Four Rice University graduates have been awarded Fulbright scholarships through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, earning opportunities to conduct research, pursue graduate study and teach English abroad.
Administered by the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright Program is one of the nation’s most prestigious international exchange initiatives. The program supports students, scholars and professionals as they engage in academic and cultural exchange in more than 140 countries around the world.
Since its founding in 1946, Fulbright has fostered mutual understanding between the United States and other nations by supporting projects that promote learning, collaboration and cross-cultural engagement.
Rice students received guidance throughout the competitive application process from the university’s Center for Civic Leadership, which provides advising and support for nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships, international research opportunities and leadership development programs.
The four Fulbright recipients will spend the coming year abroad pursuing projects that reflect a wide range of academic interests and global experiences. The recipients shared how they will spend their time abroad.
Lindsey Frost
During the 2026–2027 academic year, I will serve as a Fulbright English teaching assistant at Hristo Botev Foreign Language High School in Kardzhali, Bulgaria. Through the Fulbright Program, I will support English language education while fostering cross-cultural exchange and community engagement. My experiences in consulting, athletics, and organizational leadership have shaped my interest in global collaboration and international communication, and during my Fulbright year, I hope to strengthen my ability to work across cultures and navigate international environments. Beyond the classroom, I look forward to mentoring students through extracurricular involvement and helping expand speech and debate programming. I believe this experience will strengthen my communication skills, adaptability, and perspective while preparing me to work effectively across diverse teams and environments.
Neha Kohli
With the Fulbright scholarship, I will have the incredible opportunity to spend 10 months living and working in Cochabamba, Bolivia, conducting research in collaboration with Fundación Banco de Alimentos de Bolivia (the Food Bank of Bolivia), the first and only food bank in the country. The organization specializes in surplus reallocation, recovering commercially unviable food from farms, factories, and open-air markets and redistributing it to vulnerable communities in need. Building on their mission, my project will track food waste at the farm and open-air market level, specifically exploring its impact on Bolivia’s economy. Ultimately, I hope to build a case for strategic investment in community-driven food recovery systems, framing them not only as a moral imperative, but also as an economically and environmentally sustainable pathway toward a more food-secure future.
Simran Haribhai
As a Fulbright Program scholar through the U.S.-Mexico Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange, I will serve as an English teaching assistant in Mexico. I will also lead a community project in partnership with a local NGO to support survivors of domestic violence. I view English not only as a subject to teach, but also as a tool that can empower students to advocate for themselves academically, professionally and personally. Through my teaching assistantship, I hope to facilitate the exchange of language and ideas while strengthening my commitment to cross-cultural education and advocacy in Mexico. Ultimately, Fulbright will reinforce my long-term goal of pursuing a career in law focused on supporting survivors of gender-based violence and expanding access to educational and legal resources.
Hazel Landers
As a Fulbright grantee, I will spend 10 months in Weimar, Germany, exploring how experimental music has documented and responded to environmental history since German reunification in 1990. I am delighted to have the opportunity to work primarily under the mentorship of Dr. Nina Noeske, one of several leading experts in East German music at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Gemeinsames Institut für Musikwissenschaft (Joint Institute of Musicology at the University of Music Franz Liszt). My research will combine archival and ethnographic work throughout Eastern Germany. I will explore how music functions as a language through which composers originally from Soviet-occupied East Germany have continued to grapple with the interconnectedness of politics, economy, place, culture and environment since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Fulbright Program presents a truly unique opportunity to apply and deepen my research and language skills that I developed during my dual-degree program in music history and German studies at Rice. More broadly, however, I am thrilled to have the chance to foster connections with scholars, composers and performers on an international scale.