Student Fulbright Winners Head to Malaysia, Romania
Mustafa Alemi and Kellie Ferguson are SDSUs Fulbright students for 2018-19.
Ferguson will begin teaching in Romania in October 2018, and Alemi will teach in Malaysia beginning in January 2019.
Both are graduating from the College of Arts and Letters on Friday, May 11; Alemi with a bachelor’s degree in political science and Ferguson with a master’s degree in English.
Including the most recent awards, 90 SDSU students have been selected for the prestigious Fulbright student program since 2005-06. Encouraging students to apply for the program is part of a university-wide effort that promotes international experiences.
Alemi was active in several SDSU organizations, including Associated Students, the Muslim Students Association and Students for Justice in Palestine. He received a fellowship to work on Capitol Hill last summer in the office of U.S. Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D-Nev.). He was also selected as a 2018 UCLA Law Fellow, a program that prepares underrepresented minority students for law school. In addition to teaching English in Malaysia, he hopes to create a digital pen pal program through which his Malaysian students can correspond with their peers in San Diego.
Ferguson was a graduate teaching associate in the rhetoric and writing studies deparement during her graduate studies at SDSU. Her final portfolio examined materiality in Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” and “A Room of One’s Own.” In Romania, she will teach university students enrolled in American studies classes. Ferguson also hopes to organize an informal study group to discuss American literature, film and music.
More about Fulbright awards
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, initiated in 1946 and funded through Congressional appropriations, offers research, study and teaching opportunities in more than 140 countries to recent graduates and graduate students.Provost Emerita Nancy Marlin is SDSU’s current Fulbright adviser. Visit the Fulbright program website to learn more about information sessions, writing workshops and application deadlines for the 2019-20 awards.
