Samuel Garbee, Sierra Jaeger, Bianca Malkoc, Ryder Myrick, Sriya Pallapothu, Carlos Sanchez-Julia and Hima Vadlamani have won 2026 – 2027 Fulbright U.S. Student Program fellowships to spend approximately a year abroad conducting research, pursuing graduate studies or teaching English. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program aims to connect students, teachers and scholars from around the world.
Why it matters
As the U.S. Department of State’s flagship international education and cultural exchange initiative, Fulbright provides grants for students and alumni to conduct research, study at the graduate level, pursue creative
arts projects or teach English internationally. Grantees spend about a year in their
host countries and engage with local communities. These interpersonal interactions
build lifelong international relationships and cross-cultural connections. ’s Fulbright alumni have served in the Foreign Service, worked in state and federal government, become medical professionals and more.
Who they are
South Carolina Honors College alumnus Jacob Arcement graduated in spring 2026 with a degree in neuroscience. This fall, he will travel to Spain to teach English and pursue a community engagement project. An aspiring mental health professional, Arcement has
served as an adolescent journal group leader at Prisma Health and a support group leader for The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders Sibling Support Group. In Spain, he will continue
to build on the community engagement skills he developed while interning at Project
Horseshoe Farm and improve his Spanish proficiency. He hopes to utilize these advanced communication skills to impact as many patients as possible in his career as a psychiatrist.
Samuel Garbee is a 2025 graduate. The Honors alumnus majored in international business and real estate. Garbee will spend ten months in Mexico City participating in the Fulbright Binational Business Program. He looks forward to an internship with a host company in Mexico and taking international business courses at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. This experience will allow him to strengthen his Spanish language skills
and learn more about business operations between the United States and Mexico. He will draw upon these experiences throughout a career focused on international business and Latin American markets.
Sierra Jaeger is earning a Ph.D. in biological sciences. Jaeger will spend nine months in Austria, funded by the Fulbright-Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Award for Research in Science and Technology. She
will collaborate with scientists at the University of Vienna to build on her current research, which investigates how tropical plants use pigments to protect themselves and interact with other organisms.
On USC’s campus, Jaeger has mentored dozens of undergraduate students throughout her doctoral
studies while publishing her research in several peer-reviewed journals. She also organizes the City Nature Challenge in Richland and Lexington Counties. Upon completing Fulbright and her Ph.D., Jaeger will work as an ecologist or botanist.
Current doctoral student and Presidential Fellow Bianca Malkoc is pursuing a Ph.D. in geography. Her scholarly work has been published in Antipode, a leading geography journal, and presented at the American Association of Geographers
Annual Meeting. Malkoc will use the Fulbright Scholarship to conduct fieldworkin eastern Serbia. Her research will examine the social and environmental impacts
of Chinese-led copper mining in that region. She looks forward to interviewing locals, building collaborative relationships with area scholars and gathering data for her dissertation. After earning her doctoral degree, Malkoc will begin a career in academia focused on the global politics of energy transition.
Spring 2026 Honors College graduate Ryder Myrick earned a degree in global studies. His Fulbright grant will take him to Tajikistan,
where he will serve as an English Teaching Assistant. The U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan will place him in an American Space, a cultural and public learning center, where he will teach English and engage with his host community. Myrick’s research interests include investigating how students learn the Russian
language case system, and he looks forward to improving his own Russian skills throughout his ETAship. He aspires to earn a degree in linguistics and become a medical interpreter.
Sriya Pallapothu graduated with a degree in biological sciences this spring. The Honors College alumna will conduct Fulbright-funded research in Denmark. Her project examines factors that affect cognition in individuals who are at an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease. At USC, Pallapothu conducted neuroscience research in the Aging Brain Cohort and the Wenceslau lab, receiving Honors College and Magellan Scholar grants to support her work. She also served as editor-in-chief of the Carolina Crosstalk undergraduate research magazine. Upon completing her Fulbright research, Pallapothu will attend medical school and plans to become a physician-scientist.
Carlos Sanchez-Julia graduated from USC in 2024, earning degrees in economics and international studies. The Honors College alumnus is currently completing the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Degree MERGED Global Development program in Europe. Next fall, he will begin the Fulbright Binational Business Program in Mexico, spending 10 months working for a company in Mexico City and taking MBA courses at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. Sanchez-Julia’s Honors senior thesis on cacao production in Ecuador earned the 2024
Fulbright grantee he hopes to continue learning about the role of environmental sustainability in business.
Sanchez-Julia plans to leverage these experiences throughout a policymaking career focused on environmentally sustainable development between
the U.S., Mexico and other countries.
Spring 2026 graduate and Capstone Scholar Hima Vadlamani studied international business and finance. She earned a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship toTürkiye. Vadlamani has elected to decline the award to pursue an internship with Salzburg Global in Austria. She looks forward to building upon the experiences she had abroad as part of the Darla Moore School of Business Responsible International Leadership Cohort. Vadlamani was an active member of the Delta Sigma Pi professional business fraternity
and the Gamecock Consulting Club. Shehopes to pursue a career at the intersection of global finance, international collaboration and sustainable economic growth.
Four USC students were selected as alternates and are awaiting final decisions from
their programs. Achieving alternate distinction attests to the strength of their applications
and is an honor in its own right. These students are: Savannah Bornheim (graduate study in the United Kingdom), Isabella Ha (ETA in Vietnam), Sarah Hobson (ETA in Spain) and Courtney Tkacs (ETA in Slovak Republic).
In addition to support from national fellowships advisors, USC’s Fulbright candidates gain insight from Fulbright Faculty Mentors. For the 2025 –
2026 academic year, professor Cathy Compton-Lilly, professor Kelly Goldberg, professor Amir Hosseini, James Jacocks, professor Christian Johnson, Matt Klopfenstein, professor Stanislav Markus, professor Christie Martin, professor Nina Moreno, professor Jeff Persels and professor Myriam Torres served as Fulbright Faculty Mentors.
National Fellowships & Scholar Programs provides support Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarship applicants. Students
interested in learning more should contact USC’s national fellowships team.
