Jefferson Scholars Foundation Awards Fellowships to 29 Outstanding Graduate Students

The Jefferson Scholars Foundation has announced the names of 29 students selected to receive one of its graduate fellowships; 25 selected to receive a Jefferson Fellowship and four selected to receive a National Fellowship.

The Jefferson Fellowship is the premier graduate fellowship offered at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and Graduate School of Engineering and Applied Science. Recipients are selected based on their potential as scholars, teachers, public servants and business leaders and receive full financial support to attend the University for the fellowship period.

The National Fellowship supports outstanding scholars at leading institutions of higher education, including UVA, who are completing dissertations in United States politics, with an emphasis on historical and institutional analyses of politics, public policy and foreign relations. National Fellows receive support for up to two years of dissertation research and writing and are paired with a renowned senior scholar in their field, who serves as a mentor to the student.

Both Jefferson and National fellows contribute to the intellectual life of the University of Virginia and have use of the foundation’s 40,000-square-foot facility in Charlottesville, which includes multifunctional spaces for research presentations, conferences, lectures and individual study.

The 29 selected students are:

Marc Aidinoff
National Fellowship Program
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
B.A., Harvard University

Kathryn Babineau
Department of Sociology
B.A., University of Virginia
M.P.P., University of Virginia
M.Phil., University of Oxford 

Salonee Bhaman
National Fellowship Program
Yale University
B.A., Columbia University
M.A., Yale University
M.Phil., Yale University 

Frederik Brondsted
Department of Chemistry
B.S., West Virginia Wesleyan College 

Daniele Celano
Department of History
B.A., Purdue University 
M.A., University of Virginia

Bobby Cervantes
National Fellowship Program
University of Kansas
B.A., University of Texas
B.J., University of Texas 

Xinlun Cheng
Department of Astronomy
B.S., Tsinghua University 

Meghan Costello
Department of Psychology
B.A., University of Virginia
M.A., University of Virginia 

Kelvin Efemwenkiekie
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
B.E., Landmark University 
M.E., Covenant University 

Salem Elzway
National Fellowship Program
University of Michigan
B.S., B.A., University of Nebraska 

Amy Fedeski
Department of History
B.A., University of Sheffield 
M.Phil., University of Cambridge 

Daniela Fernández Estrada
Darden School of Business
B.A., Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey 

Daniel Fishkin
Department of Music
B.A., Bard College
M.A., Wesleyan University 

Elise Foote
Department of English
B.A., Davidson College 

Jessica Gettleman
Department of Psychology
B.A., University of Missouri - Kansas City 
M.A., University of Virginia

Benjamin Goffin
Civil and Environmental Engineering
B.S., Bluefield State College 
M.S., University of Virginia

Meghan Herwig
Department of History
B.A., University of North Carolina
M.A., University of Virginia

Megan Huntsinger
Darden School of Business
B.E., Vanderbilt University 

Yen-Yu Lin
Department of Sociology
B.A., National Taiwan University 
B.A., Waseda University 
M.A., National Taiwan University 
M.A., University of Virginia

Chang Liu
Dissertation Year Fellow
Department of Chemistry
B.E., South China University of Technology
M.S., The University of Akron

Kendra Liu
Department of Biology
B.S., University of Arizona 
M.Phil., Hong Kong University of Science and Technology 

Amanda Mclean
Darden School of Business
B.A., Stanford University 
M.A., Stanford University 

Courtney Morgan
Darden School of Business
B.A., University of Virginia 

Taylor Nystrom
Department of Biology
B.A., University of Colorado 

Wanyue Qi
Department of Systems and Information Engineering
B.S., University of Virginia
M.E., Cornell University 

Allie Schaefer
Darden School of Business
A.B., Brown University 

Kinsey Tedford
Department of Environmental Sciences
B.S., University of Central Oklahoma 
M.S., University of Central Oklahoma 

Juan Carlos Vasquez 
Department of Music
B.A., Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
M.A., Aalto University 
M.A., University of Virginia

Bingmu Xiao
Darden School of Business
B.E., Jilin University 
M.S., King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

For more information about the Jefferson Scholars Foundation, click here.