Three Howard Students Awarded 2011 Fulbrights Scholarships

WASHINGTON (April 30, 2011) – Three members of the Class of 2011 – Antonino Eugene Lyons II, Jessica A. Cooper and Manjot Kaur Jassal – are recipients of the Fulbright Scholarship and will spend next year in Brazil and India respectively. Lyons, a 2011 candidate for a degree in supply chain management, will work to prepare small Brazilian businesses for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. He will also teach English. In preparation for Brazil, Lyons will study Portuguese at the Middlebury Language School in Vermont. “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I look forward to it,” Lyons said. “It’s something that I have been talking about for the past year – Brazil and all its opportunities and getting in on the ground floor.” Cooper, a candidate for the jurist doctorate and a senior editor on the Howard Law Journal, will spend her Fulbright year in India, where she will teach English. She is also very interested in studying educational systems, one of the primary reasons that she sought the Fulbright award. “I am extremely excited and humbled to have the opportunity to represent the United States as a Fulbright Scholar in India as an English Teaching Assistant Jassal’s Fulbright will encompass research examining the impact of health education on awareness and prevention of sexually transmitted infections among adolescents in two rural villages in Punjab, India where HIV infection rates are 26 percent nearly three times tihe national average of 9 percent.

The Fairfax, Va. native plans to pursue a career in medicine. She currently works as a research assistant in the College of Medicine Department of Physiology and the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences. Jassal is a 2011 candidate for a Bachelor of Science in Biology. “Education is the highest form of prevention,” said Jassal. “My fellowship will contribute to the success of education efforts in Panjab as well as allow me to gain a greater understanding of the culture of a Panjabi immigrant population in the United States that I wish to serve one day through community medicine.”Lyons, Jassal and Cooper join a prestigious legacy of Howard University Fulbright Scholars. Since 1993, Howard has produced 23 student Fulbright recipients.