Alumni Gazette

This spring, several recent alumni won prestigious awards to support advanced study.

Woong Hwang ’11 was awarded a 2019 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. The fellowship recognizes outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants in the United States who are pursuing a graduate education in the US. Hwang, who was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, was one of 30 individuals to receive awards this year, selected from a pool of 1,767 applicants from across the country.

As a neuroscience major at Rochester, Hwang worked as a research assistant in the lab of Gail Johnson, a research professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine. Hwang is now in the MD/PhD program at Yale University, where he researches the molecular mechanism of a gene identified in birth defects that affect heart development and numerous cancers.

Hwang joins three other Rochester alumni who have been awarded Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships: Ryaan Ahmed ’15E (MM) (2013), Shizuo Kuwahara ’98E (2000), and Prabhjot Singh ’03 (2005).

Susan Ojukwu ’17 received a USAID Donald M. Payne International Development Graduate Fellowship, awarded to outstanding individuals interested in careers in the foreign service. Ojukwu is the first Rochester student or alumnus to receive the fellowship, which provides support over two years for graduate school, internships, and professional development. As a double major in international relations and public health while at Rochester, Ojukwu participated in education abroad programs in France, Hong Kong, and mainland China, and conducted undergraduate research on strengthening health systems and food aid in West African countries. Ojukwu works as a program assistant at the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University and begins working toward a master’s degree in public health at George Washington University this fall.

And two Rochester alumni joined 11 current students in winning 2019–20 grants in the Fulbright US Student Grant program. Sophie Aroesty ’18, who majored in psychology and English, will serve as an English teaching assistant in North Macedonia. She now works as a case manager at the nonprofit Neighbors in Action.

Jonathan Campanaro ’18, ’19W (MS), a Spanish major as an undergraduate, graduates this spring from the Warner School’s Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program. He’ll serve as an English teaching assistant in Mexico. After his Fulbright year, he hopes to teach English to non-native speakers and work to shape policies for more culturally responsive schools.