������ɫ

Three ������ɫ students have been awarded 2025 Fulbrights:

• Flynn Anderson, a 2022 biomedical engineering graduate, has been awarded an English teaching assistantship Fulbright to Laos. His work on kidney-on-a-chip microfluidics and neural implants shaped his pathway through college and provided insight into disease treatment. He has been working in industry at a synthetic biology company post-graduation but has recently switched paths to write grants for virtual learning programs.

• Arielle Moreau, a 2024 ������ɫ bachelor’s degree holder who went on to earn her master’s degree in history in 2025, has been awarded an English teaching assistantship Fulbright to Germany. As a recent 4+1 graduate, she also pursued a second major in German and a minor in theater. As an undergraduate, she spent two months continuing her German education abroad in Leipzig before returning for her master’s degree.

• Rebecca Patachi, a 2025 graduate, earned her bachelor’s in integrative neuroscience, and has been awarded a Fulbright to Romania. She is pursuing a research program because of her interest in cognitive processes and development. She volunteers at a local hospital and an elementary school for students with neurodevelopmental disabilities.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers approximately 2,100 grants to U.S. students annually. Awards are available for study, research and teaching English in over 160 countries. The Fulbright English Teaching Assistant programs place grantees in schools overseas to supplement local English language instruction and to provide a native speaker presence in classrooms. The program expands perspectives through academic and professional advancement and cross-cultural dialogue, creating connections in a complex and changing world.

Students interested in applying for the Fulbright U.S. Student grants should email Elisa Camiscioli, history professor, at ecamis@binghamton.edu. The campus deadline is Sept. 1. To learn more, go to: .

Flynn Anderson

Aside from one international trip to South Korea, Anderson says he has little experience with culture shock or even being the minority in the places he’s visited. He grew up in a small New York town called Union Springs and hasn’t visited anywhere in the U.S. beyond the Mississippi.

“I think any American can learn a lot from going to another country and being the individual that looks and speaks differently,” he said. “When you have that humility, you allow for building relationships with people and very quickly realize that we’re all the same at the core.”

Anderson didn’t originally plan to pursue a degree in biomedical engineering, but after some time at ������ɫ, he quickly found a passion in the field. He said the ability to use it to solve problems was engaging, and he set about using the skillset in everything he did, from fashion (he began to sell upcycled clothes while he was still a student) to mentorship. While at ������ɫ, Anderson was involved with TRiO Student Support Services, a program for low-income and first-generation students; Upward Bound, the student support services for high school students; and McNair Scholars.

“During the day, I was doing quite rigorous academic work, but I was also surrounded by other students and great people in my extracurriculars who would constantly inspire me to think in novel ways. A lot of that bled over into my research,” he said. “Being in a group where I feel like one paint brush in a whole set of colors was so important to my personal and professional growth.”

Anderson has been working in the field since graduating from ������ɫ in 2022. Even so, he found the opportunity to conduct cultural exchange through Fulbright exciting and applied with what he called “110 percent.”

Even beyond the Fulbright, Anderson plans to earn a doctorate. He was recently accepted into the SUNY Upstate Medical Center’s biomedical sciences program, which he will defer until his return.

While he says he is proud of his work with microfluidics — essentially, he helped create a tiny organ that exists on a chip, which can be used as a stand-in for animal model testing — he’s excited for the chance to grow further and teach.

“I had the statement written in my head before I even started working on it,” Anderson said. “The interview was mostly focused on my education background; I’m not an English teacher, but as an engineer, I have taught coding, fashion and science. Teaching comes quite naturally to me, and I want to develop those skills.”

Arielle Moreau

With credits from high school classes, Moreau completed her 4+1 program a year earlier than her own cohort — which is just one example of her drive to succeed.

“I came to ������ɫ with only about six months of German on Duolingo. It may have put me ahead of other students in the Introduction to German class, but it was not that much,” she said. “When I came to ������ɫ, I had never mastered another language. Part of my journey was realizing that if I put my mind to it and I put the time into something, I could learn how to do anything.”

She says the German and Russian Studies Department was great for building community, because of its small size and supportive environment. As she continued to grow educationally, she realized even more strongly that she wanted to create a space for others that modeled her own.

She became a German lead tutor through the University Tutorial Services, helping to guide the other language tutors and organize professional development workshops. She had already known that education — something she had been interested in because of her father’s position as a history teacher — might be a good path for her to pursue, but her roles at ������ɫ confirmed it. That led her to the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant program.

“The thing I liked the most about the job was working with individual students, trying to make a concept easier and engage people with the language,” she said. “I struggled in school myself when I was about 6 years old; it took me a long time to learn to read, and there was a sense of shame. I’ve always felt a lot of sympathy for people it that position. If they’re putting in the time and effort, I would really like to help make it easier to learn.”

After continuing her language training in Leipzig, Germany, for two months as an undergraduate, Moreau was thrilled to learn that she would return to the Rhineland for her Fulbright project. After researching the area for her degree, she knows it well academically and historically, but not as culturally or intimately.

While she anticipates cultural differences and challenges in teaching a full-sized classroom, she is dedicated to the idea of learning.

“Sometimes you learn through making mistakes, and I’m ready and willing to have that happen,” she said. “As long as I can see everything I’m doing as part of a learning process and personal growth process, I can push myself through a lot of things that might not always be easy at the time. I think that you can use that outlook for most things in life.”

In the future, Moreau is open to pursuing a doctorate, though she deferred Teach for America for the Fulbright and plans to follow that path upon her return. In the meantime, she believes working in Germany will introduce her to new techniques for learning.

I want to learn other ways that people have taught, other strategies that are used, and the cultural differences between education systems,” she said. “Germany is a great place to start with that, and I want to be able to incorporate what I learn in other parts of the world into a classroom in the U.S.”

Rebecca Patachi

Patachi graduated from ������ɫ in May 2025 with a degree in integrated neuroscience. Since then, she has been working at Queens Hospital, helping children with autism or other disorders. She is also working as a private behavioral technician for people with autism.

She chose ������ɫ for its strong reputation in research and her interest in the neuroscience field. She took part in the First-year Research Immersion (FRI) program and has continued along that path ever since.

“I started with FRI, but I didn’t end my research there. I also joined the Early NeuroCognitve Development (ENCoDe) lab, and gained even more experience in research, with humans,” she said. “I was also able to go to the University of Scranton and present at a behavioral neuroscience conference, where I won an award. These opportunities kept coming, and I felt so grateful to be given the chance to pursue and take part in them.”

As part of several mental health clubs on campus, Patachi was always looking for ways to grow as a researcher. She first heard about Fulbright from a member of SEEK (Support Empathy Empowerment Kindness), a student-run, non-emergency helpline for students. That conversation led her to think about how people with autism — her field of interest — might be treated or interact differently in different countries, and the national policies surrounding it.

That, along with her parents originally hailing from Romania, inspired her to explore possible research paths in that country.

“When Romania was still in Communist times, a lot of people with autism would be placed in institutions, and that was still relatively recently, a few decades ago. The impact of that is still being seen in future generations,” she said. “Romania is really trying to depart from those issues or that past, and they’re ramping up new regulations as well as different techniques. I want to see how they’re able to make that change.”

To do so, Patachi will be affiliated with the University of Bucharest, working closely with a professor in psychiatry and psychology whose work explores how exercise can help children with autism and practices that can be implemented in school environments. Patachi hopes to focus on outdoor play and how it can help enhance learning in the classroom for children with autism.

Patachi, who also served as a teacher and assistant at the Institute for Child Development, thinks she was a good candidate for Fulbright because of her adaptability and her already-conducted research. Though she assumes there will be challenges, she is mainly looking forward to growing as a person.

“I’ve seen how research is done in the U.S., but gaining that experience in a different country and broadening my cultural awareness is something that I’m hugely looking forward to,” she said. “I hope to gain a broader awareness while enjoying Romania and the experience. I want to be able to come back and create cultural exchange.”

Upon her return, Patachi will apply to medical schools. Going into the Fulbright and looking forward to her future, she is keeping one piece of advice in mind and shares it with others interested in pursuing this path: don’t overthink it.

“If you think about all the challenges you’re going to face, you might not even apply. Looking at all the steps and requirements, it feels like a lot, but if you start the application and apply based on your interest alone, you never know what the outcome may be,” she said. “A lot can change in a just a short time, and you never know if by the end of the process you’ll be a different person, and it would have been an amazing opportunity.”