5 local students named Fulbright Scholars

One Corona del Mar High School graduate and four UC Irvine students have been selected to be Fulbright Scholars.

Sarah Furgatch, Soraya Azzawi, Felipe Hernandez, Armaan Rowther and Christine Thrasher will study or teach across the globe later this year thanks to the international scholarship program run by the U.S. State Department.

Furgatch graduated from CdM in 2009 before attending Princeton, where she is a senior. When she graduates, she will spend a school year in Spain teaching English.

Furgatch said she knew she was in a final round of contenders, and then this month a selection committee notified her that she had been chosen.

“I had no idea when they were going to tell me, and I was a little shocked when I finally received an email from the committee.” she said. “I think I just stood there, staring at my phone with a huge grin on my face, until my friend tackled me with a bear hug.”

Azzawi will travel to Jordan, where she will spend a year studying the psychosocial health of Iraqi refugees. She is a UCI senior who also won the school’s Dalai Lama Endowed Scholarship in the 2012-13 school year.

Hernandez, a senior double majoring in political science and music performance, will teach English to students in Colombia. He earned a Harry S. Truman Scholarship last year.

Rowther will also travel to Jordan, where he will work with Palestinian refugees as he studies the possibility of incorporating computerized education about diabetes with the country’s current testing services.

He won UCI’s XIV Dalai Lama Endowed Scholarship in the 2011-12 school year.

Thrasher, a 2012 alumna, will spend a year in Germany teaching English.

Its website says the Fulbright Program aims to increase understanding between the people of the United States and those of other countries.

— Jeremiah Dobruck

Twitter: @jeremiahdobruck