Catalysts for Change

By Beth Squire

For graduate students, fellowships can be life-changing. These competitive awards provide financial support, mentorship and professional development for students pursuing advanced study or research. They can come from government agencies, foundations or universities and often open doors to opportunities that go far beyond the classroom by providing access to global networks and intercultural experiences. 

Through workshops, advising and mentorship, Ashley Staples and her team empower students to see themselves as future scholars, researchers and global leaders.

Ashley Staples, director of External Fellowships and Scholarly Development, and her team in the External Fellowships and Scholarships office work to connect students with fellowship opportunities. “Our role is to make sure students know these opportunities exist and to help them see themselves as potential fellowship winners,” Staples explained. “For some, the word fellowship feels out of reach. They may be the first in their family to go to college, or they may not think of themselves as someone who could compete on a national or international stage. But with support, they realize that they can.”

There are many kinds of fellowships; some fund academic research or teaching, others support public service, leadership development or international exchange. Prestigious national programs such as the Fulbright, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the Ford Foundation Fellowship each serve different purposes, but all share the same goal of helping scholars expand their impact.

Staples knows this firsthand. Before joining Stony Brook, she spent a year in the United Kingdom as a Fulbright Scholar, conducting research on interfaith dialogue in higher education. The experience, she said, introduced her to a global community of scholars. “Once you’ve been a Fulbrighter, you’re always a Fulbrighter. That connection to others in the network is something you carry for life.”

At Stony Brook, Staples and her team work to demystify the application process. Through one-on-one advising, workshops, writing support and peer review, they help students identify fellowships that align with their academic goals and guide them in crafting compelling applications. 

“Even if a student doesn’t win, they gain something important,” Staples said. “They practice articulating who they are and how their work matters. They learn how to explain their research to a general audience. This is a skill they’ll carry forward no matter what the outcome.”

The impact of winning is undeniable. Fellowships often provide funding that releases graduate students from departmental teaching duties (many programs require students to serve as teaching assistants to receive funding for tuition and stipends), allowing greater time for research and the flexibility to make international work and travel possible. “Instead of one month in another country, a fellowship might let a student spend nine months there, building collaborations and gathering richer data,” Staples said. “That transforms a dissertation, and sometimes an entire career.”

More than 100 Stony Brook students apply for external fellowships each year, with about a quarter securing awards. Some students choose Stony Brook because their fellowship dollars allow them to study here by funding the degree, while others win competitive awards during their Stony Brook careers. “Fellowships attract exceptional students, and Stony Brook provides the environment for them to succeed,” said Staples.

“Fellowships create options,” she continued. “They change what students believe is possible, and they change how the world sees Stony Brook.”


Charting the Antarctic, One Petrel at a Time
When Kate Blackwell was in first grade, her teacher told her she’d need a PhD if she wanted to keep studying the ocean. That advice helped chart her future.

Thanks to her fellowship, Kate Blackwell traveled to Norway to further her research.

Today, Blackwell, a PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, is chasing answers to questions about the Antarctic petrel, one of Antarctica’s lesser-known seabirds. Her dissertation asks how scientists define a “population,” and whether these birds, spread across the continent, are one population (as is currently assumed), or several.

To answer this question, she combines genetics, morphology and satellite imagery. That approach led her to collaborators in Norway — and to the Fulbright Fellowship.

“I knew about Fulbright from friends in undergrad who had received a Fulbright, and this was the perfect opportunity,” Blackwell said. “I could join colleagues in Tromsø in Norway, work on the genetics, and build the international collaboration the project needed.”

Blackwell is a graduate of Randolph College, and while she double-majored in English and biology, an ecology course fueled her decision to apply to graduate programs in this area and she completed a master’s degree in geographic and cartographic sciences at George Mason University before applying to PhD programs. Blackwell credits the Graduate School’s Fulbright Boot Camp — which paired her with peers, faculty reviewers across disciplines and detailed feedback — to help advance her application to the next level and earn the fellowship.

Fulbright provided the funds to send her to Norway for a year in 2023, where she processed blood samples collected from petrels in the field and began building the species’ first reference genome, a genetic “puzzle box” that will allow scientists to map out the species’ diversity. She also found herself immersed in policy surrounding the birds and their habitat.

“Tromsø is sort of the capital of Arctic policy,” she explained. “I learned how conservation, diplomacy and science intersect. I was even there when the U.S. opened a new diplomatic office just down the hall.”

Before receiving the award, Blackwell worried about how to fund a long-term international collaboration and how to gain access to the specialized labs she needed. “I had the questions and the samples,” she said, “but I didn’t have the resources to analyze them at the level the project demanded.” The fellowship gave her that access, opening doors to advanced sequencing facilities in Norway and connecting her with experts in polar genetics and conservation. “It turned a project I was struggling to finish into one that could genuinely push science forward,” she said.

By developing the first genetic reference for the Antarctic petrel, she is providing scientists with a baseline to detect changes in population structure, breeding patterns and genetic health as climate change reshapes the continent. Her findings could inform how conservationists and policymakers define protected areas and manage fragile ecosystems in the face of environmental shifts.

“This research can help us understand how Antarctic species are adapting, or struggling to adapt, to a rapidly changing environment,” she said. “If we can pinpoint where genetic diversity is highest, we can identify which populations are most resilient and which need protection.”

Blackwell hopes to continue Antarctic bird research after she graduates in 2026, but she is also interested in the policies surrounding scientific work.

“Science shouldn’t just be papers, it should be actionable,” she said. “I want to tie my work directly to conservation and policy.”

“I represented the U.S. in Norway, and I brought back what I learned,” she said. “That’s the power of a fellowship. It changes how you see the world — and how the world sees you.”

With encouragement from her professor, Franceine Welcome applied for and earned the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam fellowship.

Breaking Barriers
When Franceine Welcome began her PhD at Stony Brook University in 2019, she couldn’t have predicted the path her graduate journey would take. A first-generation scientist from southwest Connecticut, she entered the Biochemistry and Structural Biology PhD program after graduating from Connecticut College, where she began working in a research lab studying the enzymes that make fireflies glow. But just months into her PhD program, she faced challenges that nearly pushed her out of graduate school altogether.

“I was considering leaving after my master’s degree,” Welcome remembered. “COVID happened. It was a really hard time to be in grad school.”

But a recommendation from a faculty member led her to Michael Airola’s lab in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, where she found a new scientific home and in Airola, a mentor who encouraged her to apply for the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Gilliam Fellows Program.

“I didn’t even know what HHMI was,” she said. “Mike forwarded me the call for applications, and we gave it a try. I had no preliminary data, no idea what a successful application even looked like. But he said, ‘If we don’t get it, we’ll try again next year.’”

She more than tried; Welcome earned the fellowship.

The Gilliam fellowship provided three years of financial support and also gave Welcome opportunities to expand her research and build a network. Her work in the Airola lab focuses on how the lipin enzyme helps cells manage the lipids that form their membranes and store energy. These enzymes play a vital role in how our bodies regulate metabolism, respond to stress and maintain healthy cells. Understanding how lipin works at the molecular level could eventually shed light on conditions such as diabetes, obesity and neurological disorders, connecting these enzymes to some of our biggest health challenges.

“There was no conference I wanted to go to that I couldn’t afford,” Welcome said. “I never had to worry about things like software, travel or even getting a new computer. Those resources, plus the Gilliam network, opened up opportunities I wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

The fellowship also gave her funding to advance equity in science. Partnering with Steam Train, a nonprofit in Connecticut, Welcome worked on scientific experiments with middle schoolers and co-wrote a grant for Microsoft to help address vaccine hesitancy in communities of color.

“Representation is really important,” she said. “As an undergrad, I never had a Black professor. Even in graduate school, that hasn’t been my experience. Sometimes just seeing someone who looks like you doing the hard thing makes you feel like it’s possible.”

The Gilliam fellowship now offers her four years of postdoctoral support, including salary, benefits and funding for travel and research.

“It’s been a safety net,” she said. “I don’t have to worry about whether the lab I want to join has funding. That freedom allows me to focus on my science.”

As she prepares for her dissertation defense this semester, Welcome is open to either pursuing an independent lab of her own or entering industry.

William Perez-Porras, a Fulbright-LASPAU Fellow and philosophy PhD student, explores how technology and philosophy intersect to shape contemporary life.

Persistence, Philosophy and a Fulbright
When William Perez-Porras first began studying philosophy, he imagined a career focused on art, film and aesthetics. He spent his early college years analyzing how images convey meaning and action. But a book changed the trajectory of his career and led him to Stony Brook University.

“I had sitting on my bookshelf a book by a French philosopher called Gilbert Simondon,” Perez-Porras recalled. “It was on technology, and I planned to read it once my master’s thesis was done. As a happy coincidence, it opened a whole new field for me. Everything began to fall into place.”

Now a third-year PhD student in philosophy, Perez-Porras studies the philosophy of technology, examining how artifacts, techniques and processes influence contemporary life. Before embarking on his PhD studies, he earned degrees in both engineering and philosophy in Costa Rica, then completed a master’s in philosophy with a focus on aesthetics. While teaching as a lecturer at the University of Costa Rica, Perez-Porras began applying to doctoral programs in the United States.

His first round of applications ended in rejection, but he was persistent. “I remember after being rejected, I broadened the scope of my search,” he said. “I typed ‘American philosophy of technology’ into Google and discovered that the first book published in the U.S. on the topic was written by a professor at Stony Brook, Don Ihde.”

That research led him to Stony Brook, where he now works closely with Joseph Lemelin, an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy, who continues Ihde’s legacy of studying technology through a philosophical lens.

The other turning point in Perez-Porras’s journey came through the Fulbright Program. He applied twice and was denied both times. Yet just weeks following the second letter informing him that he was not admitted, he received an unexpected call from the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica.

“They told me I didn’t get the Fulbright, but there was another program, Fulbright-LASPAU (Latin American Scholarship Program of American Universities), which supported faculty development in the Americas,” he said. “They encouraged me to interview, and I got it.”

The fellowship covered his first two years at Stony Brook and provided guidance. “When you apply through Fulbright, you’re assigned an advisor who helps you tailor your CV, your letters, everything. I was a bit lost in the process before, and that support made all the difference,” he said.

With financial support, Perez-Porras was able to focus on developing his research and advancing toward his dissertation proposal, which he plans to defend later this year. His work seeks to connect philosophy with disciplines beyond the humanities, from engineering to design.

“I would like to conduct research interdisciplinarily,” he explained. “Of course, concepts and theories are a big part of what I do, but I want to be in touch with people who actually do technology. I’d like to create networks of research with engineers, scientists, designers — people outside philosophy.”

Perez-Porras hopes to remain engaged with international academia. His experiences at Stony Brook and with Fulbright-LASPAU have shown him that the future of education lies in dialogue across borders.

“My experience here has been very rich in terms of interculturality and diversity, and I’m really convinced that’s the best way education can advance,” he said.

These stories show how opportunity, persistence and support can help to shape or reshape a student’s future, a sentiment echoed by Graduate School Dean Celia Marshik. “Celebrating students engaged in the entire process of applying and competing for fellowship opportunities has been one of the most rewarding parts of my role. Making the choice to pursue merit-based awards adds value to both their personal and professional growth. We are proud to support our scholars as they strive to create meaningful changes at a national or international level, all while representing Stony Brook University on a global stage,” said Marshik.