Student Fulbright Scholars Help Lehigh Reach Record Number of Recipients

Afandalo, who double majored in Africana studies and women, gender and sexuality studies and double minored in studio art and English at Lehigh, is currently teaching third grade at an elementary school in Brooklyn. While she hasn’t received her placement yet, she knows she’ll be teaching in Yaoundé, Cameroon’s capital city.

A Togo native, Afandalo said she loves traveling throughout the continent and learning about other cultures. She had a positive experience as an education intern in Uganda through Lehigh’s Iacocca International Internship Program (IIIP) and wanted to return to Africa.

“My students were phenomenal, amazing,” Afandalo said. “It was a really great experience. I wanted something like that again. And Fulbright is one of the opportunities for me to be on the continent doing something similar.”

When she began to think about applying for a Fulbright Scholarship, Senegal and Cameroon were the first countries that came to mind. As she looked into both countries more, she felt Cameroon was a better fit and was also fascinated by their bilingual education system of English and French.

Many of the students she currently works with are bilingual and struggle with learning in English, as she did when she first arrived in the United States.

“When I saw that Cameroon has this dual language system where the student can choose whether to learn in English or in French, I was very excited,” Afandalo said. “This is something that I think will be very beneficial for a multicultural place like New York City to adopt."

While trying the local food and new dishes is at the top of her list once she arrives in Cameroon, Afandalo said she’s really looking forward to connecting with her students.

“What are their goals? What are the things that they want to achieve? And how can I bring my knowledge and help them get where they want to get?” Afandalo said.

In the Dominican Republic, Flores is embedding herself in a vital cross-sector partnership. Based in Bayahibe and working directly with the Fundación Dominicana de Estudios Marinos (FUNDEMAR), Flores said she will be developing an AI-forecasting model that predicts when coral spawning occurs. Her day-to-day work will be a mix of “dry lab” work, which consists of digitizing FUNDEMAR’s historical data and coding the model, and "wet lab" field work—physically being out on the reefs during the 2027 season to see if her model predictions match what the coral are doing in real-time.

“It’s the perfect synergy of personal and scientific reasons,” Flores, a bio-computational engineering graduate, said. “Scientifically, FUNDEMAR has a gold mine of data. Personally, the DR is home. My native Latin and cultural roots mean I can hit the ground running, working with local dive teams and students in a way an outsider might struggle to do.”

The project allows Flores to work alongside and with the community, rather than just studying it. She’s most excited about the community workshops, knowing how rewarding it is to teach middle and high school students and show them technology and conservation “belong together.”

“This is the bridge between my identity and my career,” Flores said. “It’s a chance to take my Lehigh education and give back to the ecosystem that shaped me. To me, Fulbright isn't just a research grant; it’s proof that I can use my biocomputational engineering background to make a tangible, data-driven difference in the fight against climate change.”

While Makhani, a computer science and business major, is awaiting to see if she will receive a grant, she believes being selected as an alternate has been rewarding in itself, especially for a program that she said only extends five study research awards.

“Being recognized for my work, having that external validation that what I want to do with my life is worth the possibility of a grant that’s pretty competitive, it was definitely a nice feeling,” Definitely an honor,” Makhani said.