Alexandra Hauke is NC A&T's fifth Fulbright U.S. Student Program grantee
Alexandra Hauke, a senior majoring in biological engineering at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, has been chosen as one of over 2,100 U.S. citizens who will study, conduct research, and assist English teachers abroad for the 2019-20 academic year through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant.
Hauke, 22, of Greensboro, North Carolina, received the Fulbright–Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Awards for Graduate Studies and PhD Research in Science and Technology and will spend nine months in Vienna, Austria to conduct research on waste-to-energy systems at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences. Her research proposal is titled “Evaluation and Reduction of Methane Emissions from European Biogas Plants.” She plans to become a licensed environmental engineer focusing on sustainability and waste management.
Established in 1946 with legislation from the late U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program; it is designed to foster mutual understanding between the U.S. and over 160 countries around the world through the exchange of citizens, who then build lasting connections and use their international experiences to enhance their ability to lead within their field. The Program is funded through an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program, which claims 59 Nobel Prize winners, 84 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 37 heads of state and government as Program alumni.
"I applied to the Fulbright Student Program because I really wanted to have a multi-disciplinary international research experience,” said Hauke. “I'm looking forward to learning and working with my Austrian peers, as well as sharing values, enhancing communication and integrating to the fullest extent within my host culture. My future goal is to become an environmental engineer, in order to apply and create solutions derived from my research."
Hauke is NC A&T’s fifth Fulbright Program grantee since Emmanuel Johnson was selected as the university's first grantee in 2013.
Jaylynn Ellington ’18 of Salisbury, North Carolina, was a Fulbright Program grant Semi-Finalist for the National Taiwan University Award in Global Health. She was recently accepted and awarded departmental funding for that same graduate degree and will first complete Project Imhotep, a summer internship sponsored through a cooperative agreement between Morehouse College and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office of Minority Health and Health Equity.
Four outstanding individuals were endorsed in October 2018 to apply for the 2019-20 Fulbright Program: Ellington, Hauke, Arlette Hawkins, and Evan Pardue.
Hauke is a 2017-2019 College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Research Scholar Program participant and in 2018 became a member of Alpha Epsilon, the National Honor Society for Agricultural, Biological & Food Engineers. She recently was the National Science Foundation Revolutionizing Engineering and computer science Departments (NSF RED) Ambassador and was elected as vice president of the local chapter of the American Society of Agricultural & Biological Engineers for two years after being elected treasurer for her sophomore year. Hauke completed two summer NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) at Clarkson University and NC State and has presented her research in several oral and poster presentations and symposia. A committed volunteer in the Greensboro and campus community, Hauke has invested three years of simultaneous service at Cove Creek Gardens, Greensboro’ Children’s Museum, and the biological engineering department. She is driven to create engineering designs that address both environmental racism and pollution mitigation as she seeks to improve and promote “healthy sustainable living and environmental waste management for all.”
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is administered at NC A&T through Alsace Gallop, who serves as the Fulbright Program Adviser and NC A&T’s National Scholarships and Fellowships Coordinator. Eligible students and alumni for the 2020-21 Fulbright Program are encouraged to seek advising early in preparation of the campus application deadline of 5PM ET on August 20, 2019.
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The National Scholarships and Fellowships Coordinator helps NC A&T's undergraduate students, graduate students, and alumni learn of and apply for nationally competitive external opportunities, regardless of University Honors Program membership or current scholarship status. These extraordinary opportunities are typically fully funded and span a wide range of academic and intellectual experiences. Many of the opportunities are connected to undergraduate and graduate degree programs and internships, international programs and activities, language programs, and independent projects and research.
