At 16 years old, Jacob Eisner decided he wanted to work on an ambulance. So he learned how to handle medical emergencies as an EMT and quickly got a firsthand glimpse of the American health care system.
These experiences drove Eisner to become a doctor, and he is now in his second year of the M.D./M.B.A. program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and at its Miami Herbert Business School.
But some of the things Eisner observed as an EMT, and through his own hockey injury at 23, showed him a need for other health care options than a hospital stay. He got the chance to experience pilot home hospital programs during an internship at Massachusetts General Hospital, and it is something that Germany is currently rolling out through its national health care plan.
Now, Eisner wants to understand how to make home-based hospital care possible for Americans. And thanks to the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, he is about to embark on a research adventure to learn more this fall in Mannheim, Germany.
“How do we get care to the home, where people need it, how do we pay for it, and how do we make sure it’s not a huge burden on the family?” asked Eisner, who grew up in Dobbs Ferry, New York. “My project will explore how the public and the private sector can work together to make this happen.”
He is one of seven University of Miami students and alumni who earned a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award this year, one of the most selective scholarships in the nation. It is the largest class of Fulbright recipients since 2015.
As part of this year’s Fulbright cohort, four University awardees received grants to conduct research abroad, and three will teach English in a foreign country. In addition, Brunella Meini, a rising sophomore studying finance and marketing at Miami Herbert Business School, earned a Fulbright UK Summer Institute award to attend a three-week program this month at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Last year, the University had four award recipients, said Erika Green Liberus, director of prestigious awards and fellowships in the Office of Academic Enhancement, so the trend is moving in the right direction, she added.
“It was a very successful year, and we are thrilled to have so many recipients who all have such diverse interests,” said Liberus. “Many of these students have a passion to improve our health care system by learning about what is evolving in other countries, which is inspiring.”
All students are eligible to apply for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program starting the spring of their junior year of undergraduate education and can even apply as alumni or graduate students. There is no minimum GPA requirement, but it is geared toward students who are interested in mutual cultural exchange, said Molly Lockwood Ho, associate director of programs for prestigious awards and fellowships.
The awardees include:
University alumna Ajiri Uzere, who graduated in 2022 with degrees in political science and psychology. After leaving Coral Gables, she earned a master’s in health and international development and is now working as a consultant in environmental policy. Uzere, who was thrilled to receive a Fulbright, said she is interested in exploring health care policy more and will use her research grant to explore the impact of water quality on childhood mortality in Nigeria.
“I have learned that clean water in Nigeria is one of the indirect causes of child mortality, and I’ve also learned that development without law is not sustainable,” said Uzere, whose family hails from Nigeria. “So, I will be looking at any gaps that exist to improve access to clean water and to help improve child mortality by working with hospitals, clinics, and others.”
As part of the project, she will also investigate how the legal frameworks in its largest city—Lagos—impact the availability of clean water. She will be working with a former faculty member from the University of Lagos and a local law firm.
Bailey Driscoll, a medical student in her third year of the M.D./M.P.H. program at the Miller School, was also influenced by her family history to apply for a Fulbright award. Driscoll hopes to become a pediatrician-psychiatrist and got interested in helping patients recover from trauma throughout her clinical rotations, particularly in working with veterans at the Miami VA.
Since her grandmother was a native of County Cork, Ireland, Driscoll has visited but now wants to combine her interest in psychiatry with her passion for Irish history. She became interested in learning more about the pervasive abuse cases in the Catholic Church that came out of Ireland’s Ryan Report in 2009. This was around the same time that many cases of clerical abuse were reported in the United States.
Driscoll is working with psychology professor Frédérique Vallières at Trinity College Dublin, to explore whether further interventions are needed for survivors of clerical and institutional abuse, after they receive initial one-on-one psychotherapy.
“I want to get more experience in trauma research since it is something I’ve been interested in for a long time,” said Driscoll. “Also, in Ireland, one of my goals is to understand how these issues affect the family, and how we can intervene to help parents heal and not pass their trauma on to children because these patterns can be passed down to future generations.”
Alexander Miller, who graduated in May with a degree in microbiology and immunology, will be heading to Jamaica to conduct cell line research to develop new strategies for reducing prostate cancer mortality among men of Afro Caribbean ancestry. Miller hopes to go to medical school after his Fulbright research and got interested in cancer research through an internship he did last summer at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. He is now leaning toward becoming an oncologist.
Growing up in a Caribbean household throughout his life, Miller learned about the high occurrence of prostate cancer in the region, where it has one of the highest mortality rates in the world, and he has a personal interest in working to counteract this dangerous trend. So, when he learned that Simone Badal McCreath’s Anti-Cancer Research Jamaica lab at the University of the West Indies had developed the first-ever Caribbean prostate cancer cell line, Miller jumped at the possibility of spending a year in her lab.
“We will hopefully contribute to new therapies that can help lower the high mortality rates of prostate cancer for men of Afro Caribbean descent,” Miller said. “I am very honored and grateful to be able to do this, and I hope to be a leader in the cancer research space as my career continues, so this is a good way to get started.”
Jocelyn Williams graduated this May with degrees in global health studies and Spanish. Through her U.S. Fulbright grant, Williams will be teaching English to students in Colombia. A Chicago native, Williams is eager to use the Spanish skills she learned at the University to fully immerse herself in the culture of South America, which she grew passionate about during a study abroad experience.
“I have seen how even working knowledge of another language can help you build relationships and navigate new environments, so I want to share that experience with others by teaching English,” she said. “I also hope to become an increasingly globally engaged citizen and more informed about global issues, cultural differences, and the interconnectedness of the world, particularly within the context of Colombia and Latin America.”
Alejandra Grijak graduated this May with a master’s degree in international administration and serves as assistant director for the study abroad programs. She will be one of just 10 Fulbright recipients traveling to Brazil to teach English for a year. As an undergraduate, Grijak studied Spanish and Portuguese at Emory University and did much of her master’s research at the University on the lusophone culture of Brazil, Portugal, and Mozambique. But she has never been to Brazil.
“Education has always been a big part of my life, and I think this experience will be even better because I will be educating others, while also learning about Brazilian culture and understanding how Brazilians see the world,” Grijak said. “I may want to stay in the field of education, perhaps as a professor of Portuguese, so I think this experience will also help me decide if it’s the right path for me and expose me to new avenues of research.”
Jessica Diez, who graduated in 2022 and worked for both the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Middle East Policy Council in Washington, D.C., will be using her Fulbright award to teach English to students in the West Bank, part of the Palestinian territories. Diez studied international relations and economics at the University but also took many Arabic language and cultural courses with assistant professor Suja Suwafta and received the Abla Khalil Outstanding Student in Arabic award. Diez also spent a summer in Lebanon, honing her language skills.
“I’ve always found that languages help break down stereotypes and bridge gaps,” she said. “This opportunity in the West Bank will help me to continue on my personal goal of wanting to continue learning about Arab culture, and I’ll see firsthand how learning another language, in this case, English, can help my students with their personal and professional goals.”
