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Two from Arnold School selected to receive Fulbright Scholarships
June 7, 2010
Michelle Williams
Jessica Steele
Two of the Arnold School’s brightest are recipients of 2010-11 Fulbright Scholarships that will enable them to teach and do research in Africa and South America.
Michelle Williams, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, will use her Fulbright award to study the impact of a culturally appropriate cervical cancer education program for women in Kumasi, Ghana.
Jessica Steele will use her Fulbright award to teach English in Argentina and work with Argentinean programs that offer maternal and child health education. Steele graduated earlier in May. Her Baccalaureus Artium et Scientiae degree program comprised studies in public health, international studies, English, and Spanish.
Williams and Steele are among seven Fulbright Scholars from the University of South Carolina who will be conducting research, studying, and serving as English teaching assistants this year.
Dr. Tom Chandler, Arnold School dean, said having two Fulbright scholars in this year’s class testifies to the quality of students and the high teaching standards at the Arnold School.
“We’re very proud of these two young scholars, who already have distinguished records of achievement at USC, and wish them well in their studies,” Chandler said.
The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to “increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.”
For Williams, the Fulbright award means a return to Kumasi, where she was a scholar last summer with the National Institutes of Health Minority Health International Research Training Program.
Williams has a bachelor’s degree in biology and her master’s in public health from Florida A & M University. While at USC, she has received a certificate in Women and Gender Studies. She is a member of the USC Black Graduate Students Association, where she is chair of the group’s Healthcare Committee.
After graduation she hopes to continue her collaboration with the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana on cancer prevention and control in West Africa.
Steele, named USC’s Outstanding Woman of the Year, has been a Carolina Scholar, a Palmetto Fellow, a member of Alpha Lamda Delta Honor Society, Phi Beta Kappa and a Harry S Truman Scholarship Finalist. A co-founder of USC’s Roosevelt Institution, she has been involved with the Waverly Afterschool Program and Acercamiento Hispano.
As a senior, Steele was a semifinalist in the Glamour Top Ten College Women competition, received a Magellan Research Fellowship from USC, and was Volunteer of the Year with the Perinatal Awareness for Successful Outcomes, sponsored by Palmetto Health.
She has studied abroad in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. On her return from Argentina, she expects to pursue a master’s degree in public health.
