s IDEA CenterKaren Imgrund Deak has been selected as executive director of the IDEA Center at the University of Notre Dame, where she has served in the interim role since September of 2024. She will lead the unit and oversee the roll out of its recent strategic reorganization. Deak brings to the role knowledge of developing partnerships at the IDEA Center, across the University, and beyond.
- Kevin and Cynthia O’Brien endow Notre Dame center devoted to international security research, teaching and leadership formationKevin and Cynthia O’Brien of Dallas have made a significant gift to the University of Notre Dame to endow the O’Brien Notre Dame International Security Center, which provides a forum for scholars and students at the University of Notre Dame and elsewhere to explore the most pressing issues in national security policy.
- Notre Dame receives $2.5 million gift from Coca-Cola to expand entrepreneurship programs into FIFA World Cup 26 host citiesThe Coca-Cola Company in North America has awarded a $2.5 million gift to the University of Notre Dame’s Urban Poverty and Business Initiative (UPBI). The initiative brings together universities and nonprofit organizations committed to alleviating poverty and helping low-income and underprivileged individuals launch and grow sustainable businesses. The gift will enable UPBI, housed within the University’s Keough School of Global Affairs, to expand its network of partner organizations across the United States and into Canada, including cities that will host the FIFA World Cup 26.
- Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington, DC, to speak at Notre Dame Forum event on ‘Healing Our National Dialogue and Political Life’Cardinal Robert McElroy, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., will join University President Rev. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C., for a conversation titled “Healing Our National Dialogue and Political Life” at 4 p.m. Friday (Oct. 17) in Room 215/216, McKenna Hall, as part of the 2025-26 Notre Dame Forum on the theme “Cultivating Hope.” This event is free and open to the public.
- Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute partners with Vanderbilt University to launch 2025-26 democracy surveyThe University of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies and Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy are partnering to advance one of the world’s leading surveys on attitudes toward democracy. Starting in October, the Center for Global Democracy, with support from the Kellogg Institute, will conduct the 2025-26 round of the AmericasBarometer, which tracks public opinion on democracy in 20 countries across the Americas.
