For Fulbright Foreign Students pursuing graduate degrees at Northwestern, there are a number of draws to the University and highlights of studying in the Chicago area.

For Jakob Kuemmerle (McCormick M.S. ‘24) of Tübingen, Germany, it’s kayaking on the Chicago River. For Medill graduate student Leonardo Pini of Florence, Italy, it’s the incredible sports and academic facilities. For first-year Kellogg graduate student Ayaka Utashiro of Tokyo, it’s learning about American culture through dance lessons. And for first-year chemistry graduate student Angel Rodriguez Leon of Mexico City, it’s playing soccer on Chicago beaches.

Each of these students has studied at NU through the Fulbright Foreign Students program, a scholarship which funds international students pursuing degrees at American universities. Kuemmerle said the Fulbright program gave him the financial flexibility to pursue his degree.

“Without the funding, I would have never come to a school like Northwestern,” Kuemmerle said.

Kuemmerle said he knew he wanted to study in the U.S. after spending a year in Arkansas for high school. Studying at NU gave him the chance to get to know the Chicago area, travel around the country and visit his friends and host family in Arkansas.

Like Kuemmerle, Pini studied abroad in the U.S. during high school, in Cincinnati — an experience which brought him back to the U.S. to pursue a graduate degree. After two quarters in Chicago, he is studying political reporting in Washington, D.C. Having spent time in all three cities, he said Chicago is one of his favorite places he’s ever lived.

“I’ve lived in Florence, Rome, I spent six months in Madrid, I spent four months in Cologne … but I’ve never seen a city like Chicago,” Pini said.

Utashiro also said she loves living in the Chicago area. She previously visited Chicago to see a relative, and she said she fell in love with the city.

Despite the advantages of studying in the U.S., Utashiro said the past few months have been “very rough,” and that she has felt “unwelcomed” due to the federal government’s crackdown on international students, which includes at least one instance of a Fulbright student’s scholarship being paused.

Pini also said he has felt some “fear and anxiety” about maintaining his scholarship.

Still, both Pini and Utashiro said they have had positive experiences studying in the U.S. overall.

“I really love this country, even though everything that is going on with this new administration,” Pini said.

The Fulbright program in Chicago has a “very strong network,” according to Kuemmerle, which allows international students to build communities. Leon also said he appreciates the chance to connect with other international students in professional and social settings.

Along with the community that Fulbright has provided, Leon said having extended family in the Chicago area has been a positive aspect of his social life at NU and in the U.S. After graduating from his program, he hopes to stay in the U.S. and would consider teaching or doing research at the University.

Utashiro has also become friends with fellow Fulbright Foreign Students — not just at NU, but around the country. She said two of her good friends are international students from Pakistan studying in Arizona, who she might never have met if she hadn’t chosen to work with the Fulbright program.

“That’s the beauty of Fulbright,” Utashiro said.

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