Five individuals from the student body and faculty, respectively, recognized for their remarkable achievements with Fulbright Scholarships.
Lehigh University has achieved a remarkable milestone in the 2025-26 academic year, with five students and faculty members being awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship. This number is among the highest in a single year for the university, signifying a strong and consistent record of success over the past two decades.
The five recipients of this year's Fulbright Scholarship are Cece Garvey '25, Marissa Argen '25, Armando Quiroz '27 Ed.D., Natasha Vermaak, and Dork Sahagian.
Cece Garvey '25 will be travelling to Paraguay to serve as an English teaching assistant, where she will research Paraguayan author representation and the culture of indigenous languages. Marissa Argen '25, who served as the co-president of the Spanish Club at Lehigh, a student senator, and a TRAC fellow, will be serving as an English teaching assistant in Spain. After studying abroad in Barcelona, Marissa fell in love with Spanish culture and applied for a Fulbright.
Armando Quiroz '27 Ed.D., a doctoral student in Educational Leadership, will be researching how school leaders bridge the gap and equip themselves to offer specific feedback to world languages teachers in the Philippines. Natasha Vermaak, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, will be conducting a project at the intersection of mechanics, materials, and 3D printing.
Dork Sahagian, professor of Earth and environmental sciences and the director of the environmental initiative at Lehigh, will be travelling to the American University of Armenia to teach environmental science and conduct volcanology research. He will be conducting research on bubbles formed in obsidian rock, hosted by the Armenian National Academy of Sciences.
Lehigh's strong history with the Fulbright Scholarship program dates back more than 20 years. This is the second-highest number of recipients for Lehigh, with the highest being six scholars in the 2018-19 cycle.
The Fulbright Scholarship program is a U.S. government-sponsored international academic exchange program that aims to foster mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries. According to the Fulbright Program website, it awards approximately 9,000 students, scholars, teachers, and professionals from the U.S. and more than 160 countries each year.
Bill Hunter, director of the Office of Fellowship Advising and UN Programs, stated that Lehigh is well-regarded because the university is dedicated to hosting foreign Fulbright scholars and submitting prestigious students for candidacy.
While an exact count of all Fulbright recipients from Lehigh in the last 20 years is not directly available in the search results, the university has repeatedly produced multiple recipients per year, culminating in at least five in 2025 alone, marking one of its most successful years for the award.
- Cece Garvey '25, one of Lehigh University's Fulbright Scholarship recipients, will be traveling to Paraguay to serve as an English teaching assistant, conducting research on Paraguayan author representation and the culture of indigenous languages.
- Marissa Argen '25, a student senator and co-president of the Spanish Club at Lehigh, will be serving as an English teaching assistant in Spain, inspired by her love for Spanish culture after studying abroad in Barcelona.
- Armando Quiroz '27 Ed.D., a doctoral student in Educational Leadership at Lehigh, will be researching how school leaders bridge the gap to offer specific feedback to world languages teachers in the Philippines, as a recipient of the 2025-26 Fulbright Scholarship.
- Natasha Vermaak, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Lehigh, will be conducting a project at the intersection of mechanics, materials, and 3D printing as a Fulbright Scholar, continued from her work at the university.
- Dork Sahagian, contributing both as a professor of Earth and environmental sciences and the director of the environmental initiative at Lehigh, will be traveling to the American University of Armenia to teach environmental science, conduct volcanology research, and collaborate with the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, all made possible by the Fulbright Scholarship.
