Your Instructors

Lauren Valdez was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Brazil in 2011, where she researched the health conditions in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Her experience in Brazil led her to pursue a dual Masters in City Planning and Public Health from UC Berkeley, where Lauren taught for 3 years on the ethics and methods of international development. Since then Lauren has been awarded over $3.5 million in grants, fellowships, or other awards and developed or managed numerous nonprofit programs. Currently Lauren manages a national nonprofit program awarding $20 million in grant funding.

Adriana Valencia's first Fulbright was a Fulbright-IIE to Egypt in 1997-98, where she studied Arabic language and literature. She later had a Fulbright-Hays to Spain, Morocco, and France for her dissertation research. She has a PhD in architecture from UC Berkeley. She also has a Masters from UC Berkeley and a BA from Emory University, both in Near Eastern Studies. Other fellowships she’s won have been a Jacob K. Javits, Andrew W. Mellon, and the SSRC IDRF (Social Science Research Council International Dissertation Research Fellowship) and CAORC (Council of American Overseas Research Centers) multi-country research fellowships. She speaks eight languages (not all of them well), likes bicycle riding, traveling, and especially traveling by bicycle. Whenever the weather’s hot enough, she makes gazpacho.

About Win a Fulbright

Adriana and Lauren met at UC Berkeley, where Adriana encouraged Lauren to apply for a Fulbright. Adriana had had the privilege of attending an undergraduate institution where a program she was in encouraged applications for competitive scholarships starting freshman year. She'd been convinced that it was something that anybody with decent grades could do. Win a Fulbright hopes to bring you the conviction that applying for competitive fellowship programs is doable!

Disclaimer: Win a Fulbright is not affiliated with the US Department of State, the IIE, or the Fulbright US Student Program.