5 ASU honors students receive Killam Fellowship for educational exchange to Canada

The Lorraine W. Frank Office of National Scholarships Advisement has announced that three undergraduate students in Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University have been awarded Killam Fellowships for exchange to Canadian universities during the 2022–23 academic year. Additionally, two previous awardees are taking up their deferred awards, bringing the total number of ASU Killam Fellows this year to five.

Newly-selected Killam Fellows Benjamin Ambrose, Maria Cornejo-Terry and Jordyn Hitzeman will be joined by previous winners Julie Kaplan and Anusha Natarajan, who deferred their awards during the COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Administered by Fulbright Canada, the Killam Fellowship program provides $5,000 in funding, plus a travel allowance. Fellows articipate in a range of leadership development and ambassadorial activities, including an orientation in Ottawa and a spring conference in Washington, D.C.

Current ASU students who are interested in applying for nomination to the Killam Fellowship program can attend an upcoming information session at 4:30 p.m., Oct. 18, in Honors Hall 242, or at 4:30 p.m., Oct. 19, via Zoom. Students may RSVP for either event at onsa.asu.edu/info-sessions. 

Nilanjana Bhattacharjya, a principal lecturer and Honors Faculty Fellow in Barrett, The Honors College, worked closely with the students as they navigated the application process.

“The Killam Fellowship has allowed several of our students to study subjects that are, despite our size, not always offered at ASU, and to spend time in a different environment and landscape," she said. "Students have, for instance, studied political science and policy within Canada’s national capitol, Ottawa; First Nations Studies in Alberta; and marine biology at Prince Edward Island. Students’ exposure to Canadian perspectives in their discipline undoubtedly enriches their educations at ASU.”

As ASU is a partnering institution with the Killam Fellowships program, candidates must be endorsed before applying. Applicants submit their materials to a faculty committee, which selects up to six nominees per year.

In addition, as a partnership institution, ASU hosts Canadian Killam Fellows. In the 2022–23 academic year, three Canadian students will be studying at ASU: Abigail Cave (Dalhousie University), Morgan Davidson (Acadia University) and Ashley Comeau (St. Mary’s University).

“The Killam Fellowship is unique among national scholarships,” said Kyle Mox, associate dean of national scholarship advisement and director of the Office of National Scholarships Advisement. “The program promotes ongoing goodwill between future leaders of both countries. It is also a great honor for ASU to be one of only 16 partnership institutions in the U.S. That status speaks highly of not only our academic programs, but our position as a global university.”

Learn more about each awardee below.

Benjamin Ambrose

Ambrose, a biophysics major from Scottsdale, Arizona, will graduate from ASU with honors from Barrett, The Honors College in May 2023. He is an aspiring physician and serves as an undergraduate research assistant in the Smith Research Group, where he studies biomarkers for disease. He also is co-founder and chief financial officer for Liberation Through Education, a nonprofit organization that provides financial support and mentoring for underserved schools in Ghana, India, Mexico and Morocco. He currently is studying at the University of Alberta.

Maria Cornejo-Terry

Cornejo-Terry, a senior from Douglas, Arizona, will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in political science with honors from Barrett in May 2023. She is a Bidstrup Foundation and Barrett undergraduate research fellow, and a member of the ASU Leadership Scholarship Program. This past summer, she was selected for the Fulbright U.K. Summer Institutes, through which she studied at Queen’s University Belfast. In the spring semester, she will study at the University of Toronto.

Jordyn Hitzeman

Hitzeman, a sophomore from Phoenix, is pursuing bachelor’s degrees in economics and computational mathematical sciences. She is a Flinn Scholar and has previously served as a youth ambassador to Grenoble, France, and Chengdu, China, through Phoenix Sister Cities. She currently is the managing editor of The Economics Review at ASU. In the spring semester, she will study at McGill University of Ottawa.

Julie Kaplan

Kaplan, who is from Los Angeles, will graduate in May 2023 with bachelor’s degrees in global politics and finance with honors from Barrett. She is a mission team leader for the Next Generation Service Corps and has also served in leadership for the Arizona Microcredit Initiative, a nonprofit that provides microloans and consulting for underserved entrepreneurs. Kaplan currently is studying at the University of Prince Edward Island.

Anusha Natarajan

Natarajan will graduate ASU in May 2023 with bachelor of science degrees in political science and applied quantitative sciences and a bachelor of arts degree in history with honors from Barrett. She founded the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies Digital Humanities Journal, is a reporter and the diversity officer for the State Press and a lead fellow for The Andrew Goodman Foundation. Natarajan currently is studying at Carleton University.

Written by the Lorraine W. Frank Office of National Scholarships Advisement.