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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n\u201cAfter more than a year of change and adaptation, disruption and disappointment, this year\u2019s Fulbright awardees are flipping the script with their undiminished determination to engage with the world,\u201d said Bates President Clayton Spencer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She added, \u201cI am so proud of their achievement, and grateful for the guidance and support given by our faculty and staff to maintain the Bates Fulbright tradition in a most unusual year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bates has been honored as a Top Producer of Fulbright Student awards for a decade, and was named the nation\u2019s No. 1 producer of Fulbright Student awards<\/a> in 2020. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright is the U.S. government\u2019s flagship international educational exchange program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “They reflect the incredible spirit of resilience that defined so much of the Bates year.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n This year’s Bates Fulbrights were selected from 36 semifinalists \u2014 applicants who are recommended by the U.S. to host countries for final review \u2014 among the highest number ever for Bates. As with Bates and other colleges, fewer semifinalists received awards for 2021\u201321 due to the pandemic\u2019s disruption of Fulbright programs in host countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe semifinalists and recipients are a wonderful group. They reflect the incredible spirit of resilience that defined so much of the Bates year,\u201d says Robert Strong, lecturer in English and director of national fellowships. \u201cI\u2019m so proud of the work I\u2019ve witnessed on this campus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sophia Marion, recalls Strong, “had not been home a month when she began afresh, working on a new application to return to Nepal. This was in April 2020, with the globe going into full COVID lockdown. Sophia, like so many other Bates students and alumni, was already envisioning her work helping the world recover and grow.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Marion, returning to Nepal is driven by her brief Fulbright experience in 2020 and the patience of the people she met, \u201cthe time to engage with me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI do not want to live my life only having visited<\/em> the world,\u201d she continues. \u201dI want a deeper understanding of global education systems. I want to spark novel ideas to overcome challenges. And I want to learn as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kate Blandford \u201918 of Princeton, N.J., an English major, has been offered a Fulbright Study\/Research Award in Germany for 2021\u201322.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blandford\u2019s Fulbright proposal will allow her to deploy a slew of diverse talents \u2014 as a writer, graphic designer, and student of German language and history \u2014 to create a graphic biography of Bauhaus artist Marianne Brandt (1893\u20131983).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1923, the time of Brandt\u2019s arrival as a student at the famed art school, director Walter Gropius was steering most female students toward the school\u2019s weaving workshop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Brandt, however, headed to the metal workshop, where she became its only female director and created a number of iconic designs, including a prototype tea infuser, the MT49, that once sold at Sotheby\u2019s for $361,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBrandt and her designs have become symbols of feminism and resistance,\u201d explains Blandford. \u201cThough well-intended, this narrative is limited in scope. Brandt\u2019s legacy deserves more.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n By \u201cmore,\u201d Blandford seeks to introduce Brandt to global and non-academic audiences. Her academic adviser will be Bauhaus scholar Patrick R\u00f6ssler, a professor of communications and empirical research methods at Universit\u00e4t Erfurt and the co-author of Bauhaus Women: A Global Perspective<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Phi Beta Kappa major in English who minored in German and anthropology at Bates, Blandford created the graphic memoir Kate and K\u00e4the<\/em>, a biography of another German artist, K\u00e4the Kollwitz (1867\u20131945), for her senior thesis in creative writing. The memoir earned Blandford the English department\u2019s John Tagliabue Prize for Creative Writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of Blandford\u2019s German professors describes her \u201cas an emerging scholar who is aware of how to situate her critical voice within the latest scholarship on Brandt.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n To establish a vibrant historical backdrop for the biography, Blandford will explore Brandt’s hometown of Chemnitz, the Bauhaus Archive, and Gotha, where Brandt worked after Bauhaus. Sketchbook in hand, Blandford will take notes and create drawings to \u201cdrive the development of my characters and settings, and informing which scenes from Brandt\u2019s life ultimately exist as visuals or text,\u201d a similar approach she employed for the Kollwitz project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As with the Kollwitz memoir, the text in the Brandt biography will be in the first person; that is, in Blandford\u2019s own voice. She explains that while primary sources can yield facts to undergird the biography, it\u2019s not possible to truly know how various moments in Brandt\u2019s life played out. \u201cBut, I can imagine those moments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In that sense, a first-person lens \u201cfeels more honest and respectful of her story.\u201d The approach has support from one of Blandford\u2019s German professors, describing her \u201cas an emerging scholar who is aware of how to situate her critical voice within the latest scholarship on Brandt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Bates, Blandford was a member of the German Club and student manager of language learning in the Academic Research Commons. In fall 2015, she studied in Germany with the Bates Fall Semester Abroad program. As a faculty research apprentice, she traveled to Berlin to consider the city\u2019s significance as a graphic novel setting and to conduct her own thesis research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A freelance graphic designer, Blandford was most recently the digital asset manager at The Articulate Foundation in Philadelphia, a nonprofit that produces Articulate<\/em>, a weekly public television documentary series on the creative arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aidan Denahy \u201921, a politics major from Irvington, N.Y., has been offered a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award in Taiwan for 2021\u201322. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Denahy\u2019s advanced Chinese-language skills, first-hand knowledge of East Asia, and Bates coursework will help him \u201chit the ground running\u201d in his Fulbright year, says one of his Bates professors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the summer before his junior year, Denahy had a leadership role with PlanetLabs.Earth in China, a startup to educate young second-language learners about sustainable technologies. He followed that experience with a four-month intensive study of Mandarin in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The following summer, Denahy honed his ability to interpret East Asian news, politics, and culture with a Purposeful Work editorial internship with New York\u2013based SupChina, a news, information, and business services platform that focuses on China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At SupChina, he earned bylines for a range of news stories, including ones about the Hong Kong Stock Exchange<\/a> and the planned obsolescence of apartment buildings in China<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Bates, he has taken courses on Taiwan’s language, culture, and politics and worked as a research assistant in the Department of Politics, where his research tasks included gathering data on Chinese and U.S. military capabilities and collecting, reading, and coding Chinese leaders\u2019 speeches according to how nationalistic they were. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese are not easy tasks for an undergraduate,\u201d said his professor. \u201cAidan took a step-by-step approach and completed all the work in an impressive manner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n “As I talked to them more and more in their native language, students began to loosen up around me, even teasing me for my accent and grammatical slip-ups.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Denahy\u2019s teaching experience is equally robust. In addition to his summer with PlanetLabs.Earth, he taught debate to local middle school students as a member of the college’s Brooks Quimby Debate Council. And the summer after his first year at Bates, he led outdoor trips for Chewonki, a school, camp, and environmental education organization based in Wiscasset, Maine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recalling his teaching experience with PlanetLabs.Earth, Denahy described how he engaged his students by showing that he, too, was a learner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “During our free time, I took to speaking Chinese to my students. As I talked to them more and more in their native language, students began to loosen up around me, even teasing me for my accent and grammatical slip-ups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSeeing that their teacher was a fellow language learner, and one that makes mistakes just like them, inspired students to begin speaking English in the classroom. Soon, my classroom went from not a word of English spoken to every single student stringing together full sentences every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a Bates professor noted, \u201cAidan would make an impression that Americans are smart, humorous, hard-working, do not make any judgement prematurely, and are open to new ideas and different perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Arianna Fano \u201919 a politics major from Lincolnshire, Ill., has been offered a Fulbright Teaching Assistant Award in Argentina for 2021\u201322.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fano has both a personal and professional interest in traveling to Argentina for her Fulbright. Her father was raised in Argentina by parents who emigrated from Europe to escape the Holocaust. Until now, her knowledge of her father\u2019s homeland has derived mainly from family traditions and two family trips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am deeply interested in understanding more about the country where my father grew up,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After her Fulbright year, Fano plans to pursue a master\u2019s degree in public policy. \u201cThe more I learn about Argentina, the better I can apply that knowledge to my chosen career of economic public policy\u201d and how policy decisions affect Latin American immigrants in the U.S., she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A dean\u2019s list student who minored in Spanish, Fano took part in the 2017 Bates Fall Semester Abroad in Spain program. She served as a teaching assistant in the Department of Politics, and as a senior won the Department of Politics\u2019 Garold W. Thumm Prize for the best thesis. She was president of the club volleyball team, worked as an Admission tour guide, and interned with a Maine District Court judge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of her professors noted that Fano \u201cstands out not just in terms of her abilities, hard work, and enthusiasm, but also in her thirst to grapple with complex questions at the intersection of politics and law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fano already has extensive English-teaching experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During her time at Bates, she helped Spanish-speaking immigrants in her home community in Illinois register to vote, and has also used her Spanish ability to help \u201cbridge the gap felt by underrepresented Hispanic voters\u201d during internships in the offices of elected Illinois officials Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Rep. Brad Schneider, and Sen. Richard Durbin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThrough a Fulbright in Argentina, I hope to join students at their table and offer them a chair at mine.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Since 2019, she has taught English, public speaking, and debate skills to Chinese students, using her Bates experience as a four-year member of the Brooks Quimby Debate Council that debated at the World University Debate Championships in Cape Town during her senior year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI understand how improved language skills can open doors for people and better prepare them for a seat at the table,\u201d Fano says. \u201cThrough a Fulbright in Argentina, I hope to join students at their table and offer them a chair at mine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not only does she want to learn more about her father\u2019s homeland, she admits that her Argentine grandparents tease her for not being able to make \u201cthe perfect empanada. I would love to prove them wrong \u2014 and learn more about the history and cultural significance of food in Argentina.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elizabeth Kiley-Bergen \u201920, a double major in Politics and in French and francophone studies from Troy, N.Y., has been offered a Fulbright Study\/Research Award in France for 2021\u201322.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During her year in France, she will explore how the country\u2019s mass media influences policy decisions and contemporary political life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI specifically want to be in France because there are similar political trends affecting policy debates in the U.S. and France,\u201d says Kiley-Bergen, \u201cspecifically backlash against immigration and increased polarization.\u201d She will pursue a master’s in public policy at \u00c9cole normale sup\u00e9rieure de Rennes<\/em> (ENS Rennes), with a focus on Analyse des probl\u00e8mes publics<\/em> (analysis of public problems).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Through her research, she wants \u201cto better understand why anti-immigration policies are often so resonant with certain voters, and how the media might facilitate the popularity of some anti-immigration policies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her research proposal reflects, in part, Kiley-Bergen\u2019s deep and thoughtful engagement with the French-speaking immigrant community in Lewiston-Auburn during her Bates years. That included serving as a translator for the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, a nonprofit that provides legal services for recent immigrants, particularly those seeking asylum in the U.S. from French-speaking African countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An ILAP attorney praised Kiley-Bergen\u2019s translating abilities and her interest in the immigration laws and policies at the core of the organization\u2019s work. \u201cAs Elizabeth became more aware of the structures and policies that impact the lives of immigrants, she was not afraid to confront challenging questions about justice and fairness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She also did interpreting work for Trinity Jubilee Center, a nonprofit that supports underserved people in Lewiston-Auburn, helping clients fill out job applications and navigate immigration proceedings. She was a teaching assistant for the Department of French and Francophone Studies and a French tutor for Bates\u2019 Academic Resource Commons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For her senior thesis in French and francophone studies, Kiley-Bergen interviewed immigrants from Djibouti and Congo about their relationship to French and other languages spoken in daily life, which in turn led to an investigation of linguistic colonization in Africa and in the local, predominantly English-speaking community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After her year abroad, Kiley-Bergen hopes to continue working with Maine\u2019s francophone immigrant communities on the legal issues they face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Julia Maluf \u201921, an interdisciplinary major in psychology and education from New York City, has been offered a Fulbright Teaching Assistant Award in Spain for 2021\u201322.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For her senior thesis in her self-designed major, Maluf, an aspiring teacher, researched best practices for teaching English language learners. She interviewed students, teachers, scholars, and parents, all of which gives her special perspective into her Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a student, Maluf volunteered in Lewiston public schools, helping fourth-graders with math, working with ELL students at Lewiston High School, and mentoring middle-school girls at the Hillview after-school program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of her professors praises Maluf\u2019s unflappable style in the classroom. \u201cTeaching requires a nonreactive approach to stress. Julia has a calm and steadfast manner, and an eye for detail and thoroughness. She is able to assess situations, see a clear path, and gently guide students forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThrough conversations with my roommate and the other Latinx students on campus, I realized that there is no one way to honor your culture.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Like other Bates Fulbright awardees, Maluf has personal reasons for seeking an international experience. In the 1960s, her grandparents and their children, including Maluf\u2019s father, emigrated from the Dominican Republic. Growing up, Maluf\u2019s understanding of her Dominican history was gained through once-monthly visits with her grandparents. \u201cIt felt like my connection to Hispanic culture only existed on these Sundays and holidays we would spend with them,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Bates, Maluf found a vibrant Latinx community. \u201cBut at first, I felt like I wasn\u2019t \u2018Dominican enough\u2019 to claim my heritage\u201d within the Bates Latinx community. \u201cThrough conversations with my roommate and the other Latinx students on campus, I realized that there is no one way to honor your culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maluf traveled to the Dominican Republic during Short Term in 2019. It was energizing, she says. \u201cI felt out of place and like I belonged there at the same time.\u201d Now, Maluf is \u201cmotivated to take a deeper exploration of the roots of Hispanic culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She has focused on \u201clearning Spanish, following my grandmothers\u2019 recipes, and talking to my relatives about my ancestors. The Fulbright in Spain will allow me to connect to those roots. I hope to be able to pass on the Spanish language and culture to my children, so that my ancestors can continue to live on through generations of my family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n During her Fulbright year, she hopes to \u201clearn about our commonalities and differences and foster relationships with my entire community in Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maluf was a member of a variety of student organizations, including Latinos Unidos, College Democrats, the Reproductive Justice Alliance, and the Bates Outing Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAfter Fulbright, I will continue working in bilingual communities, using the language skills I gain in Spain to make me a better teacher in those schools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sophia Marion \u201919, a psychology major from Baltimore, has been offered a Fulbright Teaching Assistant Award in Nepal for 2021\u201322.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Marion, it\u2019s Fulbright redux: In early 2020, twenty-four days into her Fulbright Teaching Assistant experience in Nepal, her program was canceled due to COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What draws her back for another go, she says, \u201care the people and the culture. I miss the time people took to engage with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n During her brief 2020 stay in Nepal, she recalls a daily routine of greeting a street vendor and his 6-year-old son as she walked home, \u201cchatting about the day in my limited, broken Nepali.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Marion searched for the words to express herself, “I remember his patience and time he took to see me. Similarly, I will be patient with my students and create a space for each and every one of them to be seen. I will share with my students the same kindness strangers afforded me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a Bates undergraduate, Marion earned a minor in education and had field placements in local elementary schools, teaching assistantships in Bates education courses, and an educational programming internship for the Bates College Museum of Art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe focused on students\u2019 strengths rather than deficits, which taught me the art of improvisation and how to reframe lessons.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Marion\u2019s first assistantship was a four-month stint in a community-engaged course on teaching in the sciences. In the spring of her senior year she developed and assisted in teaching a course on creating educational experiences at the Bates\u2013Morse Mountain Conservation Area. During recent summers, Marion has led teenagers on hiking and biking trips around the world for an outdoor adventure company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marion\u2019s experience teaching in a special-needs classroom was especially formative. \u201cWe focused on students\u2019 strengths rather than deficits,\u201d she recalls, which \u201ctaught me the art of improvisation and how to reframe lessons. These are skills I will use in my English-language classroom in Nepal when I need to clarify or tailor the lesson to individual students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2017, Marion traveled to India on a School for International Training program, learning about public health, policy advocacy, and community. This experience furthered her comfort in navigating across cultural landscapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWorking as an ETA in Nepal is the next step in my development as a teacher,\u201d Marion says. \u201cI\u2019m eager to teach in English, learn Nepali, cultivate a nurturing classroom environment, and instill a love for learning in my students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the classroom, Marion plans to work with an art-based, after-school empowerment program for girls. \u201cThis program gives girls a voice and a space to continue developing purpose and love of self,\u201d she says. \u201cThis engagement will improve my Nepali language skills and provide students an informal opportunity to speak English.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After her Fulbright year, Marion plans on studying education and leadership in graduate school. \u201cMy ETA experience will expand my empathy for others and develop my skills in adapting lessons to individual students,\u201d she says. \u201cThis growth will be crucial for my lifelong commitment to teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nell Pearson \u201920 a double major in history and anthropology from Brooklyn, N.Y., has been offered a Fulbright Study\/Research Award in the Netherlands for 2021\u201322. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Her Bates academic training coupled with a keen interest in water and climate issues have Pearson well-positioned for research at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where she will explore how Dutch water-management strategies promote community wellbeing, both in the short term and in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her work at VU Amsterdam will take place in a master\u2019s program in social and cultural anthropology with a concentration in development and sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A young teenager when Hurricane Sandy decimated miles of the New Jersey and New York shoreline, Pearson now seeks \u201cto understand how Dutch water management strategies can serve as a model for American urban contexts, and how vulnerabilities in American infrastructure and societal emergency preparedness can be improved.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n With much of their country below sea level, the Dutch have always had a robust approach to water control. Today, the approach \u201cpromotes an equitable transition to a green economy while emphasizing community wellbeing,\u201d Pearsons says. \u201cIt\u2019s at the forefront of a progressive discourse regarding climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs coastal communities are increasingly facing sea water rise, they will need to address these issues equitably.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n By poring over historical sources, including maps, oral histories, letters, and diaries, Pearson hopes to learn how the country\u2019s water-management practices have changed over the last century. Armed with historical context, she will then \u201cuncover contemporary approaches to environmental hazards through ethnographic interviews with Dutch stakeholders, including designers, engineers, academics, and policy makers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, she adds, \u201cthe human dimensions of climate change\u201d demand that scholars and policymakers adopt a social-justice lens. \u201cAs coastal communities are increasingly facing sea water rise, they will need to address these issues equitably.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At her 2020 graduation, Pearson earned membership in Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded the Department of History\u2019s John R. Cole Prize for Outstanding Achievement in History. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pearson\u2019s environmental sustainability experience is extensive. She completed a Purposeful Work internship in summer 2017 with the Bicycle Coalition, a statewide advocacy group for biking and walking in Maine. The next summer, funded by a Bates Environmental Fellowship, she was a historical horticulture intern at Plimoth Patuxet Museums, where she researched and implemented a plan for a museum-wide composting program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During Short Term 2019, she conducted indigenous archeology<\/a> in Togiak, Alaska, with other Bates students and their professor. And during her junior semester abroad, in South Africa in fall 2018, she researched the relationship between informal recyclers<\/a> and various municipal entities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently with the New York City Civic Corps serving the Gowanus Canal Conservancy in Brooklyn, Pearson plans to return to New York after her Fulbright to focus on urban-resilience policy and design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Though only a novice speaker of Dutch, Pearson has a second language at her disposal when she visits the Netherlands: music. A jazz saxophonist who performed with the Bates Jazz Band and other groups at Bates, Pearson looks forward to attending performances and sitting in on jam sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bence Szechenyi \u201920, an English major from Brooklyn, N.Y., has been offered a Fulbright Study\/Research Award in Hungary for 2021\u201322.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Described as an \u201centhusiastic, creative, and bright young scholar\u201d by one of his professors, Szechenyi will research a famous forebear: Istv\u00e1n Sz\u00e9chenyi, a 19th-century statesman, reformer, and political writer still revered in Hungary today as a hero and champion of national development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, the name Szechenyi has retained its star power in Hungary (besides the fact that an asteroid is named for him). The iconic chain bridge over the Danube carries his name, as does the country\u2019s 5,000 forint banknote. In 2011, the government dubbed its major new development program the \u201cNew Sz\u00e9chenyi Plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Istv\u00e1n Sz\u00e9chenyi is an enduringly popular Hungarian figure but also a tragic one. Plagued by a sense of personal failure following the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and by mental depression, he died by suicide in 1848.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Working with scholars at E\u00f6tv\u00f6s Lor\u00e1nd University and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest, Bence Szechenyi will employ the tools of biography and political analysis to tease out the connections between contemporary Hungarian political life and his famous ancestor\u2019s life and death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWould his understanding of a doomed future prove correct, in line with his ideologies, or would he be pleased with the projects being initiated under his name?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u201cConsidering that Sz\u00e9chenyi committed suicide and was utterly dismayed by Hungary\u2019s status and presumed future, his contemporary usage begs questions concerning how he would see Hungary now,\u201d says Bence, whose maternal and fraternal grandparents emigrated from Hungary to the U.S. to escape Soviet oppression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWould his understanding of a doomed future prove correct, in line with his ideologies, or would he be pleased with the projects being initiated under his name?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To find the answers, says Bence, \u201cmy physical presence in Hungary is especially crucial to understand Sz\u00e9chenyi\u2019s contemporary legacy in Hungary as well as comprehend public reception and understanding of the New Sz\u00e9chenyi Plan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, Bence hopes to write a book that explains the disconnect between his ancestor\u2019s \u201cdeep sorrow regarding the state of Hungarian politics and foreign policy, holding himself at least partially accountable for these failures, and his glowing legacy in contemporary Hungary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Pearson_2019-Short-Term-Barnett-big_Tim-Leach-40-815x900.jpg\")
![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/200204_Robert_Strong_Portraits_0149.jpg\")
Fulbright U.S. Student Awards 2021\u201322<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Kate Blandford \u201918 \u2014 Study\/Research Award, Germany<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Blandford_B26D2946-FEC3-4E04-BEE7-ADE150DD87ED.jpeg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Blandford-memoir-92142-AM.jpg\")
Aidan Denahy \u201921 \u2014 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Award, Taiwan<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![\"Julia](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/210525_Fulbright_Scholars_Denahy_0051.jpg\")
Arianna Fano \u201919 \u2014 English Teaching Assistant Award, Argentina<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![\"Elizabeth](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Fulbright-267A0516-Arianna-Fano-19.jpeg\")
Elizabeth Kiley-Bergen \u201920 \u2014 Study\/Research Award, France<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/EKB-Fulbright-Photo-7.jpg\")
Julia Maluf \u201921 \u2014 English Teaching Assistant Award, Spain<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![\"Julia](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/210525_Fulbright_Scholars_maluf_0020.jpg\")
Sophia Marion \u201919 \u2014 English Teaching Assistant Award, Nepal<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/190515_sophia_marion_6856.jpg\")
Nell Pearson \u201920\u2014 Study\/Research Award, Netherlands<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![\"Nell](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/171003_pearson_Headshots_4779.jpg\")
Bence Szechenyi \u201920 \u2014 Study\/Research Award, Hungary<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Fulbright-Bence-Szechenyi-20.jpeg\")
![\"AMERLING,](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/06\/Amerling_sze\u0301chenyi_framed-2.jpg\")