YSU students selected Fulbright semifinalists

Two Youngstown State University students have been named semifinalists in the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

Student Deidre Kilpatrick is seeking to serve as an English teaching assistant in Malaysia, while Yesarily Sanchez Rivera has applied to pursue a master’s of Business Administration degree in Taiwan.

The students were selected from nearly 12,000 applicants. Finalists will be announced over the course of the next several weeks.

It is the second consecutive year that a YSU student has been named a semifinalist in the program. A year ago, Emily Henline, then an English and Education major at YSU, was named a semifinalist and later a finalist. She is now pursuing a master’s degree in Korean Studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, started in 1946, offers research, study and teaching opportunities in more than 140 countries to recent graduates and graduate students. Fulbrighters meet, work, live with and learn from the people of the host country, sharing daily experiences. The program facilitates cultural exchange through direct interaction on an individual basis in the classroom, field, home, and in routine tasks, allowing the grantee to gain an appreciation of others’ viewpoints and beliefs, the way they do things, and the way they think.