U.S.-bound: McGill students receive Fulbright Student Awards

Prestigious Canada-U.S. exchange program supports two up-and-coming researchers

Two outstanding McGill University doctoral students have each received a 2008 Fulbright Student Award, a coveted honour that supports nine months of academic exchange in the United States. Sean Clouston, Dept. of Sociology, and Jessica Toste, Dept. of Educational Psychology, are among the 14 Canadians honoured this year.

"The Fulbright Student Award program is a model of excellence in academic exchange initiatives,” Prof. Martin Kreiswirth, Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, said. "McGill is extremely proud of Ms. Toste and Mr. Clouston. This support will give them the opportunity to work in close partnership with their U.S. counterparts while helping strengthen collaborative research networks between the American institutions and McGill.”

We are thrilled to welcome Mr. Clouston and Ms. Toste to the Fulbright family," said Dr. Michael Hawes, Executive Director of the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program. "They are two very promising scholars whose work we are pleased to support, and we eagerly look forward to their results."

Mr. Clouston, a PhD candidate who focuses on inequalities in population health, will attend The Center for the Study of Social Inequalities and Health at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York City. His work will involve clarifying whether health inequalities arise based on genetic and biological factors or if they are related to social inequality. Ms. Toste, a PhD candidate in educational psychology, will further her work on reading instruction and learning at the Florida Center for Reading Research in Tallahassee, Fla. The objective of her research is to investigate the implementation of an evidence-based reading program in four classrooms over the span of one school year. Documenting this process will inform educational practice in Canada and create opportunities to understand how teachers can meet the learning needs of all students.

Both students will begin their research abroad in September and will finish in May 2009.

Since the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program’s inception in 1990, dozens of McGill students and professors have benefited from grants in a wide range of disciplines that promote excellence in scholarship on issues of primary importance to both countries.

By engaging the brightest minds in academic exchanges, the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program seeks to enhance mutual understanding between Canada and the United States. Through its bilateral academic exchanges, outstanding students, scholars and professionals strengthen Canada-U.S. relations by examining a wide range of subjects critical to the relationship between the two countries.

Operating in more than 150 countries worldwide, the Fulbright program has long been regarded as the world’s premiere academic exchange. With the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and the United States Department of State, the Canada-U.S. Fulbright Program is the gold standard for academic exchanges and intellectual opportunity.