Brandeis students awarded prestigious fellowships, scholarships

Brandeis undergraduates, recent alumni, and graduate students have been awarded prestigious academic scholarships and fellowships to pursue their academic interests and research.

Each academic year, the Academic Fellowships team guides hundreds of Brandeis students and alumni in exploring their academic and professional interests, reflecting on their values and goals, and helping them develop competitive applications for national and international fellowships.

“We are so proud of every one of our applicants who had the courage to put their thoughts and ideas out into the world. Applying for a fellowship is rigorous and time-consuming, and we are in awe of the wide range of students who embrace the process, even when the odds of winning are long,” said Meredith Monaghan, Executive Director of Academic Fellowships. “For those that have received awards this year, we are absolutely thrilled for each of them to gain well-deserved recognition and funding. They have worked hard to discern and articulate what matters to them, and how they can expand upon their Brandeis education to engage with the world in a meaningful way.”

The following students have been awarded fellowships and scholarships:

Petra Dujmic '24 has been named one of 413 Goldwater Scholars nationwide. The Goldwater Scholarship fosters outstanding students in their sophomore and junior year to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering. It is considered the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields.

A neuroscience major, Dujmic is interested in advancing therapeutics for cardiovascular disorders by investigating the function of peripheral neuronal circuits. In addition to her commitment to scientific research, Dujmic coordinates events for the Neuroscience Club, has been selected to deliver a talk at the Boston Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience, and founded the Croatia chapter of the Brain Bee, an international neuroscience competition for teens. Dujmic is the 24th Brandeis undergraduate student to have earned this distinction since 1989, and is the fourth in the last five years.

Boren Awards provide up to $30,000 to U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to add an international and language component to their education through specialized study and increased language proficiency. Undergraduate Boren Scholars and graduate student Fellows immerse themselves in study and research in parts of the world underrepresented in study abroad programs, including Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The following students have won Boren Awards:

Emily Atieh '23 is majoring in anthropology and minoring in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies and Arabic language, literature, and culture, and will study Arabic in Jordan. 

Andy Mendez, Heller '23 is pursuing both a master of business administration degree and master’s in sustainable international development, and will study Turkish in Azerbaijan. 

Victoria Zidek, Heller '23 is pursuing master’s degrees in sustainable international development and in conflict resolution and coexistence, and will study Portuguese in Brazil.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program was established by the U.S. Congress to foster understanding between the people of the United States and other countries and to facilitate the exchange of ideas. Recipients are chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential, and are given the opportunity to study, teach, conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns. The following students and alumni have been awarded Fulbright grants: 

Elizabeth Brewer '23, majoring in international and global studies with a Hispanic studies minor, will conduct ethnographic research in Bosnia and Herzegovina to examine perceptions of the roles and effectiveness of international institutions and supranational organizations among Bosnian youth. 

Maddie Chacon '21, who graduated with a BS/MS in biology, will conduct research on resistance to treatment in pediatric brain cancer at the renowned Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany. 

Abby Miranker '20, an Art History major, will pursue a master’s degree in art history degree at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico and undertake research into the ways in which contemporary local art collectives act as subcultures responding to sociopolitical dynamics.

Fox Baudelaire '20, a biological physics and chemistry major now studying at the University of Michigan, will pursue a project to model the kinetics and thermodynamics of chaperone-mediated protein folding in the Department of Physics at Toronto Metropolitan University in Canada.

Medha Asthana, GSAS '26, a third-year doctoral student in anthropology, will examine daily relations between queer-identified individuals socialized as daughters and their mothers and other female kin in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India on topics of gendered expectations, narratives of care, and negotiations of power.

Becca Frankel, GSAS '23, graduating with an master’s degree in ancient Greek and Roman studies, will pursue an master’s degree in creative writing at University College Cork in Ireland, and will write a poetry collection through the voice of the Banshee and other figures of wailing women and death messengers.

Tyler Lecours, GSAS '24, pursuing a master’s degree in ancient Greek and Roman studies, will analyze Greek emporia located throughout Bulgaria and will direct participation in the ongoing archaeological excavations at Pistiros, the only known Greek emporium in central Bulgaria. 

Victoria Zidek, Heller '23, pursuing master’s degrees in sustainable international development and in conflict resolution and coexistence, will work alongside Maestra Janga at the Federal University of Bahia’s feminism and gender department and the Grupo Nzinga de Capoeira studio to study the relationship between Capoeira, feminism, and restorative justice in Salvador, Brazil.