Leah Christman Earns Fulbright Award to India

Geneseo, NY (05/30/2019) — Wellsville, NY, native and graduate of Wellsville High School Leah Christman has won a 2019-20 U.S. Student Fulbright award to India where she will serve as a Fulbright-Nehru English Teaching Assistant. A May graduate of SUNY Geneseo, Christman majored in English literature and the Honors Program and minored in human development.

Upon returning to the U.S., Christman plans to pursue a doctoral degree in speech-language pathology. "I am very interested in interdisciplinary pursuits, and this particular field provides a perfect combination of sciences, language, and above all, helping people of many backgrounds and ages," she said.

At Geneseo, Christman was a Student Ambassador, a leadership mentor for the Geneseo Opportunities for Leadership Development program, a Newman Civic Fellow, and a volunteer for local hospice and Alzheimer's care centers. At Commencement, she received the Richard Roark Award for excellence in scholarship and community service.

SUNY Geneseo was recently named a Top Producer of U.S. Student Fulbright awards, the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announced in its annual article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Fulbright Program is the highly competitive flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and citizens of other countries. According to the U.S. State Department, Fulbrighters are considered cultural ambassadors who "interact with their hosts on a one-to-one basis in an atmosphere of openness, academic integrity, and intellectual freedom, thereby promoting mutual understanding."

Media Attachments