WASHINGTON (MAY 26, 2016)--One Howard University faculty member and four students have been selected as recipients for the 2016-2017 cycle of Fulbright awards.

This year’s recipients include Fulbright Scholar to India Dr. Rajni Goel, associate professor and department chair, Information Systems and Supply Chain Management, School of Business; and student program winners history major Shannon Coombs (B.A. ’16) and biology major Brittany Galloway (B.S. ’16) for English Teaching Assistantships (ETA) to South Korea, English major Layla West (B.A. ’16) for an ETA to South Africa, and Oluwafunmilayo Ladeinde (J.D. ’15) for a project in Botswana.

As part of her project, Goel will be at Jindal Global University Business School (JGUBS), assisting faculty in developing an information systems major and assessing the gaps between the IT business curriculum and what is required in the Indian corporate environment.  She intends to use  her experiences, learned education pedagogies and IT business case outcomes in her Howard classroom. She also wants to establish an exchange program and other collaborative ventures between Howard and JGUBS.

“As the world becomes smaller, we need to see that our students are actually choosing careers that are very globally-positioned and understand different aspects of the different countries that they’re going to be serving in,” said Goel. “When I’m [in India], I’ll be hosting workshops on cyber [information] and I’ll be visiting other universities.  So, that network that I’ll be building is going to be a huge asset, when I come back, for Howard professors and students.”

Ladeinde, currently a legal fellow in New Haven, Connecticut, will work with an advocacy group of female attorneys and judges in Botswana, focusing on enforcement of gender violence and domestic violence constitutional laws. She also expects to find out more about experiences of women and children to bridge gaps between cultural custom and government-imposed accountability and help train young men and women about self-esteem and relationships. 

“Though Botswana has a constitution, customary laws oftentimes supersede that,” said Ladeinde.  “So, if there was a case of domestic violence, the community would come together and talk to the man, and nothing would necessarily be done in terms of justice or […] actually making sure this doesn’t happen again.” 

Ladeinde hopes to return with a better working knowledge of how to assist immigrant populations in the U.S., who may still hold to tradition in deciding whether or not—and to whom—to report domestic and gender violence.

West is a graduate of Howard’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) program and a student of Egyptian hieroglyphs, Latin and Swahili, among others. Her sister is in South Africa completing the same ETA that West was awarded. West credits mentorship and encouragement from faculty within Howard’s language program with making her see the advantages of being a Fulbright applicant.

“When I came to Howard, I realized that African languages have a space in academia,” said West. “Learning all those languages started getting me interested in my background, my people and the African presence in academia, especially as it pertains to linguistics. South Africa is a great point of departure for that kind of research and study, because […] there are 11 national languages...”

“Awards and applications to Africa and the Caribbean are consistent with the University's mission and the overall academic focus on the African diaspora,” said Dr. Kari Miller, Howard University director of Honors and Scholars Development in the Office of Undergraduate Studies.  “In general, Howard has an extensive world languages program, including the study of Korean.  Our students have a competitive advantage, because they can hit the ground already speaking an advanced level of Korean.”

A pre-pharmacy student and president of Howard’s unofficial Korean Culture Club, Galloway took four semesters of Korean language courses at Howard, and applied to—and earned interviews with—two other ETA programs to South Korea as a means of gaining fluency through immersion.

“I was originally going to take Spanish,” said Galloway, “but, when I looked at the different languages that were offered by Howard University, I thought I would give it a shot and try something new. I had a previous interest in Korean music, so I wanted to see if I could possibly expand upon my skills.”

Like Galloway, Coombs began with an interest in Korean music. But, after spending a semester studying in South Korea with an English teacher as a host, she found herself pursuing a Fulbright to South Korea for an even more extensive experience.

“The main thing I hope to take away from having a Fulbright is another opportunity to  . . . get to know people from different backgrounds, [and] challenge things that I take for granted, that I feel are implicitly true.  By being in Korea and learning from Korean people, hearing their perspectives of the world, it just illuminates everything for me.”

The Fulbright program, established in 1946, is offered by the U.S. State Department to facilitate international educational exchanges for students, teachers and other professionals.

With this year’s Fulbright announcements, Howard has had more than 75 faculty and student winners; 46 grants have been to students.

The Fulbright program has also designated four alternates from Howard: English major Aisha Bowen (B.A. ’16) for an ETA in South Africa; physical therapy major Gary Loggins (Ph.D. ’16) for a project in the Dominican Republic; political science major Elise Phillips (B.A. ’16) for an ETA in the Dominican Republic; and physics major Aara’l Yarber (B.S. ’16) for a project in South Africa.

Media Contact:  Stephanie Zerweck, stephanie.zerweck@howard.edu, 202-238-2442

(Pictured: Dr. Rajni Goel, courtesy of HU School of Business; Shannon Coombs, Brittany Galloway, Layla West, courtesy of Justin Knight)