Local Resident and Tufts University Graduate Ashiyana Narian Receives Fulbright Award

MEDFORD, MA (10/27/2010)(readMedia)-- Ashiyana Nariani, a resident of Upper Saddle River, N.J., a 2006 graduate of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University, received a Fulbright scholarship to India for the 2010-2011 academic year.

Nariani, who also spent time at Oxford as an undergradate, will earn the Doctor of Medicine and Masters of Public Health from Tufts University School of Medicine in November 2010. During her time as a Tufts medical student, she interned with the World Health Organization and established Sight for the Sightless, a non-profit organization for the blind in India. During her year abroad with Fulbright, she will be working with Sight for the Sightless in Pune, India. Her professional aspiration is to become an ophthalmologist, with a focus in international ophthalmology, to help the underserved, and to be a part of the quest to eradicate preventable blindness worldwide.

Recipients of Fulbright awards are selected based on academic or professional achievement and demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.

More than 1,500 U.S. citizens will travel abroad for the 2010-2011 academic year through the Fulbright Student Program. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program's purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the rest of the world. The Fulbright Program, America's flagship international educational exchange program, is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

"Fostering leadership, learning and empathy between cultures was and remains the purpose of the international scholarship program," the late Sen. Fulbright said.

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Tufts University, located on three Massachusetts campuses in Boston, Medford/Somerville, and Grafton, and in Talloires, France, is recognized among the premier research universities in the United States. Tufts enjoys a global reputation for academic excellence and for the preparation of students as leaders in a wide range of professions. A growing number of innovative teaching and research initiatives span all Tufts campuses, and collaboration among the faculty and students in the undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across the university's schools is widely encouraged.