Two Moravian University Seniors Awarded Fulbright Scholarship

After graduating this spring, Moravian University seniors Liz Kameen ’26 and Sean Riedy ’26 will each travel to Europe as part of the prestigious Fulbright program.

They are participating in the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship where they will teach young students English for an academic year. Kameen is going to Pezinok in Slovakia and Riedy is going to the state of Saxony in Germany. They will be traveling from September 2026 through June 2027.

Kameen, who is an English major, always wanted to travel abroad. She had a Paris-themed bedroom while growing up and participated in study abroad trips to Costa Rica and Panama during her time as a student at Delaware Valley High School in Pike County.

When Kameen was a sophomore at Moravian, she took a two-week trip to Florence, Italy, as part of Moravian’s Elevate undergraduate experience. Kameen enjoyed it so much that she emailed Moravian’s Center for Global Education upon her return and went on to spend four months in Florence as part of a full semester study-abroad program during her junior year.

“After spending so much time in Italy, it grew to be my second home, and I knew I wanted to travel abroad in whatever ways I could,” Kameen says.

While in Italy, she received an email about a Fulbright informational panel, offering advice from former Fulbright Scholars at Moravian. “At the time, Fulbright seemed like a buzzword that I wasn’t quite ‘smart enough’ to ever receive,” she says. “But, I went out of my comfort zone and applied, even though I didn’t think I would ever become a semi-finalist, let alone a Fulbright grantee.”

Liz Kameen ’26. Photo by Nick Chismar ’20

Kameen, who has Eastern European heritage, always wanted to travel to the Slovak Republic, an area bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, and Austria to the west. The country is known for its majestic alpine landscapes and towering castles.

Kameen credits Mark Harris, adjunct instructor of writing, and Liz Gray, associate professor of English, with encouraging her and helping her with the application process. Gray says she is excited for Kameen and “found it to be life-changing” when she studied abroad at Kameen’s age.

“As her professor, my instinct is to say that I’m proud of her, but really, I’m proud for her—as in, I’m unbelievably proud on her behalf. She worked so hard to get here,” Gray says. “Now I’m just excited to call her a Fulbright Scholar, and I know that she’s going to be changing the world on the other side of the globe with her enthusiasm, resourcefulness, and creativity.”

Riedy is a double major in music theory and German studies. He first became interested in the Fulbright program while studying abroad in Vienna last spring, a foundational experience that influenced Riedy’s desire to return to Europe.

“I was looking for opportunities to return to the German-speaking world, and Fulbright is definitely one of the major ways to do that,” Riedy says. When he returned from Vienna, he reached out to Moravian’s Center for Global Education to help him decide what program to apply for.

“I already had an interest in the culture of the German-speaking world, but being able to be there, to experience it first-hand, really cemented for me that I need to keep going down that route. From that point, Fulbright just seemed like the logical next step,” Riedy says.

Riedy was encouraged and supported in the application process by Carol Traupman-Carr, Moravian University’s vice president for institutional effectiveness; Larry Lipkis, Moravian’s Bertha-Mae Starner ’27 and Jay F. Starner Professor of Music and composer-in-residence; and Axel Hildebrandt, professor of German.

Sean Riedy ’26. Photo by Nick Chismar ’20

Riedy studied intermediate German language and culture with Hildebrandt and took advanced classes covering German literature, drama, film, politics, history, and culture.

“Sean is a very motivated student, he not only completed a self-designed music and German studies major, but also wrote an honors thesis combining these two fields and translated a German academic book into English,” Hildebrandt says. “I am convinced that all these accomplishments increased his chances to receive the highly competitive and prestigious Fulbright Scholarship, and I am very proud of him.”

Fulbright Celebrates 80 Years This Year

The Fulbright Program was established in 1946 as an investment in global peace and American prosperity through educational and cultural exchange, according to the Fulbright website. Since then, the program has provided nearly 450,000 students, scholars, scientists, professionals, teachers, and artists with opportunities to study, conduct research, and teach in more than 160 countries and territories around the world.

The program is funded by an annual appropriation from Congress to the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments, host institutions, corporations, foundations, and alumni in partner countries and the United States provide direct and indirect support.

“I am always excited to help our students with opportunities to expand their leadership skills and knowledge of the world, and to show off our students to the world,” says Traupman-Carr, who took over as Moravian’s Fulbright Program administrator in September.

“By having Fulbright recipients, we raise the national and international profile of Moravian University, demonstrate our academic excellence, and build connections with other Fulbright Scholars and institutions around the world,” she says.

A History of Moravian Fulbright Scholars

Since 1965, Moravian University has had nearly 30 Fulbright scholars who traveled to locations including Bulgaria, Germany, India, Mexico, Poland, Spain, the Canary Islands, and Taiwan.

It’s not the first time there were two Moravian scholars chosen at one time. Two were selected for the program in 2020, but because of the pandemic the students’ trip was deferred for a year, Traupman-Carr says. One of the students went on to graduate school instead of participating in the program.

Like the Fulbright scholars before them, Kameen and Riedy are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime, immersing themselves in the culture of another country for almost a full year, broadening their world views, and becoming ambassadors for the United States, Traupman-Carr says.

“I have no doubt that the leadership, cross-cultural understanding, independence, and adaptability they will develop on this journey will make them highly desired applicants for jobs, graduate, or professional school, and they will become leaders in whatever community and profession they land in.” —Christina Tatu

Fulbright Facts

Future Fulbrighter Linus Pauling won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the same year that six future Nobel Laureates received Fulbright awards: Milton Friedman, Philip Anderson, William Fowler, Niels Jerne, Roy Glauber, and Hannes Alfven.

Jeff Davis Duty, Jr. began his Fulbright in the United Kingdom at the London School of Economics. Later in his legal career, he successfully argued to allow guide dogs in the U.S. Supreme Court.