Three students in the Class of 2026 applied for prestigious U.S. Student Fulbright Awards and all three have won: Cole Caven, Madelyn Perz and Grey Smith.

The Student Fulbright Awards are a nationally competitive program offered by the U.S. Department of State. In partnership with more than 140 countries worldwide, the Fulbright program offers global opportunities to advance knowledge and innovation across all academic disciplines.

This fall, Caven is heading to Tajikistan while Perz and Smith are going to Germany. Each of them will teach English and conduct research. 

Caven, from DeLand, majored in International Studies and Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies. He founded Stetson’s campus chapter of the Alexander Hamilton Society to promote student engagement in national security and foreign affairs. He speaks eight languages, and during his time at Stetson, he has traveled to approximately 25 countries, with South Korea set to become his 26th this summer before his Fulbright assignment. Caven’s “mission” is to work for the U.S. government on regional and national security.

Perz, from Gainesville, majored in World Languages & Cultures. She is fluent in German and Spanish, with the “intermediate-to-advanced” ability to speak French and Russian. As a student, she served as a WORLD ambassador for Stetson’s Rinker Center for International Learning, and she twice studied abroad to Italy and Germany. Believing that language learning must be paired with cultural understanding, Perz views English as a “key global tool for fostering intercultural communication.” 

Smith, from St. Augustine, is a Philosophy major. Her focus is public health and food insecurity, and she has worked for two nonprofit organizations near the Stetson campus, SNAP Volusia and The Neighborhood Center. Her goal is to help “lift people out of poverty” by providing access to healthy food and to “help in a time of need so you can get back to your normal life.” Smith credits her Philosophy studies for providing additional perspective.

Congratulations, students!

-Stetson Today