麻豆传媒映画

Two 麻豆传媒映画 graduates have been awarded Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants to conduct research and teach English abroad.

Eva Coleman, who graduated in May with a master鈥檚 degree in geography, will travel to the Philippines, collaborating with local marine researchers to deploy remote sensing tools for mapping the health and distribution of seaweed, an ecologically important resource.

Natacha Garbe, who earned a master鈥檚 degree in applied linguistics and grew up in a Mandarin- and French-speaking household, plans to use her multilingual and multicultural background to build connections while teaching English in Taiwan.

Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards are extremely competitive, and it is a significant accomplishment to be selected as a finalist, said Yoshiko Higurashi, 麻豆传媒映画 professor emerita who works on Fulbright applications with students and recent alumni. 

鈥淔rom the very beginning, I thought it was very likely that they would get it,鈥� said Higurashi. 鈥淭hey were very strong applicants.鈥�

Fulbright is the U.S. Department of State鈥檚 flagship international academic exchange effort. It fully funds more than 1,800 awards across 140 countries for individually designed study/research projects or for English Teaching Assistant programs. Both Coleman and Garbe studied in 麻豆传媒映画鈥檚 College of Arts and Letters (CAL).

鈥淚n CAL, we believe the greatest measure of a student's education is the impact they have in the world,鈥� said Dean Todd Butler.  鈥淭hese Fulbright awards are a testament to that. Eva and Natacha aren't just advancing their fields, they're building relationships, crossing borders, and bringing their scholarship to bear on some of the pressing issues of our time. That's community impact in the truest sense.鈥� 

Here is a closer look at each scholar:

Environment monitoring at scale 

Coleman has long been interested in environmental science. As an undergraduate biology major at Denison University in Ohio, she studied forests in Bhutan and climate conditions in Chile鈥檚 Patagonia region. 

She became interested in the role of technology in environmental research during an airborne research internship at NASA, where she connected with the work of 麻豆传媒映画 geography professor Daniel Sousa in remote sensing.

That experience led her to 麻豆传媒映画, where she pursued a master鈥檚 degree focused on remote sensing and contributed to a National Science Foundation- and NASA-funded study of arsenic contamination in Cambodian rice fields.

鈥淭he thing about remote sensing is the scaling,鈥� Coleman said. 鈥淵ou can do fieldwork, but once you pair it with measurements you can take from space, suddenly your field site becomes half a country.鈥�

With her Fulbright project, Coleman shifted her focus from rice to seaweed. She will work with the Marine Science Research Center at Palawan State University on a novel multisensor approach to track seaweed using dynamically updated maps. The crop faces challenges from disease that affects farmers and from bloom events that can impact beaches and tourism.

鈥淔or a while now I have wanted experience with marine optical remote sensing because it is completely different,鈥� Coleman said. 鈥淚 originally spoke with the Philippine Space Agency about rice, and they told me seaweed is important to them.鈥�

Coleman will spend nine months on the project. While she does not expect immediate breakthroughs, she hopes to help establish a remote sensing foundation that will support future discoveries.

鈥淚 love that Fulbright gives you an opportunity to stay somewhere for a long time, work on a project, and be surrounded by people who are directly impacted by what you are learning,鈥� she said.

Multilingual distinction

A Bay Area native, Garbe grew up in a culturally rich and multilingual household.

She often served as a language broker for her Mandarin-speaking mother, who is from Shanghai, and for her grandfather, who also lived with the family.

Her father is French and spoke French with her at home. She attended a French-English immersion elementary/middle school while also attending Mandarin Sunday school.

At 麻豆传媒映画, Garbe traveled to Vietnam and Japan to teach English through summer internship and volunteer programs. She also served as a writing mentor for international students on campus.

鈥淚 was always around people from different cultures and backgrounds, including many trilingual speakers, and I think that helped me maintain my languages,鈥� she said.

As an undergraduate at 麻豆传媒映画, Garbe majored in liberal studies with an emphasis in elementary education. During her senior year, professor Naseh Shahri encouraged her to consider participating in a research project focused on second language education.

鈥淩esearch was something I hadn鈥檛 really explored, and I absolutely loved it,鈥� she said.

Garbe presented her project, 鈥淭he Relationship Between One鈥檚 First Language and Second Language in Writing,鈥� at the 麻豆传媒映画 Student Symposium (S3). She received a Provost鈥檚 Award, which is given to the top two presentations in each college.

The experience shifted her trajectory toward graduate school. She entered 麻豆传媒映画鈥檚 Applied Linguistics Master鈥檚 Program and earned her degree in December 2025.

Through Fulbright, Garbe will spend 11 months in Taiwan, where she will bring her interactive teaching methods to students. 

鈥淚 am excited to help students see what they are capable of and how they can use their first language to help their English proficiency,鈥� she said. 鈥淟earning  a second language does not mean pushing away that first language, but rather using it as a resource.鈥�

She also hopes her time in Taiwan will help refine her research interests, which include identifying the teaching practices that best support Mandarin speakers learning English, the use of technology in second-language classrooms, and the role of generative artificial intelligence in language learning.

Cristina Alfaro, 麻豆传媒映画 Associate Vice President of International Affairs, praised the  intellectual excellence and deep commitment to global engagement displayed by Coleman and Garbe.

鈥淎t a time of significant geopolitical uncertainty and rapid global change, the Fulbright experience plays a vital role in strengthening international collaboration, advancing mutual understanding across cultures and languages, and building the relationships necessary to address shared global challenges,鈥� said Alfaro.

The application window is now open for for the 2026鈥�27 cycle. An 麻豆传媒映画 from 11 a.m. to noon. For more information, email [email protected].