9 Tars Selected as Semifinalists for Fulbright Scholarship

The Fulbright Program has recently announced its list of semifinalists for the 2025-26 scholarship, and nine Rollins students and alumni have made the cut.

For more than 75 years, the Fulbright Program, which was created under the Truman administration in the wake of World War II, has stood as the U.S. government’s flagship educational exchange program, with more than 400,000 participants who have served in 160 countries across the globe. Fulbright winners pursue graduate study, conduct research, or teach English abroad—experiences that often launch them into further postgraduate study, additional fellowships, or high-profile job opportunities that require culturally competent representatives of the United States.

Recently named a top producer of Fulbright Students for the 12th time, Rollins received its first Fulbright in 1951 and has since produced nearly 100 award winners, with almost 70 of those named since 2006. That number is a testament to Rollins’ emphasis on global citizenship as a tenet of its signature brand of liberal arts education.

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2025-26 Fulbright Semifinalists

Lauren Barry ’24

• Major: Social entrepreneurship
• Prospective Fulbright assignment: English Teaching Assistantship (ETA), Portugal

Sophia Cassa ’25

• Major: English
• Prospective Fulbright assignment: ETA, Slovak Republic

Christina Gonzalez ’25

• Major: Philosophy
• Prospective Fulbright assignment: ETA, Guatemala

Pia Hernandez ’25

• Majors: Music and religious studies
• Prospective Fulbright assignment: Master’s program in choral conducting at Escola Superior da Musica Lisboa, Portugal

Katherine Kim ’24

• Major: International business
• Prospective Fulbright assignment: U.S.-Mexico Binational Business Program, Mexico

Abrielle Mannino ’25

• Majors: Public policy & political economy and philosophy
• Prospective Fulbright assignment: Master’s in environmental intelligence with a focus on extreme event attribution science at University of Exeter, United Kingdom

Ivelisse Rodriguez ’25

• Major: English
• Prospective Fulbright assignment: ETA, Panama

Elizabeth Swartz ’25

• Major: Public policy & political economy
• Prospective Fulbright assignment: ETA, Slovak Republic

Katie Taylor ’25

• Majors: Marine biology and environmental studies
• Prospective Fulbright assignment: Research on conservation of customary and community forests, Institut Pertanian Bogor, Indonesia