Christianson Fellowship
Recent University of Rochester graduates who are US citizens are eligible for the Christianson Fellowship, which allows them to participate in meaningful projects across the globe.
The is funded by the InterExchange Foundation, which supports young Americans with a passion for improving the world by participating in meaningful projects abroad. Fellows identify a service project or organization they care about and contribute their skills and passion to that endeavor on location for at least six months, with funding up to $15,000 by the Christianson Fellowship. The intercultural experience helps gain insight into another culture while working to improve the world.
Learn more about the Christianson Fellowship and other fellowship, scholarship, and award opportunities available to Rochester students.
Recent Christianson Fellows
Congratulations to the most recent Christianson Fellow from the University of Rochester!
Sophia Samantaroy ’24, ’25 (MS)
Areas of study: Environmental health (BS), history (BA), and epidemiology (MS)
Samantaroy, from Vienna, Virginia, will work in Egypt with the US-based education and development NGO Coptic Orphans, which works to empower Egypt’s most vulnerable children through educational support. The organization has aided more than 86,000 children since 1988.
“While the problem of nutrition in a country with a historically robust Mediterranean diet is complex and multifactorial, my project aims to understand the reasons, barriers, and knowledge status around healthy eating in mothers and children in Coptic Orphans' program,” Samantaroy says. “This project, though a pilot, will inform future programming and interventions to help Coptic Orphans' children grow up stronger, healthier, and more engaged in the classroom.
Samantaroy also will be writing freelance articles from Egypt for Health Policy Watch, a Switzerland-based independent news agency.